Chapter 3
I snapped back to reality.
"Okay," I told the agent.
Since Andrew kept stalling, I decided to act on my own.
I faked a 4D ultrasound and handed it to William, hoping it would ease his worries.
His eyes were brimming with tears as he gently patted my hand and asked me softly if I had any wishes.
I told William I wanted a divorce.
William was silent for a long time.
"Sweetheart, you must've been through so much," he finally said.
Under William's gentle gaze, all the pain I had been bottling up just came rushing out.
I shook her head softly.
I said quietly, "I'm okay as long as I have Charlie."
"Andrew's pretty set in his ways. It'll take him some time to shake off that sense of debt he feels toward Sophie," William said gently.
"I can tell he cares about you—when he married you, his heart was genuinely moved," he added.
"So, you're really done waiting for him?" William asked softly.
My throat ached with bitterness.
I nodded softly.
If William knew everything Andrew had done for Sophie, he'd never call it just guilt.
Any affection Andrew had for me paled in comparison to what he felt for Sophie.
"Andrew just wasn't lucky enough," William said with a sigh.
William sighed and asked, "So, what are you planning to do after the divorce?"
I asked him if he could help me out financially.
I wanted to buy a little house in some far-off snowy town—a place where no one could ever kick us out, a home that truly belonged to Charlie and me.
I never had my own room—not once, from childhood all the way up.
When I was little, my parents made me bunk with Sophie.
Sophie always said I was crowding her. Aside from half the bed, every inch of space in that room belonged to her.
My clothes were stuffed into plastic bags, and I wasn't even allowed to touch her closet or her desk.
When we finally moved into a bigger house, my room got turned into Sophie's piano room—just like that, it wasn't mine anymore.
Sometimes I ended up sleeping on the couch, sometimes out on the balcony—still, I never had a room to call my own.
Later, after I married Andrew, they sent Charlie and me back to the old house just to appease Sophie.
The windows there were broken in several places, so I stuffed the cracks with mud to keep out the wind.
There was no hot water, no air conditioning, not even a decent blanket. Charlie got sick again and again, and we struggled just to get by.
Charlie had been with me since he was just a baby, never knowing a real home, always on the move.
Those nights when men from the village banged on our door left him traumatized.
Even after we finally came home, he'd still wake up screaming from nightmares.
"Grace, get as far away from all this as you can," William said softly.
"If Andrew ever uses me as an excuse to hold you back, don't come back. Don't worry about me," he added.
I nodded, choking back tears.
William gave me fifteen million dollars. I found a real estate agent online and bought a house where we could watch the snow fall and the waves crash, all from the same window.
It wasn't some remote place—there were plenty of shops and amenities around, and the price wasn't bad at all.
It was time to leave.