The four gentle words nearly drained all her strength.
"What did you say?!"
Tristan Sterling's voice rose, as if he'd misheard.
"I want a divorce," Holly Sinclair repeated.
Her expression was calm, but her heart was bleeding.
After eight years of deep love, wanting to sever it all at once was like being flayed alive. The pain was truly heart-wrenching.
"Heh."
After a few seconds of silence, Tristan Sterling let out a sneer. "Changing your strategy?"
'He'd ignored her when she faked a stomachache, so now she was using divorce to scare him?'
'Could she be any more dramatic?'
"I'm serious!" Hearing the sarcasm in his tone, Holly Sinclair instinctively straightened her back.
"You can bear to?"
"..."
Holly Sinclair was left speechless, her heart pierced by a sharp pain.
'His subtext was clear: After scheming so hard to marry me, you can bear to give up your throne as the Young Madam of the Sterling Family?'
'That's right!'
'She loved him so much, how could she possibly bear to leave him…'
'But the woman he loved was back!'
'Even if she couldn't bear it, she had to!'
"I can."
She said, her reddened eyes filled with determination.
But to her surprise—
"Heh..."
Tristan Sterling's sneer only deepened.
As if he couldn't be bothered to waste another word on her, he tossed his jacket onto the sofa and turned to head upstairs.
The vast living room once again fell into a deathly silence.
'His dismissive attitude made it abundantly clear that he didn't take her, or what she'd said, seriously at all.'
'Or rather, he was certain she could never leave him.'
Holly Sinclair lowered her gaze, a bitter smile on her face as she stared at the wedding ring on her finger.
As she smiled, large teardrops began to fall, splashing onto the dazzling diamond.
...
「The next morning.」
Tristan Sterling came downstairs.
He habitually glanced toward the kitchen.
His brows furrowed slightly.
The person bustling about in the kitchen wasn't Holly Sinclair, but the maid, Ms. Beatrice.
His expression darkened.
"Sir, breakfast is ready."
Seeing Tristan Sterling, Ms. Beatrice quickly came out of the kitchen and spoke respectfully.
"Where is the Young Madam?" Tristan Sterling asked.
He walked to the dining table, glanced at the breakfast, and felt no appetite.
The breakfast Ms. Beatrice had prepared, both in presentation and nutrition, was a far cry from Holly Sinclair's.
Holly Sinclair would spend hours poring over recipes. She would travel far and wide to buy the freshest ingredients. She would even wake up at three in the morning just to make him a pot of stomach-soothing congee...
...even though he had never taken a single bite of the gourmet meals she so meticulously prepared.
She had still done it tirelessly.
"The Young Madam left very early."
Ms. Beatrice's answer interrupted Tristan Sterling's thoughts.
'Left very early?'
'Where did she go?'
Just as Tristan Sterling was wondering, his phone suddenly rang.
"Hello... What did you say?!"
Whatever the other person said, his face instantly turned livid.
...
「The hospital.」
「A regular ward.」
Holly Sinclair stood before the hospital bed, her heart aching as she looked at her brother, who had been in a coma for over a year.
Her aunt, Isabella Sinclair, was complaining in her ear—
"What's the point of you being the Young Madam of the Sterling family? You can't even pay your brother's medical bills! Don't tell me you've already used up all your private savings and jewelry. If you don't have money, you can ask Tristan Sterling for it! You're his wife; his money is your money. The Sullivan Group's debts and your brother's little medical fees are just a drop in the ocean for him—"
"Tristan Sterling and I are getting a divorce."
Holly Sinclair's quiet interjection cut off Isabella Sinclair's incessant nagging.
CRASH.
Isabella Sinclair had just raised a cup of water to wet her throat, but upon hearing this, the cup slipped from her hand and fell to the floor.
"What did you say? A divorce?!" Isabella Sinclair was so shocked her voice went shrill.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Vivian Linton is back."
"So what?"
After a brief moment of shock, Isabella Sinclair quickly composed herself and said in a harsh tone, "Let me tell you, Holly Sinclair, don't you dare be a fool. If you divorce Tristan Sterling, you'll just be handing everything to that vixen, Vivian Linton! Remember, as long as you don't give up your position, that Linton woman will forever be nothing more than the other woman..."
"Aunt Isabella, I've already made up my mind," Holly Sinclair interrupted.
Seeing that Holly Sinclair was serious about the divorce, Isabella Sinclair started to panic.
Her expression darkened, and her words grew sharp. "Let me be honest with you, Holly Sinclair, you can't afford to get this divorce! Once you're divorced, you'll be a divorcée. Where are you going to find another husband from a family as rich and powerful as the Sterlings? After your brother fell into a coma, the Sullivan Group's performance plummeted. In just one year, it's drowning in debt. Without the Sterling family's support, how are you going to pay off those huge debts? And your brother! If you can't afford his expensive medical fees, he'll just be left to die, do you understand?!"
"I won't let anything happen to my brother. Aunt Isabella, you don't have to worry about his medical bills. I have a way."
Holly Sinclair's tone was firm.
...
After leaving the hospital, Holly Sinclair stood absentmindedly by the roadside, waiting for a car.
Suddenly, a black luxury car came to a SCREECHING halt beside her.
The rear window rolled down, revealing the man inside, who was staring at her coldly.
His impossibly handsome face was like a mask of ice, and his eyes were dark with gloom.
"Get in the car!"
Tristan Sterling commanded.
Holly Sinclair frowned and didn't move.
"Get in the car! Don't make me say it a third time!"
His voice was as cold as the dead of winter, laced with a clear warning.
Holly Sinclair silently weighed her options before finally pulling the door open and getting in.
People were coming and going at the hospital entrance. She didn't want to become a spectacle, and more importantly, she didn't want her aunt to see them.
The driver started the car.
They sat side by side, neither saying a word.
The streets outside were bustling with traffic, but inside the car, the atmosphere was oppressive.
Tristan Sterling was waiting.
Waiting for Holly Sinclair to speak first.
But the little sparrow who usually chirped incessantly by his side was suddenly mute today, not making a single peep.
After half an hour of stalemate, Tristan Sterling was the first to break the silence.
"Where's the ring?"
His gaze was like a knife, fixed coldly on her long, fair, and now-empty fingers.
"I sold it." Holly Sinclair habitually touched her ring finger, her tone exceptionally flat.
'How dare she act so nonchalant after doing something like this?'
Tristan Sterling was furious.
He suddenly gripped her wrist, his eyes blazing with fire. "Who gave you the nerve to sell the wedding ring?!"
"The ring was mine." Her wrist throbbed with excruciating pain, but she didn't even flinch.
"Yours?" he sneered.
"You gave it to me, so it became mine." She met his gaze calmly.
'She said it so matter-of-factly that he found himself unable to argue.'
Done wasting words, Tristan Sterling yanked her hand toward him, his face dark.
His grip was immense. Holly Sinclair cried out in pain and was about to resist when she suddenly felt something cold on her finger.
Lowering her gaze, she saw that the ring she had sold was back on her hand.
A flicker of surprise crossed Holly Sinclair's eyes.
She was surprised not only that he had found out so quickly that she'd sold the ring, but that he had even bought it back.
'But she had finally, with great difficulty, decided to cast off this shackle. She didn't want to be bound by it anymore.'
Holly Sinclair instinctively started to pull the ring off.
"You dare take that off again!"
The man's voice sounded from above her, cold and dangerous.
Her movement paused for a fraction of a second.
'In their two years of marriage, she had never once disobeyed him. Obeying his commands had become almost a habit.'
But...
Head bowed, Holly Sinclair continued to pull at the ring.
"Holly Sinclair!!"