Divorcing My Aloof Husband

Zachary Mason was still in a conference overseas, too busy to sign the divorce agreement.

I put the agreement on the desk in his study without sending him a message.

Anyway, since a month ago, he had stopped replying to any of my messages.

I guessed he was enjoying himself with Charlee Mills.

The previous night, Charlee posted on her Instagram. "We returned to each other after parting for five years."

The background picture was a man's back. The pearl-gray suit set off his gentleness and elegance, and the moon was bright outside the window.

I recognized he was Zachary at the first sight.

Zachary and Charlee were childhood sweethearts and grew up together. They had a son, Erik Mason.

Later on, Charlee went to Yodruland for further education, and Zachary inherited his family business and stayed domestically.

Their love story was full of twists and turns.

On the contrary, my marriage with Zachary was only a mistake.

I didn't think it was a big deal, though. I didn't suffer any loss. After all, Zachary gave me 50 thousand bucks every month.

However, I had spent it all on my brother's medical treatment.

I didn't have a lot of savings.

In the five years of marriage, Zachary had bought me high-end jewelry, dresses, handbags, and shoes, but I didn't take any of them with me.

I only took one painting drawn by Erik.

In the picture, the sky was green, and a light pink star was emitting bright light.

He said it was me.

I knew him better than anyone else.

That was why Zachary had married me.

I stared at the picture, the scene when I first arrived at the Mason family's house appearing in my mind.

At that time, my younger brother, Frank Murray, had just been diagnosed with brain paralysis. He didn't have medical insurance, and all the treatment fees had to be paid by ourselves.

My family was short of money, and my parents cried aloud and begged me for help.

I was in the second year of my postgraduate study and decided to look for a part-time job. Coincidentally, the Mason family was recruiting a nanny with a high wage.

Erik was autistic and hated strangers very much. Zachary had changed more than 50 nannies to take care of him.

When it was my turn in the interview, Erik miraculously hugged me and uttered a word.

"Mom... Mom."

Maybe it was because the T-shirt I wore that day was engraved with Erik's favorite star, or maybe it was because there was a mysterious connection between us.

He liked me very much.

Therefore, I stayed and was hired as his nanny.

His voice calling "Mom" became clearer as time went by.

No matter how I corrected him, he always called me mom firmly.

Zachary loved his only son so much that he didn't hesitate to marry me for Erik's sake.

Since then, I had become Erik's mother legally.

However, Erik didn't need me anymore.

He had turned eight years old this year. After my years of interference training, he looked like a normal child.

Erik was sent to Yodruland to reunite with his birth mother Charlee and could get more advanced treatment there.

He didn't need me as his mother any longer.

As for Zachary, he had never needed me as his wife.

It was useless for me to continue staying with the Mason family.

I would feel heartbroken and unwilling.

However, a shameless superfluous person was far more miserable than a wise person who made a decision and stopped her loss in time.

It would be better sooner than later. I was leaving.

It took five hours from Hoginia to my hometown by train.

I tried to reestablish my life in the following three months.

During the night, I watched Frank and let my parents rest.

Over the years, they had taken care of him by themselves and had become aged before their time.

Unfortunately, Frank's condition kept worsening.

Initially, he had received the best treatment in Etriset, but later the doctor said it was unnecessary. He could only be a vegetable for the rest of his life, and it was enough for him to receive basic maintenance in a hospital in a second-tier city.

While taking care of him during the night, I was a special education teacher in the school in the daytime to tutor the children with autism.

During my five years in the Mason family, I studied all kinds of books about autism, taught myself, and got into a part-time graduate program.

The children in the special education school were my beloved students, and they were also my research subjects.

I was busy every day and had to make time to write my thesis.

Life was full and peaceful.

However, I had nightmares occasionally at night.

In those nightmares, the fragrance of cedar and sandalwood surrounded me like an endless cold mist.

After the shower, Zachary hunched his cool body over me, wetting me with the layer of the water. The coldness became heated gradually and almost burned me.

After Zachary and I married, we made love almost every night as long as he didn't travel abroad.

In the beginning, I resisted his intimacy as I had thought we got married only to let me become Erik's legal mother.

Zachary asked me, "Didn't you enjoy it?"

The moonlight shone through the lace window gauze and cast a shadow in his glazed eyes.

He had a handsome and aloof face, and his well-trained body was well-built and strong. When he hugged me tightly, I was almost drowned in his majestic hormones.

I admitted he could give me pleasure.

While we made love, I felt like being on cloud nine.

Every time I woke up in a sense of weightlessness in a cloud, my heart would palpitate and my clothes would be wet with cold sweat.

The scene in the ward, however, was inexplicably comforting.

The blue wall, the white bed, and my brother in a coma.

As usual, I soaked his dry lips with a cotton swab.

Something seemed to be wrong tonight. A waft of sandalwood scent swam over faintly.

I turned around in confusion and saw an elegant, black figure sitting in the corner.

Zachary's clear voice sounded. "It's me."

I didn't expect Zachary to come to me.

"Are you here to go through the divorce procedure?" I asked him in the garden of the hospital.

He stared at me deeply with his bright eyes. "I'm here to take you home."

"My home is here, where my parents and Frank are," I replied.

"Erik needs you," he said.

"Nah. He needed me but doesn't anymore. His birth mother has returned. He likes her more, doesn't he?"

Charlee posted on Instagram to show off her daily life with Erik every day.

"I met a little fella in my crush's house. We like each other so much."

"When he called me Mom, his voice was so soft and sweet. Awe! My heart is melting."

"His mother abandoned him. I seemed to become the mother he dreamed of."

It was indeed ridiculous. Erik was her biological son, but she pretended she hadn't seen him before.

Perhaps it was because Charlee wanted to continue to maintain her public image as a perfect goddess.

She had millions of fans online and was beautiful, highly educated, rich, and free. She often posted about being independent and confident.

In an environment where women's independence was prioritized, feminism had become a new fashion.

Her fans didn't know she had a child before marriage when she was 19 years old. After knowing that her son had autism, she evaded the responsibility of raising him.

"Charlee is inexperienced and can't take care of Erik," said Zachary expressionlessly, "come back with me. I'll give you money."

I didn't want to.

Fifty thousand bucks a month was a lot, but I cherished the hard-won peaceful life now.

I had a job and could make enough money to stay with my family.

The doctor said Frank's condition had worsened, and that his organs might be depleted at any time. He could probably only survive for two years.

"I'll give you one hundred thousand dollars a month," said Zachary.

I shook my head.

"Two hundred thousand? Three hundred thousand? Five..." Zachary added continuously.

However, no matter how much money he would give me, Frank was dying. I disagreed with the deal.

I turned around and was about to leave, but Zachary hugged me from behind.

"Let me go!" All of a sudden, countless grievances welled up in my heart, and I struggled fiercely.

Zachary, however, held me tightly as if he was going to melt me into his flesh and blood.

"Aren't you happy to be my wife?" His voice was cold.

He was always like that. His words were distant and cold, and he never showed any emotion to me, as if he was giving orders to a stranger.

On the contrary, his embrace was strong and tight.

Tears blurred my vision. The street lamps in front of me turned into fireflies flying up and down in the grass.

I was not happy.

My happiness only existed when I was in my college.

At that time, I followed the most outstanding female scholar in our country to study feminism. I went to the countryside with my like-minded partners to rescue the women who were abducted and sold to the countryside.

We squatted in the grass and were on the lookout. Fireflies flew around us. Mosquitoes bit us so hard that we itched all over.

After a long time, we finally got the evidence and posted the photos online, which caused a huge uproar. Finally, we successfully rescued the women who were abducted.

At that time, I was full of dreams, the most compassionate and the happiest.

Now, I had lost myself.

My former friends scolded me for being depraved, turning from a feminist vanguard to a woman supporting her younger brother without any limit and a gold-digger. They felt ashamed to be my friends.

I also look down upon myself.

The root of all sin started from the evening when I was 23 years old.

If that thing had never happened, maybe I would have still been a happy feminist, free and independent, unremitting efforts for my dreams.

In that case, I wouldn't have become a woman supporting her younger brother without any limit, and I wouldn't have had to enter the Mason family to raise money for Frank's medical bills.

In that case, I wouldn't have known Zachary and married him, although he didn't love me.

Still holding me tightly, Zachary said in a low voice, "Go back with me. I'll let my assistant send you back after going through the divorce procedure."

I agreed as I only wanted to get divorced as soon as possible.