Trouble in Paradise

When I heard that, all I felt was disgust. However, I didn't let my anger get the best of me and simply looked at Claudia and calmly told her the truth.

I said, "I am here to get the marriage certificate. Go retrieve it so that we can get divorced as soon as possible."

I knew that everyone in the family wanted Nicholas to break up more than even he and I did.

Claudia's expression shifted from shock to glee. She turned to Nicholas to confirm everything by asking, "Is that true? I'll go look for it right now, Nick."

Claudia was so eager that she was going to rush out of there right away. However, a huge palm suddenly landed on her head. Claudia turned around and stared at Nicholas in confusion. "After the divorce, I will have a baby with Jasmine."

Nicholas was talking to Claudia, but his gaze was fixated on me. It seemed he wasn't satisfied with how calm I was. In fact, he uttered those words through gritted teeth.

"Oh," replied Claudia. She shifted her gaze down in disappointment and requested, "Ariana, please leave the room. I need to sleep now. I have a class tomorrow morning."

I was furious about Nicholas throwing a wrench into my plan. I couldn't resist saying, "What's wrong? Your brother is about to have a baby. Aren't you happy?" "Of course I'm happy," answered Claudia instinctively.

However, she sniffled. Tears immediately gathered in her eyes as she opened her arms to hug Nicholas and rested in his arms.

After that, she said, "Nick, you used to say that I was your precious baby when we were kids. If you have another baby, will you still love me as much?"

Nicholas had his palm on Claudia and was gently stroking her back as he murmured comforting words.

I felt as though someone had stuffed a huge chunk of cotton into my heart. Even my heartbeat was so soft that it couldn't be detected anymore.

I had to repeatedly remind myself that they weren't related by blood. Only then was I able to suppress the disgust welling inside of me. I couldn't stay in that room any longer.

We had been married for a few years now. The basement rarely had anyone there, and we would store things we didn't often use in there. That showed just how much Claudia hated me.

The deeper I went into the basement, the darker it got. The place was virtually untouched, so it was eerie, and it stunk. Fortunately, Claudia didn't lie to me.

There was a time when all of my things had to be shoved into a small corner in the closet. I thought that was the greatest insult she could deliver to me.

Now that I saw how my clothes were all dirty and had spiderwebs all over them, I'd believe it if someone were to tell me that Claudia had used them as cleaning rags.

That being said, things had progressed to that extent, so something like that couldn't affect me at all anymore.

I located the box quickly, and my feet instinctively brought me to it. That was a precious item to me.

Although my life with Nicholas was a mess at the time, the box still contained all the pleasant memories I had of him.

I bent down and picked the box up. A few of the diamonds had been carved out of the box, and a bad feeling crept up on me right away. I opened the box and saw that the contents had turned to trash. Everything had been ripped into uneven pieces, including my marriage certificate. It was mixed with the others.

I picked up a part of a photo that featured me in a pink dress. That was likely the photo of the party I attended when I was a kid.

It was the day I met Nicholas. I had made a peace sign, and a boy was playing the piano in the background. I was calmer than I expected when I saw those photos in pieces.

Still, I couldn't help laughing at myself. I wondered if I'd be able to see my past as nothing but a dream now that the memorabilia of the first time we met was destroyed.

All dreams had to come to an end. I no longer needed to love him, nor did I need to remember loving him. I let go, and the lifeless box fell onto the ground. The pieces fell all over the floor.

I turned around to leave, only to learn that I couldn't open the door to the basement.

"Open the door!" I clenched my fist and banged on the door as I shouted.NôvelDrama.Org © 2024.