"Let's get divorced."
After not seeing each other for three months, the first thing that came out of the man's mouth was a crushing blow, smashing Gabrielle Wilson's heart.
She had prepared a full table of dishes just for him. As Tom Baxter entered, she was serving the last dish, a beef stew that she had simmered for four hours.
At this moment, her hand trembled slightly as she held the stew. She quickly set it on the table and looked up at him. "Let's eat first, we can talk after the meal."
The man in front of her was strikingly handsome. Under his sharp eyebrows were a pair of narrow, elegant eyes. His gaze was usually warm and tender, but right now, it only held indifference. His cold expression and cruel words were devoid of any emotion.
"Audrey is back. I promised her that I'd give her the title of Mrs. Baxter."
Those few words pierced Gabrielle's heart like a sharp sword.
Five years ago, Tom drove off a cliff. Gabrielle, who despite being injured herself and her legs were broken, managed to get him to a hospital. Although he was saved, his legs were paralyzed. Around the same time, he also discovered that Audrey Newman went missing. No one knew whether she was dead or alive, making him suicidal at one point.
It was his grandmother who did everything she could and forced him to marry Gabrielle to thank her for saving his life and to try to divert his attention.
But...
A person cannot be forced to love.
No matter how much Gabrielle did for him, no matter how hard she tried to be like Audrey, he never reciprocated her feelings.
Tears fell unstoppably down Gabrielle's cheeks. Her voice hoarse, she whispered, "Grandma won't let you do that nonsense."
Her eyes were full of tears, looking at Tom with a hint of stubbornness. This made Tom's heart waver slightly.
Gabrielle was very beautiful, especially with her alluring, upturned eyes.
She usually wore white clothes and kept her hair long and dark. Not only was her personality gentle, but she was also skillful. She was the perfect Mrs. Baxter in the eyes of many.
However, in Tom's opinion, she was just a poor imitation of Audrey, a fake try-hard.
"Gabrielle, you should stop there. You saved me, but you can't use that to blackmail me forever. Fifty million dollars is the maximum compensation I will give you."
He took out a cheque, but Gabrielle stubbornly refused to accept it, still weeping in denial.
"Don't make me despise you."
He loosened his fingers and let the cheque flutter to the ground. Like Gabrielle's heart, it was trampled like worthless trash.
It was over.
His cold heart only beat for Audrey, and would never flutter for Gabrielle.
It was over.
A decade of one-sided affection, five years of marriage, ended with a mere cheque of fifty million.
It hurt so much.
She felt as if something was tearing at her chest, ripping it inch by inch, and she suffocated with overwhelming grief.
"Clang!"
The fresh stew she had lovingly made spilled on the ground, as her knees buckled and she stumbled to the ground, pulling the tablecloth with her.
The stew scalded her hands and ceramic shards pierced her skin, but it didn't hurt as much as her bleeding heart did.
Footsteps echoed through the room, and Tom strode towards her briskly. Gabrielle looked at him with a desperate glimmer of hope.
"Mr. Dixon, prepare the car quickly. I'm taking Audrey to the hospital."
Audrey, whose skin had only been lightly grazed, was swept up into Tom's arms and carried off to the hospital.
Gabrielle, full of pain from burns and cuts, was not even spared an extra glance.
In that moment, Gabrielle's heart died completely.
Since he wanted a divorce, then let it be.
From then on, they would live their lives separately, with neither affection nor grievance binding them.
Ignoring the swelling of her skin and the fresh blood on her hands, Gabrielle picked up the pen and wrote her name, stroke by stroke.
Drip.
Tears blurred the blood-stained signature, looking absolutely pitiful.
Drip.
From then on, their names would never be written on the same piece of paper. From then on, they would have no relation to each other.
The last stroke fell, and the divorce agreement was swiftly taken away by Mr. Dixon. After verifying that it was completed, he glanced sarcastically at Gabrielle who was still lying on the ground.
"Ms. Wilson, Mr. Baxter has instructed you to move out within half a day. Remember to take all your belongings with you when you leave. Miss Audrey does not want to see them."
Every corner of the villa was filled with Gabrielle's belongings. It was impossible to move everything she accumulated over five years in half a day.
The butler was deliberately humiliating her!
He ordered all the maids not to assist Gabrielle while preparing a camera to capture her frantic packing, ready to show it to Miss Audrey.
"Oh, by the way, you definitely wouldn't accept the cheque, would you? Any woman with a backbone wouldn't," he sneered.
A spark flashed in Gabrielle's eyes. The old mistress hadn’t even left yet, and he was already eager to please the new one.
Just moments ago, she was still the young mistress of the Baxter family and would have borne the humiliation. Now that she was not, there was no need for forced decorum.
She dialed a number and said into the call, "I'm divorced."
Five minutes later, the roar of a sports car echoed through the mansion.
Thinking it was a guest, the butler hurried to greet them, only to see a sports car followed by five moving trucks.
Dozens of men in black suits walked up, ignoring the butler. Standing before Gabrielle, they all greeted in unison, "Ms. Gabrielle!"
After taking a bath and putting on sunglasses, Gabrielle strode towards the sports car.
The butler was stunned.
Wasn't Gabrielle just a poor commoner girl with no parents? Why did she suddenly have such an impressive backup?
A handsome man in a white sweatshirt placed his sunglasses on top of his head and popped his bubblegum, "Our dear Gabrielle is a majestic whale dominating the oceans; a mere family like the Baxters would never be able to contain her. Congrats on your newfound freedom, sis!"
Gabrielle turned her head to look out of the car, emitting a dangerous aura. She commanded, "Shut him up."
The handsome man looked at the butler, slowly grinning.
The butler trembled in fear, and soon, there was no sound from him.
Half an hour later, the villa, bare as an unfinished house, was stripped of any trace of Gabrielle's presence. Only the maids were left behind to shiver in fear.
That night, Tom looked around the bare house, his gaze slightly heavy.
After spending several hours peeling off remnants of duct tape on him, the butler lamented with his swollen lips, "Mr. Baxter, how fortunate that you have left her! That woman is the type to hold grudges! She does not hold a candle to the kind Ms. Audrey."
Tom was thinking an entirely different thing.
Being able to enter and exit a luxury villa freely, and dismantle everything without damaging the wall surfaces was not something ordinary people could do.
Moreover, in the past five years, Gabrielle had never used his money.
He thought it was his grandmother who gave her living expenses separately, but now he had other ideas.
"What did those people call her?"
The butler trembled like chaff in the wind, "Ms. Gabrielle."
"Right! The driver of that sports car looked a bit familiar. I think that was Charlie Fraser, the youngest son of Hawkins Jewelry."
It was well known that the owner of Hawkins Jewelry only had three sons; Gabrielle could not possibly belong to their family.
"Mr. Baxter, she also left a note."
