Chapter 7

Anya POV

Richard slapped me hard.

I hung my head, covering my face with one hand, my expression blank.

Richard looked at me with disgust, his face full of heartache.

"Tomorrow, go beg Ethan. Beg him not to divorce you."

"Your body has been exposed online. Who would ever marry you now?!"

As I listened, I laughed.

My body trembled uncontrollably, and a single crystalline tear fell.

"How ridiculous."

"You don't ask me how those photos came to be, nor do you ask if I willingly divorced. All the blame is just dumped on me."

"Are you truly my father?"

Richard's face grew even uglier.

"Shut up. Tomorrow, no matter what, you cannot sign the divorce papers."

"Otherwise, don't blame me for disowning you!"

I looked up, my eyes brimming with tears, and nodded.

"Fine, I'll make sure you get what you want."

The third day, Ethan arrived as scheduled.

He looked at my swollen cheek and indifferent expression and said coldly, "It's not too late to regret it now."

"Your photos are all over the internet. Do you think anyone would still marry you?"

"Why did you take those explicit photos with those men?"

"Give me a reason."

His arm seemed to tremble slightly, betraying his unstable inner state.

I said nothing, simply lowered my head and signed.

Then I pushed it towards Ethan.

"Sign."

Ethan was momentarily speechless.

He stood up, exasperated, and signed his name without hesitation.

Then he grabbed his suit jacket and turned to leave.

"This time, we won't remarry so easily. You'll have to pay the price for your mistakes!"

He got into his car without looking back. Serena, in the passenger seat, gently fastened his seatbelt.

She looked towards the door, smiled at me holding the divorce certificate.

And mouthed once more.

"Thank you."

I put the divorce certificate in my pocket, my gaze icy as I watched the car speed away.

"Heh, no need to thank me."

"Ethan, that cheating scumbag, he's all yours."

I lowered my head, pulled out my phone, and made a call.

The call connected.

"Mark, take me out of the country now."

My uncle, Mark Miller, smiled, relieved, on the other end of the line.

"I wanted to take you abroad when your mother died, but you insisted on staying in the country to guard her grave."

"Now you've finally seen sense."

I looked at the swirling fallen leaves in the sky, my voice faint.

"I didn't understand before, but now I do."

Actually, I always had a way out.

I remarried Ethan twice because I truly loved him. But I kept that feeling so well hidden that my father and Ethan both thought our marriage was purely for a business alliance.

But Ethan, in the end, wasn't the boy I had fallen for at eighteen.

He destroyed my true feelings again and again with countless infidelities.

And this time, it was the last straw.

We would never meet again.

That evening, I threw away my phone card, blocked Ethan and all contact numbers from the Reed family, and boarded Mark's private jet.

I was leaving the country that had nearly destroyed me.