He Asked Me To Wait, I Asked For A Divorce Chapter 02

Richard shot to his feet, furious.

“You seriously have the nerve to ask for money?”

“What exactly did you expect?” I looked straight at him. “Your son gets to chase a bright future, so why should your daughter-in-law give up her entire life for free?”

Someone by the doorway muttered, “She’s got a point.”

“They’ve been married two days. Why should she be expected to give up the rest of her life?”

Gavin’s face tightened with humiliation as he ground out the words.

“Fine. If you don’t want to stay, don’t. I’ll sign the divorce papers. Just don’t come crying to me later.”

I nodded, completely certain.

“I won’t.”

The veins stood out across the back of his hand as he gripped the pen.

I knew exactly what he was thinking.

He was sure a woman who walked out of a Navy marriage after two days would be shredded by family gossip and the military community, and that sooner or later I’d crawl back to him.

What he didn’t know was that I’d already drowned in that judgment once.

This time, no one was going to use my life as a ladder for their own future.

When Gavin finished signing the uncontested divorce agreement, he threw the pen onto the table.

“Claire, from this day on, don’t ever come begging me for anything.”

I folded the papers and slipped them into my bag.

“Don’t worry. That sounds like a waste of my time.”

Someone at the door snorted before they could stop themselves, and Gavin’s face grew even uglier.

The officer assigned to drive him to the airfield was already waiting downstairs.

He didn’t have time to keep fighting with me. He grabbed his bag and headed for the door.

As he passed me, he leaned close and hissed under his breath.

“A woman like you is going to rot in the same dead-end neighborhood you came from without me.”

I looked up at him.

“Gavin Mercer, you’d better remember you said that.”

He gave a cold laugh and walked out without looking back.

In my last life, I’d followed him to the edge of the housing complex in tears. He never turned around once.

This time I stayed where I was and watched him disappear down the walkway. It felt as if a boulder had been lifted off my chest.

Denise collapsed onto the floor, wailing that I had brought nothing but bad luck into her family.

Richard’s face turned hard as he kicked my suitcase toward the door.

“Get out. Take your junk and get out of my house.”

I opened the suitcase and checked everything inside.

Of the matching pair of pearl necklaces my grandmother had left me, only one remained.

The debit card tied to the $40,000 in premarital savings my mother had set aside for me was gone too.

I looked up at Denise.

“Where are my things?”

Her eyes flickered away.

“What things? Don’t start making accusations.”

I turned to Captain Hale.

“Captain, a copy of our premarital property agreement and Schedule of Separate Property is on file with base legal. We both signed it.”

“Let’s go through it item by item and see exactly what’s missing.”

Denise’s face went white.

In my last life, I’d been too ashamed to make a scene. I was afraid people would say I was counting assets two days into a marriage, so I’d never mentioned the missing property.

In the end, that pearl necklace had ended up around Gavin’s new wife’s neck.

Captain Hale had an aide retrieve the signed property schedule from the legal office.

After stammering for ages, Denise finally opened the bedroom safe and pulled out the debit card and one pearl necklace.

I looked at her.

“Where’s the other one?”

She lifted her chin and tried to brazen it out.

“I lost it.”

I took back the property schedule.

“Then put it in writing and reimburse me for the fair market value.”

Denise sprang up, shrieking.

“You’re going to destroy me over one stupid necklace?”

My voice wasn’t loud, but every word carried.

“It isn’t a stupid necklace. It belonged to my grandmother.”

“My initials, C.B., are engraved inside the clasp. Whoever has it won’t be able to pretend it isn’t mine.”

Denise went pale as paper.

Afraid the scandal would hurt Gavin’s career, Richard wrote and signed an acknowledgment that they owed me the necklace’s market value.

I took my suitcase and went home to my parents.

My mother stood in the doorway with red-rimmed eyes.

“Claire.”

I expected her to tell me I’d been rash.

After all, in my last life, she’d told me marriage was hard and that once you made vows, you didn’t walk away over a fight.

But this time, she simply took my suitcase and touched my cheek.

“You’re home. That’s what matters.”

My nose stung, and I nearly cried.

My father sat on the couch pinching the bridge of his nose. After a long moment, he asked, “Did the Mercers hurt you?”

I shook my head.

“They did before. They won’t ever get the chance again.”