A strange feeling crossed the old housekeeper's mind.
He looked from Lina to the suitcase beside her and then back at her face.
"Mrs Cole, what exactly are you going to see the young master about?"
Lina adjusted her grip on the suitcase.
"Divorce."
The old housekeeper froze.
Before he could say another word, Lina picked up her bag and walked out of the villa without looking back.
The sound of the front door closing echoed through the enormous entrance hall.
The old housekeeper stood there for several seconds.
Then he looked at the empty staircase.
"Divorce?"
He lowered his head and sighed.
After three years of watching Mrs Cole wait for a husband who rarely came home, perhaps this day had been coming for a long time.
---
At the Cole Group headquarters, Lucien was still working.
It was nearly eight in the evening.
The lights outside his office had already come on, illuminating Westhaven's skyline through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Lucien finally put down the document in his hand.
He leaned back against the sofa and closed his eyes.
He was waiting for his assistant, Daniel, to bring dinner.
His stomach had been bothering him since the afternoon.
It happened whenever he worked for too long without eating.
Daniel soon arrived with the meal and carefully arranged everything on the table.
Lucien opened his eyes.
He glanced at the food.
Then at the bowl of soup.
His hand stopped.
It was pork bone and peanut soup.
The familiar soup that had been made for him every year whenever the weather turned cold.
Lucien frowned slightly.
He picked up the spoon and tasted it.
His expression changed immediately.
It was different.
The soup was too oily.
The peanut flavour was almost nonexistent, and the thick layer of oil left an unpleasant coating in his throat.
Lucien put the spoon down.
"Why did you change the chef?"
Daniel looked uncomfortable.
"I'm afraid we did not change the chef today, sir."
Lucien looked at him.
"Why?"
Daniel hesitated.
Then he carefully explained.
"Because of your stomach, Mrs Cole has always prepared the soup herself."
Lucien's expression remained unchanged.
"Mrs Cole?"
"Yes."
Daniel lowered his voice.
"She was afraid you wouldn't drink it if you knew she had made it, so she asked me to tell you it came from the personal chef."
Lucien was silent.
He looked down at the soup.
"So today's soup isn't hers?"
"No, sir."
Lucien didn't say anything for a moment.
Then he picked up the spoon again.
"Fine."
He forced himself to drink it.
The taste was nowhere near as good as the soup Lina used to make.
After a few mouthfuls, his stomach felt even more uncomfortable.
He ate some rice, barely touched the rest of the food and put his chopsticks down.
Daniel hesitated before speaking again.
"Sir."
Lucien looked up.
"Mrs Cole came to the company."
Lucien's brows drew together.
"She did?"
"Yes. Reception stopped her because she didn't have an appointment."
Daniel paused.
"Should I have her brought up?"
Lucien looked at the time.
"Why is she here?"
"I don't know."
Lucien's expression darkened slightly.
"Bring her up."
"Yes, sir."
A few minutes later, the office doors opened.
Lina walked in.
She looked calm.
She wasn't even particularly interested in looking at him.
She walked straight towards Lucien's desk and placed a heavy cardboard box on top of it.
Bang.
Lucien frowned.
"What are you doing?"
Lina brushed the dust from her hands.
"Returning your things."
Lucien looked at the box.
"What things?"
"The things you gave me."
She opened the lid.
Inside were watches, jewellery boxes, expensive handbags, photographs and several other gifts he had given her over the course of their marriage.
"Everything is here."
Lina looked him directly in the eye.
"Not one thing is missing."
Lucien stared at the box.
Then he looked back at her.
"What does this mean?"
Lina placed both hands on the desk.
"I want a divorce."
Lucien's expression barely changed.
"I see."
That was it.
Lina almost laughed.
Of course.
Even now, he didn't care enough to ask.
Lucien opened a drawer and took out a pen.
He had no reason to refuse.
He had wanted the divorce three years ago.
If anything, this was simply something that should have happened sooner.
Lina watched him pick up the pen.
Then she remembered the woman whose life had ended in a lonely nursing room alone.
She remembered the crying.
The waiting when during their marriage and the humiliation.
The endless attempts to make a marriage work when the other person had already abandoned it.
Lucien glanced at her.
"Did you bring the divorce agreement?"
Lina immediately pulled the document from her handbag.
She placed it on his desk.
"Here."
Lucien opened it.
He was about to sign when he paused.
"There are some things I want to make clear first."
Lina's eyes narrowed.
She already knew what was coming.
Lina had originally intended to repeat Lucien's own words back to him, get him to sign the papers and leave.
That was all.
Then she remembered everything.
The three years she had spent waiting for him.
The meals she had prepared that had gone untouched.
The birthdays he had forgotten.
The way his family had treated her.
And, most irritatingly, the fact that she had once been foolish enough to think this man was the best she could ever have.
Her temper rose.
She looked at him from head to toe.
"Actually, don't worry about me."
Lucien's pen stopped.
Lina smiled sweetly.
"I won't spend the rest of my life hanging onto a crooked tree like you."
Lucien slowly raised his eyes.
"A crooked tree?"
"Yes."
She nodded seriously.
"You're in your thirties, Lucien. When you smile, you already have lines around your eyes. What exactly made me think you were worth wasting my youth on?"
Daniel lowered his head.
His shoulders were shaking.
Lucien's expression darkened.
Lina was nowhere near finished.
"How could I even compare you to all those young hot actors out there? At least they know how to smile properly."
She sighed dramatically.
"I must have been blind."
Lucien stared at her.
Seeing Lucien staring straight at her, Lina glared at him angrily: "What are you looking at? Hurry up and sign the papers; don't delay my search for some young heartthrobs!"
Lucien snorted coldly. Lina was like a mad dog in front of him. He thought Lina was a gentle and polite person, but he didn't expect her true colours to be like this.
Seeing that Lucien still dared to sneer at her, Lina retorted without any politeness, "After our divorce, I'll be single and can do whatever I want. But no matter what, I'll never be like you, getting involved with your dead friend's wife!"
Lina looked at the divorce agreement and the man who was yet to sign as if urging him.
"Don't worry. After today, I won't bother you again."
"I'd rather stay single forever, eat instant noodles for the rest of my life and die alone than come back to you."