Chapter 2
Chapter 2
“You don’t need to know,” Walter snapped, initation lacing his icy glare. He then added, “I’ve ensured you’re financially secure. The villa is yours. There’s a one–time child support payment of 20 million dollars, and then monthly…”
Before Walter could finish, Clara cut him off. “I want nothing but Marlie” This was her first–ever interruption, a bold departure from her usual reticence. The room suddenly chilled with tension. The dim, cold light cast ghostly shadows.
Marlic Colon, their two–year–old daughter, was the subject of this standoff.
Clara had nearly lost her life giving birth to Marlie, leading to complications that made future pregnancies nearly impossible. Despite that, Walter never
even considered the possibility of another child.
“You think you can afford to take care of her?” Walter sneered with mockery.
Clara smiled, a mix of defiance and determination lighting her face. “That’s my concern, Mr. Colon. Just agree, and I’ll sign immediately.”
Faging divorce, she no longer addressed Walter with any endearment.
Clara’s smile left Walter momentarily taken aback. Without makeup, her beauty was undeniable: bright eyes, a radiant smile, and skin so delicate it seemed to glow. Her waist was so slender it could be encircled with a single hand.
But then, his gaze turned icy, thinking, ‘She dares speak to me like this?‘
Clara added her condition to the agreement and crossed out the child support clause, signing her name with a bold stroke.
She rose, approached him with the document, and said with a veiled struggle, “As you wish. I’ve wanted this divorce for a long time.” Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g
Suppressing the pain that threatened to overwhelm her, Clara continued, “Marlie means nothing to you. Let me have her.”
Walter’s brief glance at the divorce papers was followed by a cold, scrutinizing
zing look at Clara.
Seeing her apparent relief instead of sorrow, he questioned, “You’ve wanted a divorce for this long?”
Clara, feigning indifference, stressed, “I only want Marlie.”
Ater a moment of silence, Walter coldly conceded, “Fine”
He then picked up his bespoke suit and left the villa with decisive steps.
Watching his retreating figure, Clara’s strength ebbed away, and she collapsed to the floor, a painful realization dawning on her. ‘He is resolute. He doesn’t even want his daughter‘
Thoughts of Marlie intensified her pain. She was born prematurely and fragile and had spent her earliest years fighting for her life. Despite surviving a perilous heart surgery, Marlie hadn’t spoken a word. Though tests showed her hearing and vocal cords were normal, doctors suspected autism. No wonder Walter discarded Marlie without a second thought.
The Colon family held significant status in Zwingenrath, with Walter at the helm of the Colon Group, dominating wealth rankings and wielding considerable influence.
Clara bitterly mused, “What am I, then? incapable of bearing more children, with a daughter diagnosed with autism, I am nothing but a burden to the Colon name. Deemed worthless, we are fit only to be abandoned.”
Wed, 29 May