This time, his voice was clearly laced with displeasure.
“What on earth is so important that you had to talk to me?” he said coldly.
‘Could it be because the reporters photographed him at that event with Hannah Hayes?’
He couldn’t understand.
What was there to be angry about?
After a moment, as if she could no longer bear the years of suppression, she spoke slowly in a calm voice.
“Sylas Vaughn, if I said I only called you back to discuss a divorce, would you have shown up?”
Her gaze dimmed.
She quietly stared at the divorce papers clutched in her hand, her bright, dark eyes now unnaturally calm, without a single ripple of emotion.
When Sylas Vaughn heard this, he visibly paused what he was signing.
After a long silence, he spoke again.
“What nonsense are you up to now?”
‘A strange sense of panic welled up in his chest.
Is Selena Sinclair actually furious this time?
Could it be because of those rumors about me and Hannah Hayes?
Is that why she’s threatening me with divorce?’
Recalling the past, he refused to believe Selena Sinclair would be willing to give up her position as Mrs.
Vaughn and leave him of her own accord.
He stubbornly believed she was only calling to test him.
She cleared her throat, struggling to suppress her anger.
“Nonsense?
Sylas Vaughn, after all these years, haven’t I already been condemned in your heart?”
On the other end of the line, Sylas Vaughn shot up from his office chair, his face ashen.
Buttoning his suit jacket while still holding his phone, he strode quickly out of the office.
His assistant, Julian Ford, who had been waiting nearby, saw this and hurried forward.
But before he could ask what was wrong, Sylas Vaughn impatiently brushed past him, giving Julian no time to even speak.
He could only swallow his words.
He didn’t have to think hard to know why Sylas Vaughn was in such a hurry to leave.
As Sylas Vaughn’s most capable assistant, he was by his side year-round and understood his every move better than anyone.
Naturally, he knew the situation between Selena Sinclair and Sylas Vaughn like the back of his hand.
“Sylas Vaughn, you just take advantage of the fact that I’ve always loved you, trampling my boundaries time and time again.
Over these years, search your heart and ask yourself—how have I always treated you, and how have you treated me in return?”
Selena Sinclair bit her lower lip, holding back tears as she spoke at a steady pace.
“In the beginning, I brought this on myself for even thinking of marrying you.
But Sylas Vaughn, if marrying you was a sin, then after these three long years, I believe I’ve paid my debt.
From now on, we owe each other nothing.”
Hearing the resolute calm in Selena Sinclair’s voice, Sylas Vaughn’s heart felt as if it had been brutally stabbed by a sharp blade.
The unbearable memories flooded his mind like a movie, and the color drained from his face in an instant.
“Selena Sinclair, you want to talk about divorce?
Fine.
But unless you sign the papers in front of me, don’t even think about leaving me in this lifetime.
Do you hear me loud and clear, Selena Sinclair?”
She sneered.
‘He’s always like this, saying the cruelest things in the gentlest tone.’
‘He could always see her weaknesses and use them to blackmail her, making her endure three years of grievances and humiliation.’
She understood that he didn’t dare bring up divorce himself; he was just waiting for her to be the one to mention it first.
This was because his grandfather, under pressure to fulfill a promise to her own grandfather to take care of her, had arranged their marriage.
This made Sylas Vaughn believe Selena Sinclair had ulterior motives.
He had always been proud.
Even if Selena Sinclair showed him endless tenderness, he was unwilling to have his life arranged for him like that.
Not to mention it was a forced marriage, and he already had someone else in his heart.
For that reason alone, Sylas Vaughn was utterly repulsed by her.
Selena Sinclair forced the corners of her mouth into a semblance of a smile.
Her eyes darkened, and she said in a flat, emotionless voice, “Sylas Vaughn, don’t you think you’re a little too full of yourself?”
“Did you think that just because I love you, you could act so wantonly?
Since I’ve agreed to sign the divorce papers, I won’t pester you anymore.
So I hope you won’t regret losing me in the future.”
Selena Sinclair’s throat tightened.
‘Oh, how she wanted to say, *Sylas Vaughn, I hope you won’t regret completely losing someone who loved you deeply for so many years.
From the moment I fell for you in our youth to the moment I’m turning away now, I’m confident that no one loves you more than I do.*’
She gently wiped a tear from the corner of her eye with her pinky, but the phone slowly slipped from her grasp.
Three years of love were like quicksand she couldn’t hold.
No matter how hard she tried to keep it, what didn’t belong to her, she didn’t even have the right to reach out and grasp.
On the other end, Sylas Vaughn heard a loud thud from the phone, followed by a long silence.
His assistant hurried to catch up, but Sylas Vaughn had already rounded the car and gotten into the driver’s seat.
Before Julian Ford could even open his door to get in, Sylas Vaughn had already driven away from the company.
He left Julian Ford standing there, stunned and at a loss.
Julian didn’t even need to ask to know why Sylas Vaughn had rushed out of the company.
Selena Sinclair bent down and picked up the dropped phone.
Then, she pulled a suitcase from the closet.
Having married into the Vaughn Family three years ago, all her clothes and belongings had been provided by them.
As such, she only had a few personal undergarments of her own, with nothing much else to take.
Once she was packed, she walked to the window, opened a drawer, and gravely took out the divorce papers.
‘All this time, she had believed it wouldn’t be her turn to sign these papers—at least, she wouldn’t be the one to initiate it.
But now, she was proven wrong.’
‘If only Sylas Vaughn had opened this drawer, he would have understood what was on her mind.
But he never did.’
Selena Sinclair stared coldly at the document in her hands.
She brushed off a thin layer of dust, flipped through the pages one by one, and finally signed her name.
Three years of marriage had finally come to an end.
“Ma’am, are you really leaving?”
As Selena Sinclair was leaving the Vaughn Family estate with her suitcase, Sylvia hurried after her.
She wanted to ask her to stay but didn’t know how to start.
After all, they had lived together for three years; there was a bond between them.
Selena Sinclair knew she had already signed the divorce papers, so there was no reason to stay here any longer.
She pressed her lips together, gazing at the villa she had lived in for three whole years.
A mix of complex emotions stirred within her.
She looked at Sylvia and nodded.
“This place doesn’t belong to me.”
“Aren’t you going to wait for the Mr.
Vaughn to come back before you go?”
‘Wait for him to come back?
Heh.
Would he even come back?’
‘To see me off, or to find a way to make me stay?
To make me continue living this meaningless life?’
‘No!
I’d scorn the very thought!’
“He’s not coming back.”
Selena Sinclair said casually.
She then gave Sylvia a light hug as a final farewell.
In these three years, she had come to understand Sylas Vaughn all too well.
He would never lower himself to come looking for her over a single threat, let alone agree to any of her demands.
He wished she would just disappear from his sight like a piece of trash.
How could he possibly turn back and ask her to stay because of what she said?
By the time Sylas Vaughn arrived back at the Vaughn estate, Selena Sinclair had already been gone for over an hour.
The drive from Lakenport to Brookfall normally took at least three hours.
Sylas Vaughn, however, had raced back in just one.