Thank God Tuesday’s gone – Part 8
Wednesday, continued …
After the intensity of the morning, Anna curled up against Hou Yi and slowly began to drift toward sleep.
Hou Yi looked down at her, still unable to quite believe that she had not run from him after everything that had happened. He had truly expected distance, hesitation, maybe even fear. Instead, she had stayed. More than that, she had reached for him in a way that made something inside him settle and ache all at once.
For Hou Yi, what had passed between them was never something shallow or fleeting. In every touch, in every moment he held her close, he had tried to express what he still struggled to say aloud: that he loved her, that he cherished her, that all he wanted was to protect her and make her happy for as long as they were given.
Like the generations before him, he had known almost instantly that the woman beside him was meant to matter more than anyone else ever could.
Fate, in its strange way, had brought her into his life as his wife.
And he was never going to resent that.
After a moment, he rolled toward the bedside table and picked up his mobile. The time was just before ten in the morning. Assistant Wang was not expecting him at the office; Hou Yi had already sent word the previous night that he needed to remain with Anna after the assault. He was mildly surprised Butler Ge had not knocked to ask whether they wanted breakfast.
Then he remembered Anna’s sleepy, almost playful call from the previous night as they went upstairs:
“Do not disturb us tomorrow.”
At least Butler Ge had obeyed.
His phone vibrated again. When he unlocked it, he found hundreds of messages waiting. The business-related ones he forwarded to Assistant Wang without hesitation. He then sent a short group message to his friends, letting them know he would contact them later because his attention needed to remain on his wife.
That left only a handful he still needed to answer.
Beside him, Anna shifted slightly, at first patient, then clearly less pleased as he continued looking at the screen instead of at her. She moved closer across the bed and pressed a trail of light kisses against his cheek and jaw, trying to pull him back to her.
When he still did not respond the way she wanted, she rested her hand over his arm and leaned against him more insistently, wordlessly asking for his full attention.
Hou Yi glanced down at her, already distracted.
Then he noticed ten messages from Uncle Feng. Most were business, and he knew he needed to respond.
He typed quickly:
Uncle Feng. Received your messages. As to the business matters, I trust you, and work with Dad where necessary. I will not be coming in at all, even briefly. If there is anything you cannot handle, let me know and I will try to assist. Anna is physically all right, but after what happened, she needs to be my focus right now. What was done to her hurt her in more ways than one.
By the time he finished, Anna had already succeeded in drawing most of his attention away from the phone. There was nothing dramatic in what she did, only warmth, closeness, and a quiet determination not to let the morning disappear behind screens and obligations.
He set the mobile aside at last.
Then he reached for her, lifting her face gently so he could look into her eyes.
Anna saw immediately that she had won.
There was still uncertainty in her, still vulnerability, but there was also a growing courage she had not possessed before. She wanted his attention. She wanted his closeness. More than that, she wanted to feel, at least for a little while, that the rest of the world could wait.
So she guided him back toward her.
What followed was not hurried words or explanations, but a return to the fragile, unspoken tenderness they had been building all morning. Their closeness deepened again, not with the recklessness of strangers, but with the complicated intensity of two people trying to find comfort in one another after pain, fear, and too many unanswered emotions.
When it was over, Anna simply let herself fall against him, exhausted and quiet, listening to the sound of his breathing beneath her cheek.
And for a little while, neither of them reached for anything beyond the space they shared.