Chapter 244 I Really Love You
When Tristan returned to Cloud Bay, it was already past eleven at night.
All the lights in the house were on. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed someone in the dining room. He instinctively looked over and saw Harriet sitting alone at the dining table.
Tristan paused for a moment, then quickly walked over. "It's so late, why aren't you asleep yet?"
Harriet kept her eyes lowered, as if staring blankly at some empty spot on the table.
"Harriet?" Tristan couldn't help calling out to her.
Only then did Harriet snap back to reality, but she didn't turn to look at him. She just said softly, "Sit down. I need to talk to you."
For some reason, Tristan felt inexplicably uneasy. "Whatever you want to say can wait. You don't look well. Go rest first, okay?"
Harriet shook her head gently.
Tristan had no choice but to sit down across from Harriet.
Harriet picked up a document from the chair beside her and placed it in front of Tristan.
The words "Divorce Agreement" stung Tristan's eyes.
"Harriet, you want to divorce me?"
"Yes." Harriet spoke calmly. "I've already signed it. After you sign, I'll give it to Finnegan and he'll handle it."
"Harriet, I know you're devastated, so devastated you can barely face me, but we don't need to get divorced." Tristan gazed at her intently.
He had actually imagined what would happen between them next.
In the past, Harriet would definitely have asked for a divorce.
But now, after everything they'd been through together, after finally making it work, Tristan believed she wouldn't divorce him easily.
But he never expected this divorce agreement to come so suddenly.
"Harriet, if you don't want to see me, I can give you space and time. I'll move to Apex Global Group and won't come back to bother you. When you've moved past this, I'll come back, okay?"
Harriet finally looked up at Tristan.
But her clear eyes were full of coldness and distance.
"You think all I need is a little time to get over my godmother's death and continue living with you, right?"
Harriet smiled bitterly. "Tristan, if that were true, my godmother should have just let me die in prison."
"If I had killed your mother, could you still go on living with me?"
"We both know very well—The hatred of killing one's mother is irreconcilable."
Tristan said anxiously, "Harriet, I didn't mean to. If I had known earlier, how could I have touched her!"
"Yes, it's not all your fault. If only I hadn't listened to my godmother and had told you about our relationship earlier."
"If only she had refused to treat your mother."
"If only I hadn't gone abroad this time."
Harriet felt like she was suffocating with grief. "Tristan, look—so many coincidences led to today's outcome. Maybe fate decided we can't go on."
"Do you remember what I once told you? Ever since I married you, I've been losing things."
"To love you, I lost myself. I finally found myself again, but now I'm losing my loved ones."
"Grandma passed away, Rhea died saving me, and now my godmother died by your hand. Tristan, I'm in so much pain."
"So much pain that I can't help thinking—if I hadn't married you, would I have had to go through all this?"
"If I hadn't come to Emberfall, Grandma would have still passed away, but I could have stayed by her side every moment, mourned for her properly."
"If I hadn't been sent to prison because of Lark, I wouldn't have met my godmother, and I wouldn't have to suffer losing her now."
"If I hadn't married you, I would have graduated and worked in Luminara City. My medical skills would be average, I'd live like most ordinary people in this world, but I'd have the most peaceful and stable life."
"Tristan, I admit that marrying you brought me a lot, but it's nowhere near what I've lost."
"Harriet, please don't think like that." Tristan tried to hold her hand, but she dodged him.
Her instinctive withdrawal deeply pierced his heart.
Tristan's fingers trembled. "Harriet, are you really going to give up on me?"
"If I don't give up, should I wait for you to keep hurting me?" Tears streamed down Harriet's pale face. "Who will I lose next?"
"Mr. Jones? Niamh? Or my only blood relative, Uncle Jasper?"
"Tristan, I have nothing left to lose."
"But I love you." Tristan closed his eyes in pain. "And you love me too, don't you?"
"Yes, I love you." Harriet smiled with difficulty. "I really do love you. I could give my life for you. I'm not afraid of dying, but I'm afraid of people around me dying because of me."
"I once thought we had finally made it through the hard times. But I was wrong. Our suffering is far from over, and I can't see where it ends."
"I won't divorce you." Tristan's deep eyes showed determination. "I won't let you leave me. If you want to abandon me, kill me first."
Harriet took out a small box from beside her, opened it, and placed it on the table.
Inside were two black pills the size of fingernails.
"What's this?"
"This is something my godmother developed—a drug that can make us forget everything."
"Forget everything?"
"Yes, it acts directly on the hippocampus. Without harming the body, it makes people forget everything, even who they are."
Tristan's pupils suddenly contracted. "You want us to take this drug and forget everything?"
"Yes. If I take it, I won't suffer anymore." Harriet picked up one pill. "If you take it, you'll forget me too and start your life over."
"Harriet, please don't do this." Tristan held back tears, his voice hoarse with pleading. "Don't give up on me. I can't live without you."
"Tristan, if you forget me, you'll be fine. You'll start a new family, have your own children. And we—we were never meant for each other."
"What if I don't agree?" A look of determination appeared in Tristan's eyes. "I won't sign the divorce papers, and I won't take this pill."
"I'm sorry, but I have to use emotional blackmail." Harriet curved her lips, a bitter smile appearing on her tear-stained face. "If you don't want to watch me waste away in depression in this house until I die, then please let me go. Or if you want to see me use more extreme methods to leave here, you can refuse me."
Tristan's heart gradually sank.
It was only early autumn, but he felt like he was in an ice cellar.
He knew Harriet meant what she said.
She had always been someone with a strong will who kept her word.
If he didn't agree, he would push her to the edge.
Tristan's heart ached so much he could barely breathe. "Harriet, you can't do this to me."
Harriet placed a pen in front of him. "Tristan, I'm begging you one last time—give me a way out. Otherwise, I'd rather be dead."