Chapter 16: You Didn't Treat Me Like a Husband
The car ride was tense, the air thick with unspoken words. The driver kept his eyes on the road, not daring to break the silence. Anyone could tell something was up, and Ava felt especially suffocated.
"Let's wait a bit longer. Grandma just told us to get along yesterday. If we tell her now, she might not take it well," Alexander said after a moment.
"Are you in a hurry to divorce me?" Alexander suddenly asked. "Have I treated you badly or lied to you?"
Another round of questions. Especially that last one—it reminded her he had been upfront from the start. Ava had had enough. He couldn’t accuse her of being the unreasonable one.
"Mr. Mitchell, you've been good to me. You haven't lied to me. But you told me from the beginning that we'd divorce when Isabella came back. Now that we're divorcing, there's no need for you to treat me like a wife right after you gave me the agreement. Maybe you can switch roles and emotions easily, but I can't. If we're going to divorce, let's do it cleanly without any lingering ties!"
As soon as Ava finished speaking, the tension in the car grew even thicker. After a long silence, Alexander spoke slowly, "Ava, how many times do I have to say it? We haven't divorced yet!"
"Yes, we haven't divorced yet, but we will. Do you think we're actors in a play, keeping up the act until the director yells 'cut'? And then we just step out of character?"
"So, the moment I mentioned divorce, you stopped treating me like your husband, right?"
Ava didn't know how to explain. Why didn't he get it? Their thoughts were completely out of sync; they were on different wavelengths.
Ava sighed. "Anyway, our marriage was just a show for Grandma from the start. If you want to see it that way, fine."
She had cried her heart out for him, but to him, she had just stepped out of character. She was full of grievances but couldn't express them to him. The more she tried not to make things difficult for him, the more he misunderstood her.
"Stop," Alexander suddenly said.
The driver quickly hit the brakes and pulled over to the side of the road.
"Take Ms. Anderson home!" Alexander said, opening the car door and stepping out. She didn’t know where he was heading.
"Ms. Anderson" echoed like a curse in Ava's mind all the way home. Once she got home, she felt awful and just wanted to lie down for a bit.
She walked unsteadily and accidentally knocked over the trash can. As she bent down to pick it up, she noticed a phone in the trash. The screen was shattered.
Wasn't this Alexander's phone?
She remembered hearing something break in the room when she left this morning. It must have been this phone.
The floor was carpeted, so even if it fell, it wouldn't make such a loud noise, let alone shatter the screen. It seemed like it had been deliberately smashed.
Since that argument in the car, Ava hadn't seen Alexander for four days straight. They hadn't contacted each other either; it was like he had vanished from the face of the earth.
Ava felt heartache almost every day. As soon as she woke up, she felt chest tightness and discomfort, but she had to keep going. She had to put on a happy face for Scarlett, pretending she was very happy.
Today was a big day.
She was heading to Rivershade University for her degree conferral ceremony. She had just graduated from the finance department.
As the top student, the principal had asked her to give the graduation speech, asking her to prepare in advance. But with everything going on, Ava had completely forgotten and hadn't prepared a thing.
Alexander had once promised to be there with her, but today she was alone. When the principal called her name, Ava stood up. She was wearing a black graduation gown and looked every bit the scholar.
Amidst the applause, Ava stepped onto the stage and adjusted the microphone. Just as she was about to speak, she saw a man walk in through the door, hands in his pockets, silently staring at her.
Even from a distance, she recognized him immediately!
Ava's heart raced with excitement. Alexander had actually come; she thought he didn't want to see her after that incident!
The room fell silent.
