Chapter 10: The Evening Rose (Part 4)

It was when their 4th son, Shouto, that Enji changed.

He stopped raping Rei.

He rarely touched her now, only when he's drunk and horny. Maybe it was due to her age and her changing appearance. But all she knew, Rei completely lost Enji's interest in her.

It was something that she should've welcomed with open arms.

It should've made her happy.

But it didn't.

It made her feel the polar opposite.

All those years of abuse she hated morphed into a twisted sort of yearning. He trapped her inside the Todoroki Manor cage, telling her that no one in the world would love her as deeply as he could. She knew he was lying, but all these years of him chanting these words against his ear made her subconsciously believe it.

And now she couldn't hear these words anymore.

All she was now was trapped.

Enji made her feel like there was no purpose for Rei to be alive.

What he did consistently, however, was beat her up.

She didn't dare go outside because of the bruises all over her body. Instead, she corresponded with Aizawa via mail, with the help of her faithful servants, who were also a fan of her works.

She should've done this earlier, but she treated every one of those kimono-cladded women as enemies. It never occurred to her that they'd been staying here longer than she did, and they also suffered abuse from the same man.

Women must stick with each other, especially in these times of need.

"Rei-sama," A voice called outside the shogi door. She took it as her cue to stop typing on her typewriter, the new one Enji bought as promised.

He loves her, don't you know? He loves her very much.

"Enter,"

And so the servant did. She bowed deeply before speaking. "A man outside the gates is making a scene, demanding to see you. He claims to be your friend."

Rei raised her head. Friend? She has no such thing. Ever since she started living in isolation, she lost contact with every single one of them.

Enji is all I have...

"Did you ask for his name?"

"He says that his name was Eraserhead, like the writer."

Ah, yes, Shouta-kun.

Ever since both Endeavor Rei and Sawashiro Shouto (who's slowly having 'his' comeback) disappeared from the face of Earth, Aizawa took it upon himself to continue her legacy.

Since he's been her editor for almost two decades, many noted that his style was similar to Rei's, not with Sawashiro Shouto, but with Endeavor Rei's innocent writing.

The one that made Enji fall in love with her...

"Tell him I'll be meeting him at the gates. Why are you giving me that look? I can't honestly let him in the manor. What would my husband say?"

"It's not that, Rei-sama..."

But she took her words no head.

She realized that the servant only warned her when they faced each other.

"What the fuck happened to you?!" Aizawa shouted upon seeing her ghostly form. "These bruises...?! Did that bastard do this to you?"

Rei forced a smile. "I fell off the stairs."

"Falling off the stairs doesn't give you a black eye! Why are you covering up for him?" He said exasperatedly. "God, I knew it. Ever since you got married, you barely go outside anymore. You even started mailing your drafts, and I know you more than anyone that you prefer to hear the corrections I made face-to-face rather than seeing my red marking all over your work!"

"It's what you think..." She started.

"Rei, you're beaten black and blue. No matter how good of a liar you are, these marks are enough evidence for the abuse you've been experiencing all these years." Aizawa clenched his fist, angrily gritting his teeth. "Why didn't you tell me? I'm your best friend."

"I told you I'm fine,"

"YOU'RE NOT! FOR FUCK'S SAKE, REI!" Aizawa grabbed her shoulders and started shaking her, trying to wake her up from this insanity. "Are you afraid of what he'll do to the children? I'll take care of them. I'll treat them as my own--"

"Are you suggesting for me to divorce my husband?" She swatted his hands off of her. Stormy eyes appeared like they were producing lightning.

Aizawa fell silent. "Why are you being hostile towards me? I only wanted to help you."

"That's not what it seems to me. You're just sticking your nose on somebody else's business."

"Rei,"

"I assumed that you went here for business purposes. If I'm wrong, then you can now leave." But she didn't even wait for him to say anything.

She turned her heels and already went inside.

Aizawa tried reaching out to her, but he already knew his efforts were futile.

You cannot save a person who doesn't see herself as in danger

"You've gone insane, Rei."

The truth was, she did.

Back then, she thought she was the one who was going to bring the divorce card.

Not the other way around.

One day, Enji called her into the dining room to discuss some very important matters. As soon as he brought out a set of papers from his expensive alligator leather case, Rei immediately went batshit.

"I knew it," She rasped, her whole body was shaking in anger. "I've been smelling sweet perfume on your clothes lately. So you found yourself a new fuck toy? Is it the secretary? Or a colleague? Even better, you accept businessmen's daughters as bribery so that you would approve their business proposal?"

Enji did not speak.

"You fucking disgusting shit!" She screamed. "You're not even denying it?"

"You're a writer, Rei." He answered in a bored tone. "You can create a million scenarios in your head, and once you're set that something's up, even if I explain things to you, you wouldn't even bother to listen to me."

"So it's my fault now?!"

The shoji door to the dining room hesitantly opened. Behind it, moistened heterochromatic eyes peeked at them.

"Father, Mother, please don't fight anymore."

Rei's anger ebbed away. She turned her heels and crouched down to her son's level. Wiping the tears from his chubby toddler cheeks, she spoke.

"We're not, Shouto, we're not." She cooed, tucking the lost strands of bi-chromic hair into place. "Go back to your room now, and I'll be there shortly."

"You're not fighting?" Shouto repeated, pointing at the man behind her. "But why is Father crying?"

It took her a full minute to process her child's words.

She turned around, only to see the most bizarre expression Enji had ever shown her. Turquoise eyes were watery, and his tanned skin was slightly pink because he was trying his hardest to stifle his sobs.

He failed.

Rei returned her gaze to their son, "Be right back, Shouto," before ushering him out of the room. Once he was out of earshot, she returned to the room and headed straight to Enji.

He was full-blown crying now.

It broke her heart into tiny fragments.

"No, darling, don't cry." Hesitantly, she reached out to grab his heaving shoulder. It was odd, seeing this strong male form tremble like a child. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shout at you."

Instead of answering, Enji trapped her in a tight embrace and buried his face in the curve of her neck.

Within seconds, her blouse was wet with Enji's tears.

Rei inhaled his scent. It was such a robust and manly scent that it made her close her eyes and sigh. She could drown in his smell. She could die at the warmth of his body.

"I ruined you," He cried. "I didn't mean to do this to you. I'm sorry. I don't know why I did that to you. I'm sorry. Please forgive me."

"There's nothing to forgive," Rei softly ran her fingers against his large back, memorizing its large planes with the pads of her fingers. "I love you, Enji. I love you."

The solid, muscular arms wrapped around her waist tightened.

This was not love. Enji knew. She has completely lost her mind, and she mistook it as one.

"I'm sorry, Rei." He said repeatedly, but Rei only hushed him, telling him it was all right.

He didn't need to worry about anything because he never did her wrong.

She loves him, it's okay, I love you, Enji, it's okay. This was one of the two moods Rei presented.

This current personality of hers was one of her mellow ones. It resembled her former self. But there was only a slight resemblance, for she was too kind. Rei was showing the idealized personality of an obedient wife.

The one Enji expected from her years ago.

Then, she had a more destructive, more violent side of hers that Enji didn't know she was capable of.

There was a time when he came back from work, and he saw her smashing plates on the floor. When he took hold of her arm, she took a shard from the floor and pointed it at him.

"I'll fucking kill you," She said with such menace it sent shivers down his spine.

And that says a lot since he experienced some death threats throughout his life.

But maybe the scariest thing about her was that she'd completely forget what she did the next day.

Rei will act like it was the first year of their marriage like she was still deeply in love with him.

Uttering words like 'darling' and 'I love you,' she'll scream bloody profanities at him the next day, promising that everyone in this house, including their children, will be dead when he gets back from work.

Enji withdrew from his initial plan of divorcing her. Instead, he took responsibility for the monster he created, the 'Sawashiro Shouto.' He was determined to bring back Endeavor Rei, so he was already setting up the living conditions to bring her to the best psychiatric doctor here in Japan before she did something to their children.

But the next day after their talk, it was when that incident happened.

Rei threw a kettle filled with boiling water at their youngest son, Shouto.