My First Love Died, Now My Step Uncle Wants Me-Chapter 56: Tears Are the Most Useless Thing

The weather wasn’t even cool, but Nina Wynn felt a bone-deep chill. In the dim light, her eyes were as cold as ice, her fists clenching and unclenching, again and again.

After some time, the crying outside stopped.

Some time later, the door of the glass room opened, and a familiar scent slowly drew near.

Then, a hand rested on her forehead.

Nina tilted her head, dodging Caleb Rhodes’s touch.

Caleb Rhodes frowned, his gaze turning sharp. He forcefully gripped her slender waist, pulling her toward him.

But to his surprise, Nina grabbed his hand and flung it away with all her might, recoiling backward.

The room was extremely dark, and the bed was small. Nina scrambled back a couple of times and suddenly tumbled off the edge.

Caleb didn’t have time to catch her before she hit the floor.

There was a soft thud, but no cry of pain, no weeping. It seemed as if even her breaths were choked back and suppressed.

Caleb looked at the small heap on the floor. He rounded the head of the bed to pick her up, but she suddenly scrambled to her feet and tried to run out.

But she wasn’t as fast as Caleb. The next second, a hand seized her and yanked her back.

In the dim light, he couldn’t see her face clearly, but he could hear her ragged, hurried breaths. It sounded as if she were crying.

Caleb’s brow furrowed deeply. He reached out to touch her face, but she flinched away.

Caleb’s eyes grew cold. "Nina?"

Nina didn’t answer. She took a step back, looking as if she were about to bolt again. Caleb narrowed his eyes and lifted his hand, pulling back the curtain.

As light flooded the room, Nina suddenly grabbed his wrist and bit down. Hard.

She bit with surprising strength, her whole body trembling.

Soon, blood began to trickle down his wrist.

Caleb didn’t move. He let her bite him, waiting until her breathing calmed somewhat before asking in a cold voice, "Have you had enough?"

Nina slowly raised her head.

In the dim light, Caleb saw a pair of chillingly lucid eyes. There wasn’t a single tear in them—only boundless coldness and loathing.

A strange emotion suddenly spiraled out of control in his heart. It felt as if someone had seized Caleb’s heart and given it a vicious tug, leaving a sudden, dull ache. "Nina?"

Nina seemed to snap back to her senses. The coldness in her eyes vanished in an instant. She shoved Caleb away and took a step back.

Then, she turned and ran.

Caleb was still caught in the memory of her gaze, unable to pull himself free. For a moment, he thought he must have imagined it. He reached out to grab her but caught only empty air.

In just two seconds, Nina had bolted from the glass room and was running for the courtyard gate.

But the main gate was already shut, and the butler had left long ago. In the entire courtyard, only Caleb could open it.

Nina slammed her hands against the gate a few times. The solid black steel door only produced a few muffled thuds that failed to stir so much as a ripple in the cold, silent night.

Pounding on the gate a few times and getting no response, Nina started clawing at the lock. But it was a state-of-the-art fingerprint scanner, and her prints weren’t registered. Even if she broke all her nails, it would be useless.

The footsteps behind her drew nearer, and Nina couldn’t stop herself from trembling.

’He’s not a good person. He’s one of the Rhodes Family, too—a devil who torments her mercilessly!’ 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

’No, he’s worse than them. He not only forces her to do the most shameful things, he wants to lock her up and keep her as his pet!’

Soon, Caleb was right behind her. His voice was as cold as ice water. "Nina, where do you think you’re going this late at night?"

Nina felt waves of chilling dread run down her spine. She turned, her back pressed against the door, and looked at Caleb, her chest heaving.

Caleb frowned and reached for her face, but she shied away. She was like a cornered little animal, all bristles and teeth, her voice hoarse. "Don’t touch me!"

Caleb’s gaze grew colder, his thin lips pressing into a hard line. The very air around them seemed to crackle with danger.

Light from the distance stretched his shadow across the door, completely enveloping Nina within it.

He was already an imposing figure, but his cold, silent expression made him even more oppressive.

Trapped in his immense shadow, Nina felt a mix of shock, fear, and anger. She felt suffocated, unable to escape.

Everything came crashing down on her in that moment. She could barely breathe as she slowly slid down the door to the ground.

The ground was cold and covered in small pebbles that dug painfully into her skin, but she seemed not to feel it. She sat there, head bowed, like a small, listless cub.

Caleb bent down, scooped her into his arms, and strode into the living room.

He set her down on the sofa and, to her surprise, turned on the television.

Just as Nina was wondering what he was doing, he switched to the business channel.

"Reboot Technologies’ stock has crashed again. CEO Dustin Joyce’s attempts to save the market have failed once more."

"Reboot Technologies was once one of the nation’s leading AI enterprises. It’s a true shame to see it on the verge of bankruptcy after just two short months."

"According to sources, other investors are planning to step in and acquire Reboot Technologies. The Joyce Group is currently mounting a final counter-offensive to save the company."

...

The news anchor’s voice captured all of Nina’s attention. She stared at the screen for a moment, and gradually, she began to calm down.

Caleb found a small first-aid kit, lifted her onto his lap, and examined her feet, which had been cut by the gravel.

This time, she didn’t struggle.

She hadn’t been wearing shoes, and the courtyard was paved with fine gravel. The tender soles of her feet were now covered in tiny cuts, some oozing thin trails of blood. It looked painful just to see.

But she didn’t seem to react. Her head rested on his shoulder as she watched him clean her feet with a wet wipe and then dab them with alcohol.

The alcohol on the cuts must have stung terribly. Nina’s feet kept flinching from the pain, but she didn’t make a sound.

Curled up in his arms, she was like a little cub that had been hurt but didn’t dare tattle to its parents. Her eyes were anxious, but more than that, they were filled with confusion.

As Caleb treated her wounds, he asked in a low voice, "Does it hurt?"

Nina didn’t answer. She just clutched at his clothes, her head bowed and her expression listless.

A flicker of something passed through Caleb’s eyes. "If it hurts, you can say so. It’s okay to cry, too."

Nina looked up at him, her gaze slightly evasive.

After a long moment, she whispered, "Is it okay to cry?"

She couldn’t remember the last time she had cried. Even a few days ago, when Caleb had been so cruel to her that she desperately wanted to cry, she had forced herself not to shed a single tear.

After so many years, it felt as though she had forgotten how.

She didn’t dare cry.

When she was a child, if her father beat her, crying only made the beatings worse. Later, at the Rhodes’ home, when Crystal Rhodes and the others bullied her, daring to cry only made them hit her harder.

So, in her subconscious, tears were the most useless things in the world. They did nothing but invite more pain.

Caleb’s hand froze. The gloom in his eyes deepened. "You can. Did you see how Crystal was crying earlier? When you want to cry, you can cry just like that."