Chapter 2 I Want A Divorce

In a daze, Jenessa looked up, only to meet the stern gaze of the man standing before her.

Was she seeing things? What was Ryan doing here? Maisie had just returned from abroad; shouldn't he be spending time with the woman he loved?

Ryan couldn't help but frown when he didn't receive a response from Jenessa.

Jenessa, soaking wet from the rain, looked like a drowned rat. With her long, dark hair plastered to her pale cheeks, water dripping steadily from the ends, she seemed so helpless and pitiful.

"What on earth happened to you?" Ryan questioned, his tone sounding a bit harsher than intended.

Jenessa recalled how gentle and affectionate he was with Maisie at the hotel earlier, causing her heart to ache.

It was painfully clear that Ryan's attitude towards the woman he loved and the one he didn't were worlds apart.

Trying hard to swallow the bitter taste in her mouth, Jenessa forced a smile and softly explained, "It started raining on my way back home, and I didn't have an umbrella, so I got drenched-"

While speaking, her nose suddenly itched unbearably, and she couldn't help but sneeze loudly.

But instead of pitying her, Ryan only frowned deeper.

"You're not a child anymore. If you get caught in the rain, the first thing you should do when you get home is dry off and change your clothes. Do I really need to spell things out for you?"

The smile on Jenessa's face stiffened. "I-I'm sorry..."

"Go get changed quickly, or else you'll catch a cold." Ryan seemed too impatient with her to say anything more, so he bypassed her and walked inside the house.

Catch a cold? Only then did Jenessa remember that she was pregnant; she couldn't afford to get sick, lest she put the baby in harm's way.

With that in mind, she hurried to her room, took a hot shower, and let the warm water chase away the chill.

Wrapped in a towel, she stepped out of the steam-filled bathroom, only to find Ryan standing in her way.

She gasped in surprise and instinctively clutched her towel more tightly around her chest.

Ryan's sharp gaze remained fixed on her, and upon noticing her reaction, he asked indifferently, "Why should you be nervous? It's nothing I haven't already seen."

Jenessa's face flushed bright red as memories of their passionate, intimate nights together flashed before her eyes.

Without waiting for a response, Ryan casually held out a cold medicine pill and a glass of water. "Here, take this."

Jenessa hesitantly glanced at the pill in his hand, worried that it might not be good for the baby. "Well, I think I'll be fine without it. After all, I was only in the rain for a while."

Unexpectedly, Ryan refused to let her off the hook. "Have you seen yourself in the mirror? You're as pale as a ghost. We're visiting Grandma tomorrow, so you'd better not get sick, you hear me?"

But Jenessa, worried about the baby, stubbornly resisted. "I just need to drink something warm, that's all. I'm fine, really."

At this point, Ryan's patience wore thin. He decisively popped the pill in his mouth and drank some water from the glass.

"Ryan, what're you- Agh!" Before Jenessa could get another word out, Ryan leaned closer, his tall frame looming over her, and grabbed her delicate chin. Forcing her to raise her head, he planted his lips firmly on hers.

The pill and water then flowed into her mouth, and he didn't loosen his grip until he was certain that she had swallowed the pill.

The sudden kiss made Jenessa dizzy, washing away all her inhibitions.

Ryan's desires were stirred, and he carried her over to the bed.

He pulled away from her for the briefest of moments to undo his tie, his eyes burning with an all-consuming desire for her.

When Jenessa met his intense gaze, she snapped back to reality and cried out, "No!"

Trembling, she pushed against his rock-hard chest.

"Hmm?" Ryan stopped in his tracks, wondering if he had misheard.

He tried to kiss Jenessa again, but she decisively turned her head away, avoiding his eyes.

"Ryan, I..." She gulped, struggling to get the words out. "I want a divorce."

Her words extinguished Ryan's desires in the blink of an eye.

Annoyance flashing across his face, he coldly grabbed her chin, forcing her to look up at him, his deep eyes staring piercingly into hers. "Say that again?"

Jenessa's heart skipped a beat. Still, she managed to suppress the turbulent emotions inside her and bravely met Ryan's intense gaze. "I said, I want a divorce."

A flicker of unreadable emotion crossed Ryan's eyes. "Why?"

Jenessa was taken aback by his question, confusion and bewilderment evident on her face.

Why else? To fulfill his wish to marry his beloved Maisie, of course.

"Because..." Her voice trailed off feebly, unable to utter the obvious.

"Is your family in financial trouble again? This is about money?" Ryan looked down at her icily. "Jenessa, don't you know your place? If you need something, just say it. Don't play these little games with me, because I do not have the patience for this bullshit."

Jenessa quietly clenched her fists and gritted her teeth.

So, Ryan assumed that her request for a divorce was just one of her games, an attempt to leverage the situation for her benefit?

Jenessa smiled bitterly, but her eyes showed a look of uncharacteristically fierce determination. "Don't worry. I don't want anything but a divorce. Ryan, we were going to get a divorce sooner or later, so what difference does it make?"

Ryan didn't respond immediately. He just stared at her with a strange, serious look in his eyes.

His silence sent Jenessa into a trance, a mix of anxiety and inexplicable flicker of hope taking root in her heart. "Or... do you not want a divorce?"