I blinked and said coolly:
"I don't joke about marriage. I just want to tell you, Damien, that I don't want to marry you anymore."
In the next second, Damien, as if triggered, angrily tore the marriage certificate into pieces.
He grabbed my arm forcefully and asked accusingly, hurt evident in his voice:
"Why? You were supposed to marry me. Why has it become Dashiell? Do you love him? Is that why you're marrying him?"
I shook off his hand, then slapped him hard across the face. Looking straight into his eyes, I enunciated each word:
"Who I marry is my choice. You have no right to question it."
All the grief and resentment accumulated over these days were concentrated in that slap, so powerful that it left Damien stunned in place.
As if suddenly realizing something, he looked at my eyes in surprise:
"Your eyes, you can see?"
Perhaps he had noticed that if I were truly blind, I wouldn't have been able to accurately find his face, let alone look at him with such intensity.