Half the Fortune, All My Freedom

The private room fell into a silence as dead as a morgue.

A crack finally appeared in Serena Prescott's calm expression. She asked again, "Caleb Warren, are you sure?"

I didn't answer. I signed my name at the end of the divorce agreement.

Then I pushed the agreement toward her.

"Yes. I'm sure.

"When will the money be transferred? I'll go home and pack in a while."

How could I not be sure?

In my last life, I'd been naive enough to think that as long as I was still her husband, no one could cross that line.

We'd had so many years together. I thought that as long as the misunderstanding from back then was cleared up, our relationship could still return to what it had once been.

What I waited for instead was Serena and Mason Clark growing old together with children and grandchildren, loving each other until the end.

Meanwhile, I guarded an empty marriage and became an invisible housekeeper in the Prescott family.

Everyone mocked me as a useless man who couldn't even control his own wife.

In my old age, when I went to the hospital to bring Serena food while she was sick, I overheard her bragging to Mason.

She said the scandal back then, the one about me spending the night with five women, had been arranged by her.

"Honestly, there was nothing wrong with him. He was just too boring. Who'd want to spend a lifetime with a dull block of wood like that?"

"You're really ruthless," Mason said.

She laughed softly, without the slightest guilt. "If I hadn't been ruthless, how would he have obediently listened to me and let me cheat?"

It hit me like a bolt of lightning.

No wonder every time I'd tried to explain, she'd coldly told me to shut up.

Because she'd known the truth all along.

She didn't love me anymore, but she used a lie as a shackle and trapped me for an entire lifetime.

She trampled my feelings underfoot, watched me suffer for her, and took pride in it.

Now, looking at her young face again, I felt no love at all.

Only a wave of nausea.

The whispers in the private room began again.

"Look at that. He's playing hard to get, isn't he?"

"I bet he won't last three days before he comes crying back to Serena."

"Exactly. Without the Prescott family, what is he?"

Someone deliberately turned toward Mason and exclaimed in an exaggerated tone, "Still, our Mason is young, handsome, and in great shape.

"Serena must be so lucky at night. Unlike certain older men who look like they can't even stand upright."

Mason, the person being praised, pressed his lips together and pretended to be shy.

"It's not just at night. Daytime too. I've got the stamina, after all."

He deliberately glanced at me and added with an innocent expression, "Oh, I didn't mean the old man can't perform. Please don't misunderstand."

The room burst into laughter.

Serena sat there without saying a word.

Just like countless times in the past, she didn't defend me.

I tugged at the corner of my mouth and stood.

Since we're already divorced, I no longer have any duty to entertain these clowns.

Over the years, I didn't just manage every messy detail of Serena's personal investment company.

I also handled all her trivial affairs and went with her to entertain these friends who only knew how to mock me.