Divorce Me I'm Done Serving You (Ayla and Troy) novel Chapter 866

The more Hayley thought about it, the more certain she was. She was deeply disappointed in Edgar. The two of them used to be so good together—even if they’d started dating young, it had been a healthy, productive relationship where they pushed each other to be better.

And now? The gap between them was widening by the day.

Tyler patted his wife’s shoulder. “You just said it yourself—Halle sees everything, understands everything. But Edgar still hasn’t figured it out. That means your son doesn’t deserve her. Getting looked down on is only natural.”

Hayley was furious at Edgar for not appreciating Halle, but hearing her own husband trash their son wasn’t much better. “Your son is plenty accomplished, too.”

Tyler had no intention of telling Edgar just how profoundly disappointed he’d been since the boy came home. It wasn’t one thing or two—it was a slow accumulation.

“Young people’s business should stay between young people. If we interfere, it’ll only get messier. Let’s see how things play out.”

Hayley agreed with that much. The more people who stuck their noses in, the more complicated things got, and complications only made solutions harder.

But she genuinely hoped the two of them could work it out and get married.

Tyler could see the hope still alive in his wife’s eyes. He didn’t rush to pour cold water on it, but he did want to give her a heads-up. “Them moving in together is supposed to be a trial run before the wedding. The whole point is to see if they can actually coexist long-term. If they can’t even get along now, marriage will only make things worse—they’ll just tear each other apart and end in divorce. Catching the problems early is a good thing.”

Hayley shot him a look. “So, you’ve already given up on them?”

Tyler replied, “Of course I’d love to have Halle as a daughter-in-law. But if they truly aren’t compatible, would you rather watch them fight until there’s nothing left but resentment and a divorce? Having high hopes isn’t wrong. It just depends on whether your son can handle this. And the condition is: you don’t interfere.”

Hayley heard him out. Her heart still felt heavy. She had a gut feeling those two would never make it, but everything her husband said was right—if they truly weren’t meant to be, forcing a wedding would only lead to disaster.

Hayley let out a sigh.

Tyler nudged her toward bed.

She eyed his total lack of concern, gave his shoulder a good, hard smack to vent her frustration, and only then grudgingly lay down.

...

Edgar’s mood was beyond terrible. He didn’t go straight to Nina. Instead, he went to a bar alone to drink.

He genuinely couldn’t understand why someone who’d just graduated high school needed to worry about “workplace skills.” Was that even something people our age should be stressing about?

But after grinding that hard, shouldn’t they take a break?

Halle couldn’t stop. She was even more driven than he was, even more intense. She’d gone and co-founded a tech company with her friend Ayla, casually pouring hundreds of millions into it.

Edgar had been stunned. Back then, Halle still had that fresh, student-like softness to her—nothing like the aura she carried now—but her actions were bold, decisive, and dead serious. She had absolute confidence in the future.

But the sheer unfamiliarity of it all left Edgar completely blindsided. It was like he’d never known her at all.

Unfamiliarity brought fear.

Then, his father started heaping praise on Halle, telling Edgar to keep working harder if he wanted to be worthy of her.

But in Edgar’s mind, Halle was supposed to be the fragile one who needed my shoulder to lean on... Since when had I become the one who wasn’t good enough for her?

Once they hit college, Halle’s transformation became unbearable for him. He avoided her because every time he saw her working, it made him feel inadequate—it dragged his father’s words back to the surface, reminding him that he’d been surpassed.