Chapter 159: Agree to Divorce
Looking at the agreement again, Mia couldn't help but feel a lump in her throat, her eyes slightly reddening.
It wasn't that she felt reluctant or didn't want the divorce anymore, but rather a touch of sadness for their marriage that was about to end.
Once, in their happiest moments, she had dreamed of growing old together.
Back then, she truly believed she could spend her whole life with James, be together forever.
But in this world, many people who promise forever and a lifetime eventually drift apart.
It's not about lying.
Many people truly believe in forever when they make those promises.
They just never expected—
That most people's "forever" and "lifetime" eventually lose to time and reality.
"Mia, did you get it?"
James grabbed the groceries and closed the trunk, walking up behind Mia.
"Got it."
Mia quickly stuffed the divorce agreement back, held it in her hand, stood up and closed the car door.
James took her hand again and they headed home.
Inside, James carried the groceries to the kitchen while Mia placed the documents on the coffee table.
"You're cooking?"
After setting them down, Mia didn't see Wilhelmina and asked James, who was standing in the kitchen.
"Together?"
James held Mia's favorite prawns in his hand.
Their eyes met across the space, his deep gaze showing a hint of expectation.
He wanted to personally cook their farewell meal.
"Okay."
Mia nodded gently and walked toward the kitchen.
At her agreement, James's eyes curved with a smile, his gaze growing even more tender as he watched her.
Under his gaze, Mia entered the kitchen.
In the spacious kitchen, the two stood side by side at the counter, processing ingredients and preparing dinner together.
In movies or TV shows, when couples or married people cook together, the scenes always look especially warm and cozy, every frame beautiful as a painting.
But James and Mia—one was a man who had never cooked before.
The other was a woman who, though she had earnestly learned a few dishes from Wilhelmina, really had no talent for it.
Apart from the somewhat beautiful scene of them tying aprons for each other at the beginning, everything else...
Was hard to describe.
But with Wilhelmina's remote guidance, they eventually managed to make six dishes and a soup.
They carried the dishes out together.
James brought out the last soup dish while Mia went to the sink to wash her hands, getting ready to eat.
She had just squeezed out some hand soap when James came over.
Like before, he wrapped his arms around her from behind, holding her hands, using the soap from her hands to wash his own together.
The first time they washed hands like this was when Mia had squeezed out too much soap and spread it on his hands, leaning sweetly in his arms with a smile, acting cute: "James, help me wash."
After that, before meals, they often washed hands together like this.
James's large hands wrapped around Mia's cold small hands.
Hot water flowed over their hands, and her hands gradually warmed up.
This was the most careful James had ever washed, not missing any space between fingers.
He held the petite Mia in his arms, his chin resting on top of her head, breathing in her unique scent.
The scene overlapped, as if they had returned to when their relationship was good.
It made James's hand-washing movements slower and slower.
His gaze remained on Mia's face, and several times, in this warm atmosphere, he almost blurted out: "Mia, let's not get divorced, okay?"
But each time the words reached his lips, he silently swallowed them back.
James knew deep down.
Once he said those words, the little bit of peaceful time together he had begged for would shatter.
She would turn back into that cold, prickly hedgehog-like Mia.
Yesterday at the neighborhood entrance, Alice hadn't said much to him.
But every sentence struck the deepest part of his heart.
Alice said: I know you've truly fallen in love with Mia, can't bear to let go. You're afraid that once you let go, Mia will never belong to you again.
But James, I can tell you with certainty that Mia has truly made up her mind. If you don't let go and continue to trap Mia like this,
You'll only consume the last bit of feeling she has for you in her heart, and you'll truly lose her.
If her heart truly dies completely, you'll regret it forever.
So, let go.
I can't promise you that if you let go, you and Mia will still have a chance to be together in the future.
But if you continue to hold on desperately, you definitely won't have a good ending.
The last bit of hope in his eyes was extinguished by Alice's words.
How could he not understand the logic?
He knew very well in his heart that from the moment Amelia returned to the country, he had already started hurting Mia.
All along, he had hurt Mia too deeply.
Every wound of varying depth on her heart was his doing, each wound representing the terrible things he had done.
Those wounds were irreversible, carved into her heart.
She was hurt too deeply; nothing he did would work.
His desperate efforts to win her back were just clinging to a bit of wishful thinking.
What if?
What if his efforts could succeed in winning her back?
But Alice's words made him painfully and clearly face reality.
Before Alice left, she asked him with red eyes: James, can you really bear to watch Mia completely wither away by your side?
Look at what she's become by your side. Mia used to love smiling so much, and now she doesn't even know how to smile anymore.
Can you really bear it?
Doesn't it break your heart?
It broke his heart!
He couldn't bear it!
So he could only choose to let go!
When making this decision, the pain felt like tearing himself apart.
"Done, I'm hungry."
Mia felt James hugging her tighter and tighter, so she nudged his arm with her elbow, signaling him to let go.
Tonight, he was especially clingy. Since it was the last night, Mia went along with him and didn't deliberately treat him coldly.
She understood what he meant, and she wanted to cooperate.
Consider it drawing a relatively complete ending to their four-plus years together.
"Let's eat."
James tightened his embrace one last time, paused for just a few seconds, then let go.
They returned to the dining table.
James put on disposable gloves and started peeling prawns for her.
After peeling them, he slowly passed them over.
The first one successfully went into Mia's bowl without being refused.
He continued peeling the second one.
Mia kept her head down, eating quietly.
Under her lowered eyelids, her eyes were completely red.
It had been a long time since they had sat together and properly shared a meal like this.
It had also been a very long time since they had gotten along peacefully like this.
James and Mia actually had no appetite.
They both knew in their hearts what this meal meant.
The taste of the food was even harder to describe, but even though they couldn't taste anything, both tried hard to eat.
James ate this meal especially, especially slowly.
But no matter how slow, there was still the moment when he had to put down his bowl.
He took her hand again and they sat down on the sofa.
They sat side by side, their eyes falling on the documents on the coffee table.
James didn't move, his large hand still tightly holding Mia's without letting go.
Mia didn't rush him either.
They sat quietly for a while.
James tightened his grip on Mia's hand, then slowly let go.
He bent down to pick up the document envelope on the table, opened it, pulled out the divorce agreement, and held it in his hand.
He didn't look at Mia, and with some difficulty, he began: "I..."
"Agree to the divorce."
These words came out of his mouth with extreme difficulty.
Slowly, he handed the divorce agreement to Mia beside him.
After she took it, his large hand quickly withdrew and clenched tight.
Mia didn't notice. Her eyes were on the divorce agreement.
Compared to the thin single page she had drafted before, James's version gave her way too much.
Mia only looked at a bit before turning to look at James, wanting to refuse.
She had never thought about taking his things.
Being with him, she had nothing to begin with.
He had always been the one supporting her.
In this home, she really hadn't contributed anything.
She took for granted everything James gave her.
His money, his affection.
She actually wasn't a qualified wife. Apart from marital duties, she really hadn't done what a wife should do.
She had never thought about taking care of James. In her eyes, James was all-capable; she had never considered his hardships.
She never thought that James could get tired too.
Apart from eating and playing, whenever anything happened, big or small, she would just leave it for James to handle.
When she told James she was at fault, she wasn't just saying it casually.
In this marriage, she really was at fault too. The fault was in taking things too much for granted.
If she had understood earlier that when two people are together, no matter how good the other person is to you, you can't take it for granted, she might have let James discover her good qualities earlier and fall in love with her.
But there are no "ifs" in this world.
They had reached a point of no return.
Looking back now, even those beautiful memories were tinged with undeniable pain.
"This is my only condition for agreeing to the divorce."
These words left Mia unable to refuse.
These material things were the only thing he could do for her.
So that after divorcing him, she wouldn't have to struggle so hard.
"Okay."
Mia simply accepted.
She didn't continue reading either. She took the pen from the coffee table and quickly signed her name in the wife's column.
Her decisiveness stabbed another knife into James's heart.
After Mia signed, she handed the pen to James.
James took it and slowly wrote his name stroke by stroke in the husband's column.
After signing, he quickly closed it.
He put down the pen, tilted his head back slightly to push back the moisture in his eyes, then turned to look at Mia sitting beside him.
He raised his hand and, like before, affectionately ruffled her hair. "Get some rest early tonight. Tomorrow you'll be free."
"Can it be tomorrow?"
Mia's words couldn't hide a trace of urgency.
She couldn't wait to divorce him.
James's already bleeding heart was stabbed again.
The sadness in his eyes could no longer be suppressed.
Mia saw it. Her lips trembled, wanting to say something, but she didn't know what else she could say.
"Yes, I've arranged everything."
In the end, James couldn't bear to make things difficult for her anymore and looked away first.
From picking her up from work to this moment.
If she had shown even a trace of reluctance, he would have changed his mind.
But she didn't...
His overwhelming reluctance met her complete lack of reluctance.
He could only let go.
...
The next day, at nine in the morning, Mia took time off and appeared with James right on time at the entrance of the marriage registration office.