4.
“Jennifer, once you move out of here, where will you live?”
Bella clutched his hand tightly, her lips pushing into a pout, her voice sour and needling. “Oliver, Miss Fox is about to divorce you. How can you still care about her this much?”
“Do you—do you like her? You don’t want to stay with me anymore?”
Oliver answered on reflex. “Bella, you’re the only one in my heart. I just think it isn’t safe for a woman to move out on her own.”
“But this is Miss Fox’s choice. You should respect it.”
Bella didn’t want Oliver saying another word to me. She was in a hurry to flaunt their closeness right in front of me.
My expression didn’t change in the slightest. I spoke coolly.
“I’m the eldest daughter of the Fox family. I don’t lack for a place to live.”
“But it’s already late, Jennifer. Stay tonight. Leave in the morning.”
Oliver went against what Bella wanted and offered, on his own, to make me stay.
Something rippled faintly through my chest, then drowned just as quickly under a soundless sigh.
His willingness came far too late.
I had given up on him three years ago. Him acting this way now only made me ache more for the woman I used to be.
“Thank you for the kindness. The place I’m going is very safe.”
Then I turned to Bella of my own accord. “Miss White, would you remind Young Mr. Gilbert to sign the divorce agreement? I’ll be going now.”
I didn’t wait for Bella to answer before the car pulled away.
Oliver and Bella stood at the villa door and watched me leave.
The next day, Oliver messaged me first.
Jennifer, I’ve already signed. How do I get it to you?
I sent him an address, and he actually offered to deliver the signed divorce agreement himself.
“Why are you the one bringing it in person?”
“I wanted to do something for you.”
I pressed my lips together lightly, not sure for a moment what to say.
He, however, made himself right at home on the sofa in my office, brewing tea with smooth, unhurried movements, and even poured a cup for me without being asked.
“Sit down and have some tea, Jennifer. I want to talk with you.”
“I don’t think there’s anything you and I need to talk about.”
But Oliver was stubborn, wearing the look of a man who wouldn’t leave until we’d talked.
I glanced at my watch. “Twenty minutes.”
He nodded slightly. After I sat down and took a sip of tea, he studied me. “Jennifer, these three years you schemed so hard to marry into my family. Do you regret it?”
I set the cup down and said it to him plainly, once more.
“I never schemed to marry you. I simply followed the family’s arrangement and married you.”
“And I don’t have the right to regret it.”
He frowned in disbelief.
“How could you not regret it? You married a man who doesn’t love you. You wasted three years of your youth.”
“By your own logic, didn’t you waste three years of yours too?”
He fell silent, his grip tightening around the cup. After a long while he asked me something else.
“Jennifer, if I said let’s make a real go of it, would you be willing to keep this marriage?”
I folded my arms across my chest and looked at him coldly.
“Do you think I should be willing?”
“Three years of this marriage, and you brought Miss White to every important event both families held. Did you ever once give me an ounce of dignity?”
“I didn’t ask you to eat with me or go out with me. I didn’t ask you to live with me. All I wanted was the most basic dignity a marriage should have, and even that disgusted you.”
He lowered his eyes, his voice dropping very low.
“I understand. It was my fault.”
I offered no comment. He rose to his feet and gave me one deep, weighted look.
“In a month, I’ll see you at the courthouse.”
