Rosalind’s eyes went wide.
“No, I”
“You don’t have to explain anything.
I’ve told you before whatever you do, I’ll protect you and take care of you.
Besides, all you actually lost was a cat.”
“I also know you threw the water first, which is why Naomi retaliated.
Same with everything before that.”
“I can handle your insecurity.
Your need to stake a claim, over and over.
I’ve made room for all of it.
But today, crossed a line.”
“You didn’t see her out there last night, Rosalind planting roses one by one until midnight.
She’d never sabotage something that matters this much to my career.”
Rosalind’s tears turned frantic.
“She was lying to you!
It was all fake!”
“Ethan, think it through.
She knows about us now.
You think she’d genuinely help you land an investment?
She’d be thrilled to watch you fail!”
“Enough!”
Ethan cut her off mid-spiral.
“She grew up with me.
She might be furious with you, but she would never sabotage me.”
Rosalind, tears streaming, asked, “Ethan have you fallen for her?”
He was completely drained.
He steadied himself before reaching out to wipe the tears from her face.
“Rosalind.
I’m not blaming you for any of this.
I just need you to try seeing it from where I stand.
I already feel guilty enough about how I’ve treated Claire’s loyalty.”
“So back off.
Stop targeting her.”
“I love you.
It’s always been you.
Which is exactly why I’ll clean this mess up too.”
He opened the door and found Claire standing there, expression composed, harmless.
Something sharp twisted in his chest.
“Claire, just now”
“Your mother’s asking for us.
Did I interrupt something?”
“No.”
He shut the door behind him, fist clenching slowly at his side.
“Claire.
I need you to apologize to my mother.”
She blinked, caught off guard.
“Apologize for what, exactly?”
“For letting jealousy get the better of you destroying the roses to frame Rosalind, and tanking the deal in the process.”
Claire’s mind blanked completely.
Her breath caught somewhere in her throat.
Her mouth opened and closed several times with nothing coming out hollow, mechanical, like a puppet with its strings cut.
Ethan took her hand.
“Claire, you know how Mom gets.
This is serious enough that Rosalind kneeling won’t fix it.
And she’s already been through enough she can’t take much more.”
“Just own it, and I’ll shield you from whatever comes next.
You won’t be punished think of it as me making it up to you.”
He pressed a check into her palm, the edge cutting slightly into her skin.
Five million.
“…Fine.
Understood.”
Claire delivered Ethan’s version word-for-word to Margaret.
A lie everyone in the room recognized instantly.
Once it was done, Margaret still couldn’t let go of her anger at Rosalind.
“If it’s all Claire’s fault, then how is she fit to be married into this family in the first place this immature?”
At one glance from Margaret, Vera produced a document.
Ethan’s eyes darkened the second he saw divorce agreement.
“Mom.
What is this?”
Margaret’s voice was ice.
“I can’t have loose ends in this house I can’t control.
If you’re determined to protect someone I have no leverage over, then fine we deal with the one I do.
Sign it.
Divorce her.
She leaves with nothing.”
Claire was equally thrown.
We already have the certificate.
What is this about?
Margaret held the pen out to Claire but before she could take it, Ethan snatched the paper and tore it apart.
“Enough!
Mom, I’ve explained myself.
Claire and I are not getting divorced.
Don’t bring this up again.”
Margaret didn’t push further.
It felt, almost, like she’d only come to perform a scene and having finished it, simply left.
Claire had Aunt Nora clean up the wreckage in the living room, then went upstairs for her bag.
Ethan caught her arm.
“You’re not staying?”
Claire looked at him, calm.
“Didn’t your sister-in-law already tell you today?
I moved out days ago.
You just never noticed.”
“I”
“It’s fine that you didn’t.
Living alone’s been peaceful.
Fewer conflicts this way.”
He watched her walk away, something hollow opening up in his chest.
He turned to head upstairs, and passed an empty corner near the stairwell.
“Aunt Nora.
Where did the canna lilies go?”
“Ma’am had them moved.
Said they’d die without someone to tend them, so she took them to her new place.”
Standing there, looking down over the entire first floor, a wave of dizziness hit him.
The lucky bamboo by the bar gone.
The dwarf pine on the shelf gone.
The nandina on the side table, the golden-heart bougainvillea by the sofa all of it, gone.
Something clicked, and he bolted for the master bedroom Claire had lived in for three years.
The wedding photo, off the wall.
The bookshelves cleared out.
Every plush toy on the sofa and bed, gone.
The trailing jasmine on the balcony vanished.
Claire had left in complete silence, and somehow it landed harder than any explosion could have.
He understood, with sudden clarity, that she wasn’t coming back.
Rosalind came up behind him, wrapping her arms gently around his waist.
“Ethan, I know I messed up.
Please don’t be angry anymore.
I overheard your mother telling you to divorce Claire did you”
“Who said anything about a divorce!”
He shook her off hard, eyes burning.
Rosalind flinched, tears springing up instantly.
“You’ve fallen for her.
Haven’t you.
You keep telling me I’m the only one but three years married to her, and you’ve fallen for someone else.”
She yanked the pendant off her neck, sobbing.
“Ethan, have you forgotten your promise to me?
Everything I did for you when you couldn’t see?
If I fold another hundred cranes will that change your mind?”
He forced himself calm, pulling her into his arms.
“I’m sorry I’m sorry.
That’s not what I meant.
I just mean we can’t get divorced right now.
Think about how that would look for you.”
She pressed harder.
“So you haven’t changed your mind?”
He shoved down the strange, unfamiliar unease in his chest and said, firm: “Of course not, my little paper crane.
There’s no one else.
Let me take you to dinner tonight candlelight, the whole thing.”
Rosalind laughed through her tears.
“Now that’s more like it.”
Claire had barely turned the corner outside Ashford Manor when she spotted Margaret’s car, parked just up the road.
She walked over, opened the door, and got in.
“Can I have the certificate now?”
Margaret asked, “Did you see Ethan tear up the divorce papers?”
Claire frowned, unsure where this was going.
“I know my own son,” Margaret said.
“He cares about you.”
Something in Claire’s stomach turned.
Margaret smiled.
“When I told you years ago that Ethan never really meant to marry you, you refused to believe it.
Insisted on going through with it anyway.
It took getting genuinely hurt before you were finally willing to walk away.”
“So let me tell you something else now.
Ethan may not be entirely devoted to Rosalind either; he’s fallen for you without even realizing it himself.
And you still won’t believe that, will you?
You’re young.
You don’t read people well yet.”
“You’re probably right,” Claire said.
“But it doesn’t matter anymore.
He’s the past to me now.
I just want my certificate and a fresh start.”
Margaret’s smile widened.
“That’s exactly what I want to discuss.
If anyone on earth can pry Rosalind loose from my son, it’s you.”
“Here’s the deal.
Get rid of her for me, and I’ll hand over the certificate plus twenty million as a reward.”
Claire’s voice went flat.
“No.
If Rosalind never leaves and Ethan never lets go, am I supposed to waste my entire life circling the two of them?”
“And aren’t you worried I’ll get rid of her, and then he’ll come crawling back to you?
What happens if I end up your daughter-in-law all over again?”
Margaret shook her head.
“You wouldn’t take him back.
The fact that you turned down ten million for this marriage years ago tells me exactly who you are: a hopeless romantic who still believes in real love.”
“Even if Ethan still has feelings for you, in your eyes he’s already cheated.
You’re done with him.
I’ll find him someone suitable eventually.”
“But you’re right that neither of us can wait forever.
So three months.”
“Earn twenty million in three months, and I’ll not only smooth every door open for you, I’ll let you have your revenge on the woman who tore your marriage apart, humiliated your friend, and nearly got your cat killed.
How does that sound?”