Chapter 3: Trash Where It Belongs

[Giana's POV]

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I gazed around the bedroom I had lived in for the past two and a half years. I knew every corner of this room, even with my eyes closed. There were too many memories in this room, or even in this entire house, that made it hard for me to leave.

“Ma’am, here’s the suitcase you asked for.”

Ines, the maid, brought a large suitcase from the storage room.

“Thank you.”

I took the suitcase and placed it on the floor. I put my clothes and belongings, which I had already prepared, into the suitcase one by one. The familiar scent of my old perfume suddenly reached me, making me feel nauseous.

“I’ll help you, Ma’am.”

“No need, I can do it myself. I’m no longer the lady of this house anyway,” I said with a smile.

Ines and the other housemaids already knew about my divorce from Jasper. I had said goodbye to them and told them that today would be my last day here. She looked sad and sympathetic before finally nodding and leaving me alone.

The clothes I was taking with me weren’t the expensive ones that had been bought for me during my time as Jasper Windsor’s wife. They were the simple clothes I had brought here when I married him.

The luxury bags, watches, and all the expensive things I had once worn would not be coming with me. I was only taking a few belongings, so I didn’t need long to pack.

Suddenly, I remembered what Noah had told me at the hospital.

I took Jasper’s tablet from his desk drawer, and searched for evidence of where he had gone that night. I opened his messaging and social media apps, but there were no suspicious private messages.

But someone who was having an affair wouldn’t leave messages undeleted on a tablet I could freely access, would they?

I opened his personal email accounts, one by one. The ones under his real name, all the way to the account I only found out now.

Spam, bank, spam. I scrolled through the emails quickly.

Gotcha.

A hotel booking confirmation.

On the exact day he had the accident.

He couldn’t have deleted the email before checking in. And he never checked in because he never made it there.

I took a deep breath to calm myself. I took a photo of the email with my phone as evidence.

It hurt. But I tried to convince myself that it meant nothing to me because I was about to divorce him.

“What are you doing?” Jasper’s voice from the doorway caught me holding his tablet. “Is that mine?”

I quickly closed the app and put it back on the table.

“Nothing. I was just deleting my data from it,” I lied, but Jasper wouldn’t know, right? He didn’t even remember. “So you’re here already.”

“Yeah. My family’s lawyer is downstairs. I hope you’re not going to pull any tricks to try to save our marriage.”

“Why would you think I’m that desperate? We already agreed, didn’t we?”

“Who knows?” He snorted. “Maybe you want to live the lavish life as a CEO’s wife a little longer? You’re just a contract wife, married for money. I knew all along there was no way I’d marry you out of love.”

I decided not to respond to his rambling and simply picked up my suitcase.

I dragged my suitcase toward the stairs. I didn’t want to take the elevator with him because being in an enclosed space with him made my chest feel tight. But he followed behind me.

I quickened my pace on the stairs, but one of the suitcase wheels got caught. I lost my balance and nearly slipped. Jasper caught my hand and wrapped an arm around my waist from behind.

“Careful, Honey!”

He stared at me in shock, his eyes widening in disbelief that the words had come out of his own mouth.

I quickly pulled away from him and hurried downstairs. My footsteps echoed rapidly against the stairs.

On the sofa, his family’s lawyer was arranging the documents on the table for me to sign. He greeted me, shook my hand, and then explained the contents of the documents.

But my mind wasn’t there. My heart was still pounding as I remembered what had just happened on the stairs with Jasper. What had just happened?

Muscle memory? Or were his memories starting to return?

It felt as though the Jasper I knew had returned. The Jasper I loved.

“Ms. Windsor, you can sign here.”

I blinked a few times. Right. All I had to do was sign without thinking about what had happened with Jasper. I glanced over the clauses briefly, then immediately signed the documents.

“All right, thank you. We’ll take care of filing everything with the court.”

“Yes. I’m leaving now.”

I nodded, then dragged my suitcase out of the living room. My head felt overwhelmed with all kinds of confusion, answers I might never know. And perhaps it was better that I didn’t know.

“Giana!”

Jasper’s voice calling my name made me stop and turn around. He half-ran toward me, startling me and making me instinctively take a step back.

“What?” I replied, startled.

“I appreciate that you left all that stuff. All those bags in the room. Those aren’t yours.”

He pointed at my hand with his head.

“But that ring, why are you still wearing it? That should belong to Lea.”

Ah.

I scoffed and looked away. This diamond ring. Our wedding ring. I had never asked for it, but he was the one who had slipped it onto my finger himself. I thought it was something special, but apparently what he had given me was nothing more than Lea’s hand-me-down.

I immediately pulled it off my ring finger and threw it at his face.

“What are you doing?!”

“Putting trash where it belongs.”

How foolish I had been to hope for anything from this man.

I turned around and walked away without looking back. The nausea I had been feeling only grew worse.

A terrifying thought crossed my mind. Could I be—no, please, not now.