He Let Another Woman Play My Wife, So I Walked Away as His Real Wife Chapter 06

He Let Another Woman Play My Wife, So I Walked Away as His Real Wife Chapter 06

At nine the next morning, Gavin arrived at the family court office right on time.

He was wearing the black coat I had bought for him, with my wedding ring still in his hand. When he saw

me, his expression was calm

“Did you sleep all right last night?”

He spoke as though we had done nothing more than have an ordinary argument between husband and wife.

I didn’t answer. I went straight to the counter and checked in.

The court clerk confirmed once again that we were both filing for divorce voluntarily. Gavin looked at me but said nothing. Only when the clerk asked a second time did he let out a short laugh.

“Voluntarily.”

Even as he signed the application, he still believed I would change my mind in the end.

“There’s a thirty–day mandatory waiting period. Erin, you have thirty days to come to your senses. If you don’t turn up when it’s over, then this game ends here.”

I put away the filing receipt.

“I’ll be here.”

For the next thirty days, Gavin never once came to apologize. Instead, he kept counting the days in the

group chat.

[Day One. She still hasn’t come back.]

[Day Five. Her resignation paperwork is done.]

[Day Ten. She’s moved everything she left in the apartment.]

At first, his friends still treated the whole thing like a joke. Some said I had dragged the fight out far too long

this time. Others told him to send me flowers and be the first to come and talk to me.

But Gavin stubbornly refused to reach out first.

[She’s not really going to end a seven–year marriage.]

[She’ll come back before the waiting period is over.]

On day twenty, he sent me a photo of the master bedroom. The pale blue bedding was gone, and our wedding photo had been put back where it used to be.

[The room is back to exactly how it was before you left.]

I didn’t reply.

On day twenty–five, he sent me a new version of the company anniversary video. Every photo from the

company’s early days that had been deleted was back. Claire was no longer featured at the end. Instead, it

showed a photo of Gavin and me standing together in our first office.

[Your name is back in the video too.]

I still didn’t respond.

He didn’t understand.

The master bedroom, our wedding photo, and my place in the company’s history had already been mine. Taking away what was already mine and returning it later wasn’t an apology. It wasn’t redemption. And it certainly wasn’t something I should thank him for.

When the mandatory waiting period ended, I arrived at the family court office early.

Gavin, however, was nowhere to be seen.

With only ten minutes left before our appointment ended, he finally pushed through the door, slightly out of breath, his phone clenched in his hand.

Claire had just called him in tears, saying she had fallen down the stairs. His friends were urging him to get to the hospital immediately.

Gavin stood in the doorway and looked at me for a long moment.

“Erin, Claire’s hurt. Can we leave this for today?”

The words were painfully familiar.

On our first anniversary, he said Claire was drunk and asked me to give up the master bedroom for one night. The second year, he said she had fallen out with her family and asked me to let her play “Mrs. Whitmore” for a while. The third year, he said his parents were only trying to have a bit of fun and told me

not to get upset over a title.

And now, once again, he wanted me to be the one who gave way.

I glanced at the time.

“You can go. The application will lapse, and I’ll have my lawyer take the divorce through the courts instead. But after today, we won’t even have the chance to end this without destroying everything.”

Gavin’s hand froze on the door handle.

His phone rang again. Claire’s sobs kept coming through the phone.

He closed his eyes for a moment. In the end, he messaged his friends and told them to take her to the

hospital first, then came over and sat beside me.

When the clerk handed us the confirmation forms, Gavin suddenly asked, “If I stay here today, doesn’t that prove I chose you?”

I looked at him.

“No. It only means you finally did what you should have done from the beginning.”

When we received the final divorce decree, Gavin went blank for several seconds. Then he grabbed my hand.

“We can get divorced for now. When you calm down, we can always get married again.”

I pulled my hand away and placed the wedding ring in his palm.

“We won’t.”

After I walked out of the family court office, Gavin immediately headed for the hospital.

I took my suitcase and went to the airport.

The last time he looked back, I was already getting into the car I had called for.

We left in opposite directions.

From that moment on, there was no longer a home that belonged to both of us.