Chapter 48

48 48. Are You Scared?

The large white room with a touch of modern interior felt fresh with the smell of the citrus-scented air freshener. However, the freshness in the room could not reduce the tension between the two women who were in the middle of a discussion. Their brows furrowed, carefully re-reading the divorce papers.

“I have to leave the day after tomorrow. So I want to make sure there’s nothing wrong with the document,” Paula said as she turned the pages. “It’s strange. I didn’t mind anything and didn’t ask for any alimony. What made him not want to sign it?”

“He mentioned no reason.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Strange.”

“Maybe ... about children?” Helena said as she adjusted her glasses. She skimmed the documents and couldn’t find what she was looking for. “There’s no statement of children in this document.”

“No way! He doesn’t care about children at all,” Paula argued.

“Maybe, there is a possibility of you being pregnant,” Helena insisted and Paula immediately waved her hand in disagreement. She had kept the pregnancy a secret from Helena. She didn’t want to talk about children at all because she knew William didn’t want her baby.

Helena pursed her lips into a thin line. She tightened her loosened bun.

“In that case, the answer is obvious,” Helena concluded with a meaningful smile. “He doesn’t want a divorce. Is he captivated by you?”

.....

“Impossible!” snapped Paula. “He’s with his lover. How could he not want a divorce from me?”

Helena lifted her eyebrows, a sign of not knowing what happened. “Well, perhaps ... people can change.”

“Not that fast,” Paula argued again.

“Makes sense. How could a person who cheated on his wife and impregnated his mistress, suddenly choose his legal wife who doesn’t mind at all getting divorced? Moreover, you don’t intend to take away any of his wealth.” Helena analyzed the situation while checking the documents, afraid that she might have missed something. “Does your marriage involve the financial relationship between your parents’ companies? Maybe William is afraid of the negative impact?”

Paula was stunned. In the past, her father had intended to withdraw investment funds. However, didn’t she already solve it? So, that’s not the reason William refused to sign it.

Suddenly, Paula’s eyes widened as she realized something. “Oh, I seem to know the problem.”

Helena fixed the position of her glasses with her index finger. “Good. And what is it?”

Paula was seen flipping through the sheet and pointing to a statement there. “He definitely doesn’t accept me saying he is having an affair. At first, I didn’t care if he cheated on me or not because this way our divorce process would be done easily and quickly. However, it turned out that he was angry when I accused him of being a cheating husband.”

“What?” Helena frowned, feeling confused even more by Paula’s explanation. “He didn’t cheat on you and knocked up his mistress?”

Paula shook her head slowly. “No, he didn’t. That woman... is pregnant with someone else’s baby.” Paula turned her face anywhere but Helena’s. Her lawyer must have been about to throw up out of confusion.

“And... your soon-to-be ex-husband is going to marry his mistress who is pregnant with another man’s child?” Helena asked again, Paula nodded weakly.

Silence filled Paula’s room. Helena stared at the document blankly. “Ah, never mind. I’m confused with you guys.”

“Come on, Helena!” Paula tried to end the argument. “Just change that part. You can’t accuse someone of doing something wrong if he doesn’t, can you?”

Exhaling lightly, Helena nodded in reply. “So, we will delete the adultery grounds for fault divorce. Then we change it to no-fault divorce. Will we cite ‘irreconcilable differences’ as grounds? What do you think?” She sneered, showing how cliche the statement was for her.

Paula’s heart clenched as she nodded. “You can go with that.”

Helena packs her things and is about to leave. She stole glances at Paula and caught a glimpse of doubt crossing her face.

“Paula, as a friend, can I ask you a question?” She deliberately meddled in Paula’s problem since she thought that something was off. Usually, this kind of problem was caused by less communication between the couple. “If you don’t mind.”

Paula’s attention turned back to her lawyer and tightened her lips, forming a thin matte peach line. “Sure. What’s that?” She forced a faint smile to show her lawyer that she was okay.

“Do you really want this divorce?” The question was simple, but it made Paula’s heart skip a beat.

“I need your help because I want this fucking divorce, Helena,” Paula answered, feeling annoyed. “You should know it more than anyone else.”

Helena smirked. She licked her red lips to lessen her messy feelings since she could easily guess the real answer. “Before you go to Japan, you better meet him at least once,” Helena said in a soft voice.

Paula smirked. She remembered the last time she met William. Instead of talking seriously about divorce, they both spent all night long kissing and fucking. If she met him again, she could guess the two of them would end up with more mind-blowing orgasms than some agreements on divorce papers.

“I don’t think I need to,” Paula replied without realizing how beet red her face was. “I met him two days ago and it’s a real waste of time.”

“The most delicious way to waste the time,” Helena whispered almost inaudibly once she recognized the faded kiss marks on Paula’s neck. She could easily guess what happened.

“What did you say?” Paula questioned her curiously. Helena was a great and helpful lawyer, but Paula found that she was a little bit nosy as a friend.

“No. I said ... nothing!” Helena teasingly replied. She lowered the corners of her lips, sneering at Paula’s adorable behavior.

Helena was about to leave Paula’s room. That’s when Paula said, “I just want a reset, Helena... I want to erase everything so that he and I can start everything from the beginning when the two of us have never met. Am I wrong?”

Helena shook her head. “You are not. But you should realize that not everything could be reset. The new development might be different from what you imagined.”

Paula’s relationship with William was based on lust. Not love. She thought it should be easily replaced with something similar. It was supposed to be like that.

“Talk to him, Paula! Face the reality!” Helena said sincerely. “Are you scared?”

“I am not-”

“Yes, you are,” Helena cut Paula’s sentence. “You are afraid of your own feelings.”

***

After hours of thought, Paula decided to visit William. It was better to directly ask him about the problems. For the sake of serious discussion, she visited him in the office.

“Hi, Danica! I have an important matter to discuss with William. Is he available?” Paula stopped at Danica’s table, making her stop from sorting out the documents.

“Ah, Paula! He is coming in no time. Today, he is a bit late because he has to visit Vanessa’s school, and finish some paperwork,” Danica explained in surprise. She didn’t expect Paula to stop by the office.

“You can wait inside,” Danica offered her.

“Here is fine,” Paula said, smiling in reply. Her eyes roamed the familiar room only to find a suspicious pile of boxes on the floor, beside Danica’s table.

“What’s that?” Paula asked, pointing her finger at the boxes.

“I don’t know. William ordered it online,” Danica answered. “Oh, I will bring coffee and refreshments. Please wait!”

Danica then quickly went to the break room and made coffee for Paula. Her heart was pounding erratically, waiting for what would happen if William came and found the woman he was in love with waiting in his office. Danica smiled to herself imagining what would happen next.

After the coffee was ready, Danica placed it on a tray and arranged a few pieces of choco chip cookies on a plate. She then hurried back to her table to serve the food for Paula.

Unfortunately, the unexpectedly clumsy Danica was not careful when carrying the tray so she slipped and made the coffee and cookies fall and shattered on the floor.

“Ouch!” Danica screamed in shock when her body hit the pile of cardboard boxes ordered by William, making some of them dented and even opened.

“Dani! Oh my God! Are you all right?” Paula panicked and knelt down, helping Danica who was still prone on the floor. She helped Danica up and luckily, Danica’s clothes weren’t dirty. Just a messy situation made their head spin.

“I’m sorry, Paula, I’ll clean up this mess right away,” Danica said hastily. She quickly picked up the cleaning kit and returned to the table.

However, when Danica returned, she found Paula standing pensively, observing a black and red tube with the male symbol. There was printed on the tube: Make It Bigger.

All adults in the world knew what it was!

At the same time, the lift was opened, showing William who had just arrived in his surprised state.