Chapter 3

“What exactly are you talking about?”

Claire was furious. She pointed at me and said:

“We’ve been married for ten years, and Lily is already this old. How can you bring up divorce so casually?”

I dropped back onto the sofa and smiled at her.

“Don’t you want Ryan to become your husband? I’m making that happen for you!”

“If I don’t divorce you, how can you two get together openly and honestly?”

Claire instantly flew into a rage.

She strode over to me and said:

“Ethan, what exactly do you mean? Are you calling us a pair of cheating dogs?”

“I’m telling you again, we’re nothing but friends. There’s absolutely nothing filthy going on between us!”

“And what do you mean by ‘openly and honestly’? I already told you that I’m only getting together with Ryan to save his life!”

I watched her deliver this speech with righteous conviction and nearly laughed.

“Do you want me to hire someone to investigate how many things you, Lily, and Ryan have done together over the past two or three years?”

“You’re glued to each other every day and take our daughter out without even coming home!”

“Just friends? Don’t you find yourself ridiculous saying that?”

Claire exploded when she heard me. She even tried to throw herself at me and hit me.

But before she could reach me, Ryan caught her in his arms.

He stepped forward to smooth things over.

“Claire, calm down. Mr. Carter is a man, so of course this is hard for him. It’s completely normal.”

“But I don’t have any other intentions. I’m only begging you to save me. I promise I won’t do anything else!”

“I don’t want to destroy your relationship because of me. I should just let nature take its course and die.”

The moment Claire heard this, she hurriedly pulled Ryan into her arms.

“Impossible. How could I let you die without doing anything?”

Ryan looked at me with a smug, boastful expression.

Claire also turned toward me and spat:

“You’re a cold-blooded, heartless monster with no compassion!”

“You want a divorce, right? Fine. We’ll get divorced right now!”

With that, she took a ring from the drawer and threw it straight at me.

It was a ring woven from a leaf. I had given it to Claire when I proposed to her.

We had been poor back then. I worked myself to the bone every day and still could not afford to buy a ring.

When I proposed, I had woven a ring from blades of grass beforehand and slipped it onto Claire’s finger. I promised her that one day I would give her a real ring and an even more perfect proposal.

She had cried as she said yes and told me she would keep that ring forever.

To preserve it, she had specially hired someone to turn it into a specimen.

Later, I fulfilled my promise. I gave her a proposal ring worth millions of dollars and arranged the perfect proposal.

Back then, she had told me, “As long as I have this ring with me, I’ll feel like you’ll never leave me.”

I had told her, “As long as you keep it with you, I’ll never leave you.”

That ring represented the love between us, and we both knew exactly what it meant.

By throwing it at me, she was declaring that our relationship was truly over.

I used to think there might still be a chance to change things, but now it was clear that nothing remained.

She had stopped loving me long ago.

The heart that had once loved her also died completely the moment she threw that ring away.

As for the ring on her own finger, she still wore it.

I knew she was only keeping it for the money.

I picked up the leaf ring, smiled, and tossed it into the trash.

If that was how things were, then let’s get divorced.