He Traded My Trauma for Her Redemption - Chapter 8: Chapter 8

In our five years of marriage, I made meals for Jayden, shielded him from drinks at countless dinners—yet he never once bought me even a slice of cake on my birthdays.
But now, he was making dinner for another woman.
I closed the video and looked at the lavish meal that had just been brought to the table.
Suddenly, I lost my appetite.
Just then, my phone buzzed with another message from Jayden.
[Cordelia, we’ll finally see each other tomorrow.]
I glanced at the calendar. Unknowingly, thirty days had already passed.
That meant… tomorrow was the end of our cooling-off period.
I hadn’t noticed when Mervyn appeared, but there he was—leaning lazily against the doorframe, his posture casual, his facial expression unreadable.
“You’re going back?” he asked.
I smiled lightly. “Yeah. It’s about time.”
He didn’t move. The smile remained on his face, but something about it felt strangely unsettling.
For the first time, I walked toward him and gently wrapped my arms around his slightly stiff body.
“Mervyn,” I whispered, “I need to go to the clerk’s court tomorrow. Will you come with me?”
After all, if I wanted the divorce with Jayden to go through smoothly, I probably couldn’t handle it alone.
I didn’t notice how, for a moment, Mervyn’s whole face lit up.
All I heard was his calm reply.
“Alright.”
That night, just as I finished my walk in the garden and was about to return to my room, Mervyn suddenly blocked my way at the door.
His face showed a rare trace of desperation.
“When you asked me to go with you to the clerk’s court…” he said, “did you mean that kind of thing?”
I paused, not quite understanding. “Mean what?”
His ears flushed red, and his voice sounded nervous.
“I mean…” he explained, “look at you, you’re about to get divorced tomorrow.”
“I may not be worth ten Jaydens, but I can definitely outmatch him.” He scratched the back of his neck. “This place is… big. It’s kind of scary to live here alone…”
I glanced around at the grounds crew trimming the bushes, the staff cleaning the pavilion, the people maintaining the pond and feeding the fish, the robotic vacuums humming through the paths.
Just within eyesight, there were at least a dozen people working.
He pretended not to see any of them and kept talking nonsense with a straight face.
“If it weren’t for you staying here, I wouldn’t even be eating proper meals…”
Seeing my skepticism, he quickly added, “What I mean is, no one really cares whether I’ve eaten or not.”
Watching him spout these serious-faced lies, I couldn’t help but chuckle.
This past month of living together—I wasn’t blind. I knew exactly how Mervyn felt about me.
“You’re proposing to me, aren’t you?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
That noisy man went completely silent in an instant.
All that remained were his deep blue eyes—nervous but gleaming.
He gave a small nod and carefully pulled out a folder from behind his back.
“I sorted all of this myself. Just sign here, and it’s all yours.”
I glanced at the list inside—cash, property, land, resort shares… even charitable foundations were included.
Added together, those assets could compete to the entire Blumenthals.
I couldn’t help but gasp.
“If you don’t want them,” he said, “they’re still yours. Think of it as a gift to celebrate your newfound freedom. A return to single life.”
If the younger me once believed that material things didn’t matter in a relationship, then at this moment, I realized just how fake I’d been.
Why leave money on the table? That would be stupid!
I signed it without hesitation, and then I looked up at him.
“Don’t forget to bring your documents for our marriage license tomorrow.”
He clearly didn’t expect me to agree so quickly.
He stood there stunned for a moment, then turned and walked off, red in the face.
Halfway down the path, he suddenly turned around, striding back in a few quick steps.
He grabbed my wrist, forcing me to lift my gaze and meet his burning eyes.
And the next second—he leaned in and kissed me.
His lips pressed hard against mine, sweeping me up in a crashing wave of heat and intensity.
By the time he left, it was only through his carefree laughter echoing down the hallway that I slowly came back to my senses.