Chapter 37 Thirty Seven
Reflexively, my l*ps curled into a smile as I saw him, through the glass walls of the bureau, alight from his car and sauntered toward the entrance of the Civil Af-
fairs Bureau.
I arrived here about five minutes ago and I had half expected that I would have to wait for quite a long time before he would get here. But here he was waltzing into the bureau just like we agreed.
He spotted me quite fast. Then he turned and walked toward me.
“Well, hello.”
He nodded and stuffed his hands into his pockets, “Hey.”
“I didn’t expect you to be this early,” I said as I got on my feet, hanging my bag on my shoulder.
His shoulders didn’t move more than an inch as he shrugged slightly, “I told you I was gonna be here at the time you stated. I gave you my word, I wasn’t
about to go back on them.”
I raised my eyebrows, unable to stop myself from grinning. To be honest, I was impressed. Was this Doris influence?
“Okay, let’s go.” I told him and led the way to the office of the judge.
My smile widened each time I felt or looked at the paper in my hand. Finally, I was no more Mrs Torres. It felt effing good.
Our divorce registration had gone extremely smooth. I guess I should have ex- pected that we would be treated like kings because it was Mark. We were given special VIP treatment, making everything swift and they kept smiling at Mark too, hoping to get in his good books.
I turned to see Mark walking behind. His l*ps were set grimly and he looked straight ahead, the set of his jaw refusing to betray his emotions or thoughts.
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He must have noticed my gaze on him because he turned to me, “Any prob-
lem?” He raised perfectly arched brows and asked.
I shook my head, “I don’t think me being glad that we finally got divorced is a
problem so no. I’m just really happy that we have this now,” I raised the certifi-
cate in the air.
He nodded, “Of course, you are.”
The silence stretched endlessly between us as we walked to the entrance. Then his voice suddenly sounded, breaking the silence, “So what are you going
to do next?”
I scoffed, “What else? Ofcourse, I’ll go find another man to get marry.” I looked up to see his expression. There was a slight crease in his forehead and this
time, I could tell that he was surprised and bemused. I elaborated, “You know, ex-
change vows and get trapped in a marriage with another man who will dislike
me just as much as I dislike him.”
He shook his head slightly and looked ahead again but I could see the twitch
of his l*ps as he held back his smile.
He removed his hands from his pocket and handed me a card. I stopped walk-
ing as I took it from him with a frown and turned it over on my palm. “What’s
thi-” I stopped and looked up at him. I found his eyes on me. “Have you with-
drawn it? I haven’t received any notification,” I muttered as I started to riffle
through my bag for my phone but his words stopped me.
“There’s no notification. I didn’t withdraw anything.”
I eyed him, my gaze shifting from the card to his face, “Why? What’s the mat-
ter? The amount in the account isn’t complete?” I started to hand the card back
to him. “I’m sure there’s more than enough in it but I’ll reconfirm then-”
“Just take the card, Sydney,” he said exasperatedly and cut me off.
I regarded him for a while. “Why?” That mask was over his face again as he re- turned my stare, his eyes unreadable, “You don’t want a break–up fee anymore?” I
drew back, “Isn’t this what you’ve always wanted me to give you?”
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He shook his head, “I don’t need this million and I know you know it. It was obvi- ously just an obstacle to stop you from divorcing me, I didn’t know you would get the money so soon. Now that we are divorced, I naturally can’t take it any- more. I’m a billionaire, asking you for a break–up fee is even embarrassing.”
I laughed out loud, “Well, it’s my pleasure that you’re embarrassed,” I mused as I carefully tucked my card in my bag. I couldn’t help but notice that the man be- fore me seemed different. It wasn’t the grumpy volatile Mark I lived with. If only he was this understanding and communicating in our marriage, maybe I would-
n’t have had any desire to leave the marriage.
We started walking in silence again. “By the way, the shares that grandma trans- ferred to me, I’m not planning to keep.” I looked up at him and smiles, “So just have your lawyer draft a transfer document and mail it to me, I’ll sign it. No is-
sue.
Mark shook his head and said, “Nah. There’ll be no need for that. Since Grand- ma has transferred the shares to you, then they are yours, not mine. If you can’t bring yourself to take it from her, consider it as alimony from me, as long as you don’t sell the shares.”
I shrugged, slightly surprised. I had thought his shares in the company meant the world to him. I thought he had been boiling inside as I signed the shares transfer documents but here he was, acting all cool about. Impressive. “Well, If you change your mind, you can just easily contact my lawyer,” I handed him my lawyer’s business card. “That’s if you don’t want to call me or you can’t reach
me.”
He stared at the card for a while then he took it and stuffed it in his pocket with-
out giving it a glance.
By this time, we had both already walked to the parking lot. I strode to my car
and unlocked it.
“Okay,” I said, awkwardly standing by my op car’s door. “I’ll leave now.”
He raised his hand in a light wave and said.“”
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I pursed my l*ps then I laughed teasingly as I got in the car, “Better not.”
I started the car and without another glance at Mark, I drove away. As I drove. away from the bureau, I rolled down my car’s window, enjoying the breeze and
the feel of freedom.
I stopped when the traffic light stopped at red. Pedestrians crossed the roads as we waited for the lights to turn to green. While I waited, I brought out my phone. I felt pretty so I took several selfies. After much zooming in and out of each of the selfies, I finally posted one of them on social media. I captioned the
picture, ‘Happy Single!
No longer a Torres. Single and freaking happy.”
Almost immediately, I got a notification that someone had liked my picture. I lift- ed my brows, grinning, “Wow, that’s fast.”
I tapped on the profile of the person that reacted and realized that it was Luigi. I didn’t even know he was following me. I followed him back.
The light turned green so I dropped my phone and continued to drive, all the while, the notification beeps of my phone filled me with curiosity. At the next traf- fic light stop, I quickly took my phone and opened the notifications.
I chuckled lightly to myself as I saw the numerous notifications. My tweet had been retweeted by the many young ladies who coveted Mark. I half expected Bel- la to start claiming him or for her to also retweet it.
I laughed as I imagined that one of those gossip blogs would title their story about his break–up with, ‘The most wanted man is finally back in the dating mar-
ket!‘
Just as I was about to drop my phone, my phone rang and vibrated in my palm. Instinctively, I picked up the call. “Hello?”
“Hey, It’s Luigi.”
“Oh hi. What’s up?”
“Everything’s good. So my friend at the police station just informed me that the
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man who attacked you at the coffee shop, Bran, was successfully captured.
And he has finally confessed.”
“Oh. Thank goodness. So who sent him?”
“It’s some guy that works for you. He’s the department supervisor in your com-
pany. I think he said his name is-”
“Richie.”
I bit out disappointedly as I finished the sentence for Luigi. I should’ve known he wouldn’t just change or back down like that.
“Yep. Richie. You already suspect him?”
“Kind of, I just hadn’t expected him to get to this so quickly.” I sighed, “I was real-
ly hoping he’d change.”
“Well, that’s bad because he didn’t. And now, the police are preparing to arrest
him.”
“Thanks, Luigi. I need to go now. I need to make good use of the time before
the police come.”
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