Chapter 58 The Solution

- What?! Margaret looked at her granddaughter, perplexed by the divorce request.

"If I don't, he or his father will surely force me to go away, and who can stop them?" Now Maximo is the leader of both families! Isabella groaned, terrified.

"You are too!" Aiden replied.

"How could I face it?" I even think he's watching me..." Isabella said, pursing her lips in disappointment.

"How?" Margaret frowned.

- I saw it as strange... But I never thought it was like that. I didn't suspect it..." Isabella stammered, stunned. “An employee told Máximo that I was sick and that I was coming to this house when the news came out. That's why he contacted you, grandma. Margaret opened her eyes wide. “The employees of the penthouse are always aware of what I do, they ask me where I am going or what I will do...

"That doesn't mean..." Margaret tried to explain, while Isabella lay down on the sofa, downcast.

"I should have thought about it, I should have been smarter..." Isabella muttered to herself. “How could he fall in love with me, with a homeless woman? Of course it was all a lie, a performance... He even told me once...

"What?" Margaret and Aiden remained attentive, worried about Isabella's condition and the veracity of her words. Could everything the young woman said be true?

"He once told me..." That he wanted to take me far away, to a secluded place where I wouldn't have to suffer... Because... Because I was very precious to him..." Isabella clenched her jaw. Sadness consumed her, but in the midst of those memories, a feeling of anger also began to blossom.

"Maybe it's not what it seems..." Aiden interjected, thoughtfully.

"What?" Isabella looked at her cousin, surprised by his comment.

"It's just that... I can't believe it; he seemed so in love that I..." Aiden tried to explain himself, while Isabella looked at him incredulously.

“It was a performance, a lie! Isabella exclaimed, indignantly, rising from her place. "Do you think I'm lying?!" That everything is a product of my imagination?! Either you say it for something or someone else..." Isabella made a hint that Aiden understood perfectly; he was talking about Emily.

- Well, guys... It's not the time to argue, we must think..." Margaret interjected as she noticed the growing tension between Isabella and Aiden.

"Think what, grandma?" I have to divorce, escape from that man... He'll send me away like... Like..." Isabella's mind clicked instantly. "Like he did with his mother..." She whispered thoughtfully.

"What?" Aiden got up from his seat, understanding Isabella's words, since he had been present and had heard everything.

"I can't believe it!" Isabella put her hands to her face, stunned.

"What's wrong, Isabella?" Margaret still didn't understand.

"Maximo's mother, she doesn't live in the Collins' mansion. They mentioned it at the welcome dinner for the honeymoon... Marian lives in the countryside, according to Maximiliano, she left because she couldn't stand life in the city...

"Isabella, which doesn't mean anything. It may be true..." Margaret argued, despite her granddaughter's reasons, she found it hard to believe that everything was true.

"No, grandma, you should have been there. They seemed tense, it was very strange, as if they were hiding something..." Aiden commented, remembering Maximilian's nervousness.

"Do you think they sent Marian away and now they're going to do the same to you?" Margaret asked, perplexed by what she was hearing, confirming the concerns of her two grandchildren.

"Máximo told me that the world we live in is surrounded by cruel, envious and unscrupulous people... Now it all makes sense..." Isabella muttered thoughtfully. "I have to get divorced; I have to leave him and escape!"

"Isabella..." Margaret took her hands, seeing the young woman upset and lost.

"If you don't help me, I'll run away!" Grandma, you know I don't mind living on the street..." Isabella warned, determined.

"You can't run away, you can't escape. Do you know who Maximo Collins is and the power he has right now? He will find you, and if what you say is true and they intended to banish you, when he finds out that you fled, your fate could be even worse. Margaret explained.

"There has to be some way, grandma. It cannot be that all is lost... You have to review the agreement you arranged the marriage with and...

“Wow, wow, wow! Aiden interrupted, confused. “What agreement?

Isabella and Margaret looked at him in surprise, for he knew nothing about the agreement between the two families.

Isabella explained to Aiden what Margaret had told her about the Collins-Sinclair agreement, the reasons for the marriage, and Maximo's initial rejection.

Aiden couldn't believe the cruelty of his uncle and his own father. So, they had already locked up their own mother before? Isabella's account confirmed that Máximo did not want her, had rejected her before, and only accepted the marriage because her father proposed the agreement.

Meanwhile, Margaret carefully reviewed each clause of the agreement.

"Here it is!" Margaret exclaimed.

"What did you find?" Isabella and Aiden asked, approaching.

"A clause on divorce and separation of property," Margaret murmured, concentrating on the document. “It says that after three months of marriage, if the two families have recovered financially and the parties agree, they can divorce and divide the property accordingly.

- Well... I've been married for more than three months now..." Isabella sighed, not quite understanding.

"And both fortunes are intact..." Margaret added.

"Wait... Just three months of marriage?" Aiden asked, perplexed.

"This is a very old agreement, Aiden. It was not made to really unite families, but to recover the money and power lost at the time. Once the families had recovered, there would be an equitable division of property, and if the bride and groom wanted, each could go on with their separate lives. Margaret explained in summary. "We must use this clause to our advantage...

- Wow... That means I can get divorced, and the Collins couldn't take away the Sinclair’s' fortune..." Isabella added.

"Yes, but in that case, it would be Ricardo and Hector who would do it..." Margaret replied. Aiden and Isabella looked at each other, remembering that forgotten detail. "They won't let you stay on as the head of the family, Isabella. You're not prepared for that. If they haven't been able to get you out, it's only because you're married to Maximo Collins...

“Yes, I know. Isabella crossed her arms with a blank look and began to walk around the room. - I am a pauper, an ignorant person without education. I couldn't run a family.

"That's the solution!" Aiden said with a spark of emotion. Isabella looked at him strangely. "You must study and prepare, become everything that is expected of a Sinclair leader...

"How?" Isabella was still confused.

"If you show that you are prepared for the position, my father and Uncle Hector will not be able to take anything away from you..." Aiden added.

"But that takes years, doesn't it?" Isabella looked at her grandmother and cousin, who nodded hopefully in their eyes.

“Yes, usually... But if you put in the effort, take extra, evening classes, you could finish much sooner, in two years or maybe one. Aiden clarified.

"That would be perfect, Isabella..." The studies would be abroad, so you will avoid Máximo exile you because you will go on your own..." Margaret supposed, more animated.

"But if Máximo signs a power of attorney for his father while I'm not here, we'll have lost..." Isabella argued.

- No, cousin, which has nothing to do with it. When you come back and ask for a divorce from the idiot Collins, the Sinclair’s' assets will be yours again and under your direction. Maximilian will only be able to control their fortunes..." Aiden explained.

- So... I must wait until I can return from abroad so that I can divorce myself..." Isabella muttered thoughtfully.

“Exactly. And while we arrange the trip, you should act normal, in love. Maximo must not know anything..." Aiden warned him.

"But how do I tell you I'm leaving out of nowhere?" Do you think it will allow me to go abroad overnight? Isabella slumped tired on the sofa.

"We'll use the same excuse they want to use..." Margaret interjected.

"Which one?" Isabella and Aiden asked in unison.

The public scandal that took place a few days ago... We will say that after all the articles in which you were described as ignorant, uneducated, and classless, you have made the decision to prepare yourself to become a lady worthy of Maxim Collins... We will talk to Maximilian and his son; they will not be able to refuse. Margaret nodded with an air of confidence.

"I... I do not know... I don't know if that works...

Isabella became a little nervous, she felt entangled with this whole plan and facing male masters after what she had heard, was something she was not sure she could achieve.

"Don't worry, leave it to me, I'll take care of convincing them..." But you must accompany me. Margaret added.

The rest of the afternoon, Margaret and Aiden spent fine-tuning their plans, calling the most prestigious foreign institutions, getting favors from the deans, Isabella was to start her studies immediately.

The young woman was not very sure what she was doing, she had to run away from her spouse, but, on the other hand, she obviously did not want to leave him, she loved him, she loved him madly.

Although the tears had subsided, his heart was still in pieces, how could Maximo do something as horrible as that? To make her fall in love and then throw her away, all for power and money.

She had not been mistaken; her spouse was a very cruel man.

But she couldn't blame him, she was to blame for believing everything, for being so naïve and blindly falling for his charms.

Isabella spent the rest of the afternoon resting, she needed to recover for what was coming.

At the end of the afternoon, Maximo received a strange call, his spouse and Mrs. Margaret were meeting with Maximilian and urgently needed him to be present.

Máximo forgot all the work and practically ran to his family's mansion.