Chapter 247
*Please continue living your life and stop disrupting mine, will you?”
Henry, this is my final act of kindness toward our marriage. Please honor it. Can you do that?
After these words left my lips, the car fell into such complete silence that I could clearly hear the raindrops hammering against the foot. I had said everything I needed to say. Whether Henry would actually listen was another matter entirely.
1 had already prepared for the worst–case scenario–filing for divorce through litigation. With sufficient evidence proving our marriage had irreparably broken down, the court would grant the divorce even without Henry’s signature. Taking this route simply meant dragging things out longer with him.
While I sat in composed detachment, Henry’s expression was a portrait of agony. His features contorted as he visibly struggled to contain the pain threatening to spill out from his chest.
In the past, he had believed I was merely a calculating woman who had married him through manipulating his father and grandfather. But now, heating my true thoughts, he seemed to finally realize that in this marriage, I was the one who had truly suffered.
He had been the one constantly enjoying someone’s love without giving anything in return.
I could see he wanted to say something–anything–to comfort me, but the words seemed stuck. A thousand phrases appeared to hover on his lips, yet not a single one emerged. Like a fishbone caught in his throat, neither able to be spat out nor swallowed down, just painfully lodged there.
The car pulled up outside Betty’s building. While Henry was still lost in his thoughts, I seized my opportunity, yanking my hand free from his grip and quickly pushing the door open.
I darted into the rain without hesitation. The icy droplets stung my face like needles, but I didn’t care–all that mattered was escaping Henry’s suffocating
presence.
The moment I fled the car, Henry snapped back to reality. He grabbed an umbrella from the back seat and rushed after me. Unfortunately for him, as he hurried out, the umbrella caught in the car door, tearing a large hole in it.
Henry tried to hold this broken umbrella over my head. I pushed it away, my eyes filled with cold indifference as I let out a bitter laugh.
“Rather than stand under a broken umbrella, I’d prefer the rain,” I said, the raindrops mingling with my words. “Henry, do you see? Our marriage is exactly like this umbrella–it’s broken beyond repair.”
With that, I turned and ran toward the building entrance.
Henry stood frozen, watching Sophia’s retreating figure.
“Is it really beyond repair?‘ he whispered to himself, his voice lost in the downpour. A stabbing pain shot through his chest, making him stagger. He nearly collapsed right there in the rain.
The driver, seeing his unsteady state, immediately rushed to his side. “Sir, are you alright?”
Should we go to the hospital?” the driver asked anxiously.
“No, Henry replied, leaning on the driver to steady himself. “Just take me back to Maple Grove.”
The driver helped him back into the car. Throughout the entire journey to Maple Grove, Henry remained completely silent, as still as a statue carved from
stone.
Once home, I checked my phone and, as expected, found the school notification about the weekend parent–child activity that required both parents to
attend.
I quietly read through the message, set dowry my phone, and went to Billy’s room. I hadn’t been able to pick him up from school this afternoon because I was at the Medical University Exhibition Hall. William had arranged for Mark to collect him instead.
After picking him up, Mark had taken Billy for dinner near the hospital. Despite my repeated instructions against fast food, William had dismissed my concerns: “It’s not like he eats it oftep–just once a month! What’s the harm?”
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Chapter 247
He’d completely ignored my wishes and treated Billy to fried chicken and french fries. Having gotten his wish, Billy was in high spints. After being dropped off at Rose Garden Apartments, he’d bathed with Betty’s help and was now
sitting in his room, engrossed in his Lego set.
This particular set was a gift from Henry with electrical components that allowed the finished construction to move. Billy wat assembling it with
extraordinary concentration.
When Billy saw I was dripping wet from the rain, he immediately ran to get a towel, rushing over to wipe my face. He wrapped his small arms around waist and smiled sweetly. ‘Did Mommy have dinner? Are you hungry?
Being cared for by my little gentleman warmed my heart. I cupped his face in my hands and planted a firm kiss on his forehead. “Thank you for being so concerned about Mommy. No, I haven’t eaten yet. I need to make something in the kitchen. Would you like to join me?”
Hearing that I was hungry, Billy quickly offered me his cookies. Here, have some of my cookies first to tide you over. Don’t do this again, okay?”
With such a thoughtful child, all my earlier frustrations evaporated. As for Henry, I decided not to think about him anymore. Let him do whatever he wanted.
Betty, upon learning I hadn’t eaten dinner, was already preparing ingredients in the kitchen.
Her cooking skills were notoriously terrible–she had absolutely no culinary talent and knew better than to waste perfectly good food. She limited herself to washing and chopping vegetables, leaving the actual cooking to me.
Making sure Billy was out of earshot, she finally asked, “I think I saw Henry’s car dropping you off. What happened?”
“Did you two reconcile?” To be fair, if her friend had indeed made peace with Henry, Betty wouldn’t object–she’d simply offer a gentle reminder: ‘When you loved Henry before, could you really forget all the pain he caused you?”
I held nothing back from her, sharing everything.
“Henry doesn’t want a divorce. He came looking for me hoping I would stop insisting on it.”
I paused, hesitating before finally speaking the words I had been holding back,
“But my heart is already dead to him.”
For six years, I had given my whole heart, pouring all my love into Henry.
Even without receiving his response, I never regretted it.
But…
The moment Isabella appeared before me, clinging to Henry’s arm, I realized how foolish I had been,
I also understood how much wasted effort I had put in.
After being powerless to ‘make Henry love me, my heart died along with that impossible dream.
“Betty, there’s a famous philosopher who once said: a person often has to die twice–when they stop loving, and when they stop expecting to be loved.
When a person no longer loves or no longer expects to be loved, they experience a kind of death. This death isn’t the physical end of life, but rather a spiritual kind of fading or conclusion.
To stop loving means the heart has healed; though scars remain, one has learned to walk forward alone.
To stop expecting love means beginning to understand that the true essence of life is to be accompanied by solitude, to realize that solitude is the natural
state of human existence.
Rather than resisting loneliness, it’s better to accept it and learn to live with it as a companion.”
The Ex–Wife’s Redemption: A Love Reborn
Chapter 248
