Chapter 4

It rained heavily on the day we finalized the divorce.

I had forgotten to take an umbrella, leaving me drenched to the bone.

Once the mandatory waiting period expired, the paperwork went by quickly.

Holding the thin divorce decree in my hand, I watched expressionlessly as Julian and Chloe walked hand-in-hand toward the marriage registration desk.

By the time they walked back out, I was still standing under the eaves, waiting for the storm to pass.

Taking in my disheveled appearance, Chloe smirked. "Clarissa, do you need Julian to drive you home?"

I shook my head gently. "No, thank you."

Her smile remained, though a flicker of mockery gleamed in her eyes.

"This is why women need their own careers and financial independence.

"A housewife who depends entirely on someone else and refuses to wake up... well, she's destined to be discarded in the end."

I offered her a faint smile in return.

"Well said, Chloe. I just hope an independent, wide-awake woman like you never gets 'performance-managed' out of the picture."

She brushed off my remark with a quiet laugh and adjusted her arm around Julian's before walking away.

Julian didn't look at me once, treating me like a stray pebble on the curb.

He never used to be like this.

We were college sweethearts. He was the one who pursued me back then.

He used to say that my drive and determination shone brighter than all the stars in the night sky.

Truth was, I felt the exact same way about him.

We were both passionate idealists.

We spent our free time volunteering together and pooled our savings to support causes we believed in.

We promised each other that we would excel in our respective careers and meet at the summit.

When did everything start to change?

It was probably when his father suffered that sudden heart attack.

The hospital had a long waitlist for surgery, but his father didn't have time to wait.

Julian had been frantic, begging anyone he knew for help, only securing a slot when a distant relative pulled some strings.

That evening, he crouched in the hospital stairwell, smoking a cigarette.

"Clarissa," he told me, his eyes hollow. "I finally got it now. Ideals and emotions are all meaningless fluff.

"In this world, power and leverage are the only things that truly matter."

After that, he became a different person.

Colder, sharper, and deeply self-interested.

He began quantifying everything in his life, including himself.

And now, he even had a calculated justification for his own infidelity.

How ironic.

The ring of my cell phone snapped me out of my thoughts.

I answered, hearing a familiar voice on the line.

"Clarissa, is the paperwork done?

"The client specifically requested you for this project. Should I send a car over to pick you up?"

A real smile finally touched my lips. "Yes, please. Thank you, Mr. Brassfield."

What Julian never realized was that I had never truly abandoned my career.

For the past two years, I had been working remotely as a high-level consultant.

My field revolved around designing tailored operations and management systems for elite corporate clients.

I didn't need to sit in an office to deliver results.

Even that "marriage system" he was so proud of was built ground-up by my professional expertise.

I used to believe our home would be my proudest project.

It was my greatest failure as it turned out.

Let's see, Julian.

Without me holding the pieces together, let's see how long your picture-perfect life actually lasts.