"The truth is, you never took me seriously. You never took our marriage seriously.
"Otherwise, something like that would never have slipped out of your mouth.
"Have you ever said the wrong thing in front of Shirley?"
He went silent.
I answered for him. "No, right?"
"I..."
"Nigel."
I cut him off. "Stop making excuses.
"You never took it seriously, and that's that. Just like when I told you before that I was giving you one last chance."
My gaze dropped to his chest, where my name was tattooed.
I let out a cold laugh.
"You only ever paid lip service to cherishing our last chance."
"I already took things underground with her. What more do you want?"
I stared at him in disbelief.
He grew agitated.
"In these four years, have you ever seen a single trace of her or her son in our life together?
"No, right?"
I could barely process what I was hearing. "Nigel..."
"Enough, Chloe."
He frowned. "If you hadn't been so petty and unreasonable this time, you never would have found out. You wouldn't have damaged what we have. We could've lived out the rest of our lives just fine."
When a person reaches the peak of fury, they really do laugh.
The complaint filed against my company should have been a routine matter for the legal department. I didn't need to get involved personally.
But the phone number on the complaint looked familiar.
I recognized it as Shirley's.
So I looked into it myself.
And uncovered the tangled threads still connecting Nigel to her.
Nigel let out a sigh.
"Just pretend you didn't see any of this.
"Chloe, don't destroy the relationship we worked so hard to repair."
I laughed.
I slapped the divorce papers onto the table.
"If you truly valued this marriage, you never would have stayed in contact with her!"
"What the hell are you doing?"
The moment Nigel saw the words Divorce Agreement, his breath visibly caught.
"Take that away!"
He reached to tear the papers up, but I pressed my hands down hard, pinning them to the table.
"Nigel, I told you. Four years ago was our last chance."
"Chloe..."
"Three days."
I held his gaze. "Give me an answer."
"Chloe! Chloe!!"
I walked out without looking back. He didn't stop me.
He stood there alone, staring at the agreement.
His fingers trembled.
I waited two days.
Nigel didn't reach out. The messages I sent went unanswered.
I decided to go home and press him in person.
But the moment I reached the front door, I heard the clink of glasses and the hum of conversation from inside.
"Mr. Gilbert, it's the last day on that divorce agreement. You're really not going to do anything about it?"
"Do anything?"
Nigel scoffed. "She's the one being unreasonable! She's the one who owes me an explanation!"
What?
My hand froze on the door handle.
"We've been married seven years. I'll let the past go. Bringing Shirley home was out of line, I admit it, and I understand why she threw divorce papers at me.
"But these last four years, we've been more in love than any couple I know. Even when we fought, she never once threatened me with something like this."
Nigel waved the agreement in the air.
"Has it ever crossed her mind how much damage this little tantrum is doing to us?"
I clenched my jaw.
One of his friends glanced toward the doorway.
His breath hitched.
He chose not to say anything.
Instead, he asked another question.
"Mr. Gilbert, what if she's serious?"
"Serious?"
Nigel laughed. "We've put our lives on the line for each other. It's not that easy to walk away."
"Then why'd you go and have a kid with Shirley? I thought you'd actually turned over a new leaf."
