Seeing how emotional I was, Daniel frowned, his tone impatient. "Claire, get your emotions under control. Why are you making such a scene? You can't have children anyway. Just treat this child as your own."
I stared at him and said each word clearly. "Daniel, I am not raising your mistress's bastard child."
Daniel acted as if he had not heard me at all, completely lost in his own delusion.
"From now on, the three of us can still be a family. I'll also talk to Emily and ask her to be more understanding. She won't fight you over anything. If you hadn't kept holding on to this, things between us would never have gotten this bad. Claire, we've only been back together for three years," Daniel sighed, sounding deeply wounded. "Can't you cherish what we have?"
Even though I had witnessed Daniel's shamelessness countless times, his words still made my heart ache.
But this time, I did not break down hysterically. I only spoke calmly. "Daniel, let's get divorced."
I lifted a hand and motioned to the secretary behind me.
"The divorce agreement has already been drafted."
The secretary stepped forward and handed the document to him.
"All you need to do is sign it."
Daniel's gaze fell on the agreement, and his expression darkened at once.
The next second, he raised his hand sharply and tore the papers into shreds, scattering them across the floor.
"Claire, enough. Don't take this too far."
He paused, as if forcing his emotions back down.
"You're emotional right now, so I'll pretend I didn't hear that. Rest properly in the hospital. We'll talk when you've calmed down."
With that, he turned and left.
Watching his back, I said firmly, "Daniel, I want a divorce! If you won't sign, I'll see you in court!"
Daniel walked even faster, his steps almost hurried.
The ward fell silent again. I closed my eyes, and tears slipped from the corners.
Between the car accident and the miscarriage, I spent nearly a month in the hospital before the doctor finally allowed me to leave.
During that entire month, Daniel did not visit me once.
By the time I returned to the mansion Daniel and I shared, the sky had already begun to darken.
The lights in the living room were on, and I could faintly hear Daniel talking with one of his friends inside.
"I heard Claire wants to divorce you?"
Daniel leaned against the sofa, a cigarette between his fingers, his tone indifferent. "She found out I'm with Emily again, so now she's making a fuss about divorce."
"Apologize to Claire properly. She'll forgive you."
Daniel's voice rose sharply. "She's the one who should apologize to me! We've been doing well these past three years. She's the one being petty and ruining what we had."
His friend asked again, "What if Claire insists on leaving?"
"She won't." Daniel sounded certain. "What we have survived life and death. It won't fall apart that easily. Besides, our families' interests are still tied together."
Daniel and I had been brought together through a business marriage arranged by our grandparents' generation.
I had not resisted it. At the beginning, I had even thought that perhaps we could build real feelings over time.
But not long after the wedding, I found out that Daniel had been keeping a mistress.
He had even leaked my explicit photos on purpose just to please her, turning me into a laughingstock across the internet.
I refused to back down. I reported his shady businesses directly and sent him behind bars.
Each fight became uglier than the last, and the rift between us grew deeper and deeper.
"Daniel, if you don't want a divorce, why did you get back together with Emily? You even had a child with her."
Daniel fell silent for a long while before saying lazily, "After so many years with Claire, of course there are times when things get tiring. And Emily was standing naked right in front of me. Any man would have lost control."
Rage surged from my chest straight to my head, and I almost lost control and shoved the door open.
But in the next second, I stopped myself.
Since Daniel no longer even bothered to hide the fact that he had a mistress and an illegitimate child, what would confronting him change?
It would only waste my energy.
I took a deep breath, turned around, and left.
After returning to the apartment I had bought before the marriage, I began investigating the evidence from the car accident.
Fortunately, there was traffic camera footage from the intersection.
I had my staff retrieve the footage immediately, then handed it to my legal team to organize the evidence and prepare a lawsuit against Emily.
But before we could formally file the case, my lawyer contacted me with the news that the crucial footage had been deleted.
I rushed straight to Daniel's office, unable to keep the anger out of my voice.
"Did you delete the footage?"
He did not deny it. He did not even look up.
He simply closed the file in front of him, his voice cold and flat. "Give up. Even with the footage, you wouldn't win. I've already hired the best legal team in Northhaven for Emily. They've never lost a case."
