9
I fell silent.
He looked at me pitifully. “It’s getting cold again. When I wake up in the morning with no one to cover me, my six-pack abs get chilly so easily!’
I burst out laughing, grabbing his face and pushing it to the side.
He had been persistently pursuing me since sophomore year of college. I always thought it was just
a childish crush.
All these years, he’s stayed by my side.
After Mia was born, he truly came to love her as his own. He filled the role of father that Mia’s real dad neglected.
I didn’t want to admit it, but Lucas and I no longer had any love between us.
We used to, but now it had soured.
He cheated constantly. For the sake of an intact family, for our child, for my girlhood obsession.
I sank deeper and deeper into the quagmire, until now.
It was time to make a clean break.
“I’ve already divorced him.”
Ryan’s eyes lit up brilliantly. If he had a tail, it would be wagging furiously.
“I can finally step up?”
I smiled without answering. He hugged me joyfully and spun me around.
Smack! He planted a kiss on me.
“Don’t worry. My family’s not bad off either. We’ll go live in River City from now on. No matter how powerful Lucas Shaw is in Harbor City, he can’t touch us there.”
I nodded, looking at our sleeping daughter, unsure if I had made the right decision this time.
As if afraid I would run away, Ryan rushed to compress the timeline.
The ring and wedding dress seemed prepared in advance, fitting perfectly. Three days later, we held
our wedding in River City.
Mia was the flower girl at the wedding, smiling happily.
“Mommy looks so happy now, happier than when she was with Daddy.”
She scrunched up her little face. “Now Uncle has become Daddy.”
Ryan lifted her up, grinning like he’d won a battle, and announced on the spot that Mia was his heir.
Just then, the doors to the banquet hall were kicked open.
A disheveled Lucas Shaw stared at me with bloodshot eyes. When he saw Mia, all the fight went out
of him.
“Darling, I’m here to take you home.”
I looked at him, feeling no love at all.
“Lucas Shaw, we’re done. Where are all your mistresses living now?”
His expression was pained. “Olivia, I promise there will never be other women again. When I thought Mia was gone, I realized how wrong I was. Please give me one more chance.”
I didn’t want him ruining my wedding, but I knew I had to make a clean break with him this time.
The big screen started playing inappropriate photos of him with various women. His face turned
ashen.
“Lucas Shaw, we’re already divorced.”‘
He shook his head. “Impossible. I would never divorce you!”
Suddenly he remembered that agreement and glared at me. “You tricked me!”
I felt exhausted, yet also relieved.
“You always said I was scheming and calculating. Now it’s come true, just as you wished.”
He was taken away by people from the Shaw family. Harbor City and River City had always been at odds. The Shaw family matriarch only had one son, with an unhealthy need for control.
Claire was pregnant. Lucas was threatened with abdication, forced to marry her and give the Shaw family an heir.
Lucas was extremely unwilling. Claire drugged him, and he completely lost control.
Claire died, along with her unborn child.
He was convicted of murder.
Before he went to prison, we got married.
He said: “Everything was fine between us. How did we end up like this?”
I ignored him and turned to marry Ryan.
Growing up in a complicated family, Lucas thought cheating was the most trivial matter.
But for me, every minute was like being cut by a knife.
An unequal relationship needs a lot of love to make up for the difference.
I moved forward, while he retreated.
Since that’s how it is, I don’t lack the courage to start over.
Leaving him will only make my life better and more brilliant.
