Chapter 3

The smugness on Adrian’s face was impossible to hide. He looked almost ready to cheer.

I was afraid he might laugh out loud, since he had clearly been waiting for this moment.

Claire frowned, but her reaction was completely unexpected.

“Ethan, are you drunk? Or did you sleep so hard you lost your mind? Say that again.”

Afraid she was too excited to hear me clearly, I repeated myself slowly and distinctly.

“I said, Claire, let’s get divorced.”

After saying it, I quietly waited for Claire to agree.

Instead, Claire simply frowned and stared at me, as if trying to determine whether I was serious or merely acting out of anger.

Several minutes passed before she turned her face away unnaturally. Her voice even softened slightly.

“I’ll assume you’re just talking nonsense because you’re upset. I won’t hold it against you.”

“Divorce isn’t something you can casually say just because you’re unhappy. It hurts people.”

“We’ve been together for so many years. We understand each other. We’re not going to get divorced just because you said so.”

“I’m going to stay at the company tonight. You should stay home and reflect on yourself. Don’t say things like that again.”

Claire left without giving me a chance to argue, and Adrian followed after her with a dazed expression.

I really couldn’t understand it. The two of them had been secretly growing closer right under my nose these past few days, practically inseparable.

Today, they had even shown intimate photos of themselves at the banquet. I thought she had been desperate to divorce me so she could be with Adrian.

But after thinking it over, I decided it worked out well enough. There were still things I needed to handle, and once I drafted the divorce agreement tomorrow and took it to her, she would agree, right?

I pulled the covers over myself and went back to sleep, sleeping until late the next morning.

My phone remained silent. There were no calls or messages, so I immediately called my lawyer and had him draw up the divorce agreement.

After receiving the agreement, I got up, made myself presentable, and contacted some old friends from the art world to meet for lunch.

Those friends were people I had met back when I was still creating freely and passionately in the art world.

Every one of them had witnessed my obsession with painting and my relentless dedication. They knew how completely I had lost myself in front of a canvas.

Back then, my heart had been filled with nothing but the pursuit of art.

When I decided to leave the art world to take care of Claire full-time, they called me a lovesick fool. They thought I had thrown away my talent and dreams for a woman and that my decision was impulsive and stupid.

At the time, I had felt some hesitation and reluctance too, but the power of love had driven me down that path without looking back.

So when I decided to pick up my brush again and return to the art world, those old friends gathered around me once more.

“Ethan, we don’t know what made you finally change your mind, but we all support you. As long as you come back, we’ll be right there with you!”

“That’s right! I’ve already thought it through. We can hold an exhibition together, open a studio, and make our old dreams come true.”

It was a satisfying meal.

When I got up to pay at the front desk, I unexpectedly heard a familiar voice.

I turned around and saw Claire and Adrian sitting in a couple’s booth, acting affectionate and sweet with each other.

They were sharing a small cake. They even wiped frosting from each other’s mouths, and the sweetness between them stabbed at my eyes.

I walked over slowly. Claire clearly hadn’t expected to see me there, and she jumped. A flash of panic crossed her eyes.

“Ethan? What are you doing here?”

Adrian immediately chimed in, pretending that my presence had startled him.

“Ethan, you weren’t following us, were you? Don’t you trust Claire at all? You wanted a divorce yesterday, and now you’re following us today.”

I had no interest in arguing with him.

I knew this was all a coincidence, but I knew even more clearly that perhaps whatever bond had existed between Claire and me had truly come to an end.

I took out the divorce agreement I had prepared and quietly placed it in front of her.

Feeling somewhat guilty, she tried to explain.

“Fine, maybe you were following us, but don’t do that again…”

“And I wasn’t feeling well just now, so we were… feeding each other. Don’t get jealous over nothing.”

I ignored her explanation and simply watched her in silence.

She hurriedly glanced over the agreement. Maybe she felt guilty, or maybe she was eager to escape the awkward situation. Either way, she didn’t read it carefully before quickly signing her name.

Only after she finished signing did I tell her that it was a divorce agreement.

“Have you really been so confused that you signed it without even reading it?”

Her face instantly turned pale, and her eyes filled with disbelief and fury.

“This doesn’t count!”

Adrian seemed not to have expected her to sign the divorce agreement so smoothly, so he stopped pretending.

“Claire, be careful. What if he set you up? Is he trying to trick you out of your property?”

Claire hurriedly read through the agreement several times.

I laughed coldly.

“You don’t need to read it. I won’t take a single thing that belongs to you. I only want what belongs to me.”

Our love had become like that shared piece of cake, eaten away by time and betrayal until nothing remained but ruin.