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Mostly, he’d text her, and his messages were always concise.
She answered, and his indifferent voice came through before she could say anything.
“Maureen, I have limited patience. You asked for a divorce back then, and now you don’t want it?
“Is it because I didn’t give you money?
“Now that you wanna marry someone else, 50 million dollars hardly seems enough, huh? Shouldn’t you be asking for more?”
Maureen’s throat tightened.
All of a sudden, she couldn’t hear a thing.
At the end of her life, she refused to be accused of something she didn’t do.
With the last dregs of her strength, she said with difficulty, “Geoff, I didn’t … marry you for your money.
“And of course, the divorce was never about money…
“Perhaps you don’t believe me, but I still have to say this… I knew nothing about my mom and Adrian breaching the contract back then… I swear…
“I’d never marry anyone for 50 million dollars…”
She spoke intermittently, her words broken.
He could hear the howling wind and heavy downpour on her end.
“Where are you?” he asked.
But she couldn’t hear him.
She just clutched her phone, explaining over and over again, “If… I had known what my mom and Adrian did… I would never … have married you…
“If I had known… you always loved Andrea… I would never have married you…”
“If I had known … my dad would have had an accident on our wedding day… I would never have married you.”
If time could go back, she would never have married him.
The deep bitterness and regret she had harbored for years were almost tangible, a physical weight crushing against Geoffrey’s nerves.
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Chapter 17
He realized just how profoundly she regretted ever marrying him.
All of a sudden, he felt an invisible hand gripping his heart, making it hard to breathe.
“You regret it now? What right do you have? You cried and begged to marry me back then, remember?”
His deep voice actually carried a hint of hoarseness.
Meanwhile, her voice kept becoming smaller, and he could barely hear her.
“Maureen, answer me! Where are you?”
Instead of answering him, she said softly, “In fact…
“All I have ever wanted is for you to be happy, Geoff.”
A dull thud rang out.
The phone slipped from her hand and clattered to the ground.
It was soon drenched by the pouring rain, its screen fading to black.
***
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At Pearl Villa.
Geoffrey panicked as he stared at the dark screen.
He called Maureen again, but all he was met with was the cold, mechanical voice. “We’re sorry, the number you have reached is temporarily unavailable. Please try your call again later.”
He sprang from the sofa, grabbed his coat, put it on, and headed to the door.
But just as his hand closed around the doorknob, he stopped.
Maureen must be playing hard to get.
After today, their paths would never cross again. Why should he give a damn about her?
He soon went back to the bedroom. Lying in bed, he found himself unable to sleep no matter what.
Her words kept echoing in his mind.
“If… I had known what my mom and Adrian did… I would never… have married you…
“If I had known… you always loved Andrea… I would never have married you…”
“If I had known… my dad would have an accident on our wedding day… I would never have married you.
He got up again. Before he realized it, he had already stood in front of her door.
It had been over a month since her departure.
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Chapter 17
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Pushing open the door, he was met with nothing but an oppressive, suffocating darkness.
As he turned on the light and looked around, he saw only a few personal belongings. Her room was practically empty.
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