The man made a slight bow and handed a business card to Julie. He introduced himself, "I'm a lawyer entrusted by Mr. Jack Fu. I came here to talk to Miss Rachel Shen."
Rachel heard him clearly from her perch at the top of the stairs.
'A lawyer?
What is he doing here?'
She walked downstairs and said, "I am Rachel Shen. What's going on?"
The lawyer gestured toward the room and asked, "May I come in and have a seat?"
Rachel asked Julie to get a cup of tea and waited for the other woman to return from the kitchen. She took a look at the lawyer, who was leisurely sipping on his tea, and asked, "Sir, what are you doing here?"
The lawyer put down the teacup, took out a document from his briefcase, and put it on the table. "Mr. Fu entrusted me to handle your divorce. This document is the divorce agreement. Please have a look. If there's no problem, sign your name at the last page." On the white sheet, the words "Divorce Agreement" appearing multiple times in stark black ink looked particularly conspicuous. Rachel's hands trembled slightly. She opened the agreement and read through it carefully until her vision blurred slightly. She quickly set the document down and rose to her feet. "Excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom."
She leaned back against the bathroom door and bit her lip to keep herself from crying. As it turned out, he couldn't wait to divorce her.
After a moment of looking at herself in the mirror, Rachel closed her eyes and splashed water onto her face. When she had calmed down, she walked out of the bathroom and thumbed through the agreement again. Pointing at one of the clauses, she asked coldly, "What does this mean? This divorce agreement will come into force only after I give birth to the baby?"
The lawyer nodded. "This clause clearly states that this agreement will come into force after the child is born."
He paused and studied the expression on Rachel's face before continuing, "During this period of time, you must live in the same room as Mr. Fu. This condition is non-negotiable. This way, you shall have full custody of the child; otherwise, the custody of the child will belong to my client."
What an autocratic agreement! Rachel refused without hesitation. "I don't agree to this. We have already discussed that as long as I stay here until the baby is born, I will have full custody."
The lawyer smiled slightly and said, "That was nothing but a verbal agreement between the two of you. You should know that agreements of such nature do not hold in court. Moreover, Mr. Fu told me before I came here that your assent is not necessary—in that case, you would have to live here all your life and would not be allowed to go anywhere else."
Rachel's eyes flared open, and the corner of her mouth twitched. Her head seemed to be filled with a haze, and she couldn't think clearly. Ultimately, Jack must have regretted promising her custody of the child so he came up with such terms in the divorce agreement.
Right now, she was regretting not having signed anything legal with Jack when they discussed it before.
Through such an autocratic arrangement, Jack stomped on any future prospects of the two of them meeting amicably to settle this matter in a way satisfied them both.
After a moment of silence, she picked up the pen and said, "I'll sign it!"
What other choice did she have?
Finally, the agreement sent by his lawyer was in his hand. Jack didn't know how to feel as he looked down at the final page, which was already signed by Rachel.
He closed the folder and handed it back to the lawyer. "Hold on to it for now. Remember, don't let anyone else know about it!"
"Rest assured." The lawyer carefully put the document away. Seeing Jack's dismissive wave, he turned around and walked out of the ward.
Long after their unexpected visitor had left, Rachel sat on the sofa in a daze. She didn't respond to Julie when she came and asked her what she wanted to eat for dinner. The other woman walked up to her and gently nudged her shoulder.
She snapped out of her reverie and looked up at Julie. Her lips curved up in a smile, but tears suddenly started spilling from her eyes.
"Miss, are you okay? What's wrong?" Julie asked in a worried tone. At the sight of Rachel's tears, Julie thought that the other woman probably wasn't feeling well. She quickly reached for the phone beside the sofa and said urgently, "Please hang on, I'll call for an ambulance right away!"
"I'm fine."
Rachel had never been this weepy, and she didn't even know the reason why.
In the past, she had always had an iron-clad control of her emotions. Regardless of how sad she became, she had always endured it. Why did she become such a watering pot now? After all, wasn't this the result that she was expecting?
The end was in sight, so why did she feel so sad?
She wiped her eyes with one hand, pressed the other against her lower back for support, and then carefully stood up. "Julie, I feel a little sleepy. I'll go upstairs and nap for a bit."
Maybe she could forget about this mess once she fell asleep.
The short nap she intended to take lasted for more than ten hours. When she woke up at eight that following morning, her head was reeling. Julie came in and saw an abnormal flush on her face. She quickly raised a hand to feel Rachel's forehead and said, "Miss, you're running a slight fever. Get up quickly. Let's go to the hospital."
"I'm fine."
Rachel forced a smile, but she was feeling so weak that she felt too tired to say anything else.
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