Chapter 8.
Images flashed through my mind–Mason and I growing up together while Grandpa Reed watched us bicker under the maple tree.
How had it come to this?
“Grandpa, thank you. Even after divorcing Mason, I’ll still come visit you often,” I said, bidding him
farewell.
“It’s my family that failed you…” He held my hand reluctantly and pulled out a bank card from his pocket, offering it to me.
“I have savings here. It’s compensation for you. Take it and pursue whatever you wish.”
I shook my head, returning the card. “No need, Grandpa.”
“Mason and I made a bet–if I divorce him, he gives fue all his assets.”
“You probably can’t count on him anymore, so keep this money for your retirement.”
Grandpa Reed sighed deeply, shaking his head at Mason.
Looking around the house one last time, I realized nothing here was worth keeping. Whether things I’d given Mason or gifts he’d given me–I wanted none of it. I simply reorganized the closet Kinsley had rummaged through, folding my clothes into my suitcase.
Before leaving, I left Mason with one final message: “My lawyer will mail you a new set of divorce papers. I’ll see you in court.”
The moment I left the Reed house, the old man flew into another rage.
He raised his cane, struggling to strike Mason. Surprisingly, Mason didn’t dodge. He dropped to his knees, enduring each blow of the cane against his body as his grandfather berated him:
‘You lost your parents when you were young. Aria’s parents treated you like their own child.”
‘I always taught you to repay kindness tenfold. But look what you’ve done!”
‘You’ve broken their hearts completely!”
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The Divorce Het He Made to Mack Me, Now 1 Cashed to In
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Chapter 8
Mason silently accepted the punishment, tears dropping one by one onto the cold floor.
Years ago,
when Mason’s parents died in a car accident, his family was poor. As friends of his
parents, my mother and father helped handle the funeral arrangements.
Afterward, my mother took care of little Mason–washing his clothes while my father cheered him
up and took him fishing.
Back then, other kids called Mason an “unwanted orphan” and pushed him into mud puddles. I was the one who picked up stones and shouted, “Mason isn’t an orphan! Bully him again and I’ll beat you all up!” I chased them all away.
When we got home that day, my father gently counseled him while my mother washed the mud from his body.
If Grandpa Reed hadn’t mentioned the “old days,” Mason would have forgotten all this.
What he only remembered was that Kinsley had carried his child, supposedly “lost” because of my
mother and me, and that my mother had removed her fallopian tube.
But having grown up together–did he truly not know what kind of people my mother and I were?
He should have known.
Perhaps he sympathized with Kinsley because, like him as a child, she was orphaned young. When she said she wanted a family, he decided to give her a child.
Mason probably thought once he gave Kinsley a child, he could end their relationship and make
things up to me.
Yet he never imagined that nine years of favoritism and hurt had piled up like a mountain on my heart, becoming too heavy to bear.
His coldness and violence had finally driven my love away.
Realizing this, he suddenly broke down sobbing. “Grandpa, I’m so sorry. I was wrong. I failed Aria and her parents.”
“I deserve to die. No matter what the reason, I should never have hurt them repeatedly.”
He raised his hand and slapped his own face over and over, the sharp sound echoing through the
room.
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The Divorce Bet He Made to Mock Me, Now I Cashed it in
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Chapter 8
“Grandpa, I have to find Aria and apologize. I’ll make this right.”
Grandpa Reed scoffed, “Aria is a good person. If you can’t truly change, don’t disturb her. If you’re genuinely remorseful, fulfill your promise and leave with nothing.”
“No, Grandpa. I’ll make it up to her personally. I won’t make the same mistakes again.”
Hearing these empty promises, Grandpa Reed could only shake his head as he left.
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