Chapter 2 The Divorce She Signed Away

But her hands were clenched tightly, as though my words had truly infuriated her. "Apologize to my friends!"

"Exactly! That was just plain rude. He must apologize to us!" Her friends chimed in, their voices growing harsher as they pressured me from all sides.

Cynthia shouted the order at me again, her tone leaving no room for refusal. She was stubbornly refusing to back down, as though saying no would be enough to make her turn against me completely.

But she was wrong.

I no longer loved her, so naturally, I no longer cared about obeying her.

She could concern herself with even her friends' pride, yet she could not spare a thought for how humiliated and miserable I felt at that moment. So what was the point of continuing to chase after a woman like her? I would simply be humiliating myself again.

"Was I really rude? When you were happily accepting the handbags, clothes, and lipsticks I bought you, why didn't you think I was being rude then? Why didn't you ask your Grant to buy them?" I continued sarcastically. "Because he was only good at saying whatever made you happy. He'd never actually open his wallet and pay for anything. So next time you want me to buy you something limited-edition, find someone else to play the sucker. I'm done catering to you."

With that, I turned and walked out of the wedding venue, leaving a seething Cynthia behind.

"Lysander Grenville, that's enough! Get back here!" Cynthia shouted furiously at my retreating figure.

In the past, whenever she got angry, I would immediately give in without a second thought. I was the CEO of Grenville Co., yet I had turned myself into an obedient lapdog who did whatever she wanted. Looking back now, I almost wanted to slap myself twice.

What had I ever seen in her? Was it the way she constantly ran to Grant to fuss over him, even spending the night at his house? Or was it the way she humiliated me whenever and wherever she pleased?

I was not exactly hard on the eyes, either. I was handsome, wealthy, and had treated her like the most precious person in the world. Maybe she had simply taken my devotion for granted, which was why she had felt free to toy with me without restraint.

From this day forward, I would never sacrifice my dignity for her again.

…

The farce finally ended with my departure, but the vicious gossip about me did not.

My parents were so enraged by what had happened that their blood pressure shot up, and they both collapsed.

Before losing consciousness, they warned me never to marry Cynthia again and ordered me to have a lawyer send her divorce papers immediately.

When Cynthia received the divorce agreement, however, she was not angry in the slightest. Instead, she cheerfully signed her name.

"Cynthia, we're sorry. We got you into this mess."

"Grant is gone, and now that bastard has filed for divorce. Poor you!"

Unlike them, Cynthia remained completely calm inside, unaffected by any of it. "You don't seriously think Lysander actually wants to divorce me, do you? He loves me so much. The divorce papers are nothing more than a way to make me give in first. I humiliated him at the wedding, so he wants to get his pride back.

"He must have been reading too many of those brainless groveling trope novels lately. Now he wants to play the part and turn me into the lead character who gets chased after the divorce, complete with a story about how he regrets leaving me. Little would he know that I'd take his ridiculous little act seriously. If he's so sure I wouldn't dare sign it, I'll sign it to show him who's boss!"

At that, Cynthia smugly picked up the glass of red wine from the coffee table and downed it in one go. Yet beneath her composure, there was still a trace of grief in her eyes over Grant's death.

Her friends became even more excited after hearing her explanation and immediately started placing bets.

"How long do you all think it'll take Lysander to come crawling back to Cynthia this time?"

"I'm betting three days."

"My money's on two. There's no way he'll last three."

"That damn man is so pathetic. If he can actually make it past three days, I'll really have to look at him differently."