Chapter 63
The door closed.
Heidi watched it shut, her smile faltering slightly before quickly brightening again as she poured more hot tea into Tiffany's cup. "Please don't worry, Mrs. Windsor. Arthur knows what he's doing."
Arthur steered with one hand, his gaze sweeping over the flowing nightscape as his car pulled away from Windsor Manor.
His mother's conversation with Heidi echoed in his mind—particularly those words "never deserved" that had hung so lightly in the air. The corner of his mouth twitched, revealing nothing.
He absently loosened his tie. If his grandfather hadn't forced his hand with that business deal years ago, he would never have married someone who spent all her days locked in a laboratory. Now everyone was pushing their problems onto him.
Caroline.
Her recent silence troubled him—not answering calls, ignoring messages, vanishing from her apartment. This new boldness of hers was unexpected.
In the past, her tantrums meant locking herself in the study for a day. Now she'd actually run away? Did she truly believe she was the wronged party here?
Arthur scoffed. In this marriage, he was just as trapped as she was. His grandfather constantly nagged him to make things work with Caroline, urging reconciliation.
Reconcile? When were they ever good together?
His car phone lit up with a new email notification. He caught only an unfamiliar name, assuming it was another departmental report. Before he could check, his phone vibrated with his secretary's call.
"Where are you, Mr. Windsor? The European division is waiting."
"Five minutes," he answered, his tone cooling to its professional default. "Have them review last quarter's financials again. I don't want any stupid questions about profit margins."
"Yes, sir."
As he hung up, Arthur's focus shifted completely to work. Family troubles—and that unread email—retreated to the back of his mind as he pressed the accelerator, merging his black Bentley into traffic.
Meanwhile, Caroline dragged a hidden folder into her computer's recycle bin—family photos and structural diagrams of Windsor Manor she'd once carefully documented to better care for the children.
The computer chimed softly as she emptied the bin.
She picked up her office phone. "Mr. Morris, notify the project team. Meeting in Conference Room Three in five minutes."
Notebook and tablet in hand, she walked out, the crisp sound of her heels against the polished floor fading down the hallway.
---
Daylight was breaking when Arthur's video conference finally ended. He tugged at his tie and sank into his leather chair, eyeing the cold coffee his secretary had brought hours earlier.
He took a perfunctory sip before setting it down with a dull thud.
His fingers tapped restlessly on the desk before he finally unlocked his phone. That email he'd dismissed earlier still sat in his inbox.
The attachment was a meticulously worded PDF from Attorney Terry Morales.
[Subject: Divorce Petition Regarding Mrs. Caroline Hamilton and Mr. Arthur Windsor.]
His finger scrolled quickly through the document, stopping at Caroline's signature—bold and fierce, penmanship he'd never seen from her before.
A knock interrupted his thoughts. Heidi entered carrying a thermos.
"Arthur, I made you some soup. You've been in meetings all morning..." Her voice trailed off as her gaze caught his phone screen. She gasped. "This... why would Caroline...?"
Arthur locked his screen and flipped the phone face-down. "Just an act," he said scornfully. "Running away wasn't enough, now she's using divorce as a threat."
"But she's already hired a lawyer," Heidi frowned, her face a mask of concern. "Could she have been hurt somehow, or... maybe someone's been influencing her?"
"Hurt?" Arthur picked up the soup, sniffed it, then set it aside with no appetite. "She'll come back when she's done with her tantrum. She can't bear to leave the children, and she definitely can't live without what the Windsor family provides."
He knew Caroline too well—a bookworm at heart, conventional, without ambition. Without the Windsor family, what could she do? Spend her life staring at beakers in some lab?
Heidi watched his confidence with an unreadable flicker in her eyes before pulling out her phone. "Arthur, I don't mean to pry... but I passed Caroline's research institute today. I was going to check on her when I saw this..."
The photos on her screen were skillfully taken from cunning angles.
In one, Caroline wore a lab coat, turning to speak with a young man, her face lit with a smile Arthur hadn't seen in ages.
In another, she stood with colleagues as a man handed her a document, his arm nearly touching her shoulder.
Arthur's expression barely changed, though the mockery left his lips.
"Caroline is so naive," Heidi continued carefully. "After being a housewife for years, suddenly returning to a workplace full of men—I worry she's being taken advantage of. Look at her spending all day with these people. Could she be using them for support? After all..."
She left the implication hanging, but her meaning was clear.
Arthur's brow finally furrowed. He didn't believe Caroline would be interested in those men—her taste wasn't that bad.
But the phrase "using them for support" stuck like a needle. Was Caroline truly cutting ties with him? Planning her own path forward? Did she really believe she could make it without being Mrs. Windsor?
He pushed Heidi's phone back, the screen's light reflecting his darkening expression.
"Arthur, don't be angry. Caroline isn't that kind of person. She's just too innocent..."
"Innocent?" Arthur responded as if he'd heard a joke. "If she's so innocent, why is she sending me legal notices?"
Heidi wisely fell silent, lowering her eyes.
After a moment, she looked up as if suddenly remembering something important. "Oh, Arthur, isn't it Logan and Layla's birthday today? I think it's around this time."
Arthur froze.
Birthday? He had actually forgotten.