I Forgot I Ever Loved You (Zoe and Hayden) novel Chapter 471

"The higher-ups haven't approved the divorce. The assets are still community property, meaning anything in my name remains mine. Giving it to you is a gesture of my personal goodwill."

Zoe monitored the data streams on her monitor, only occasionally glancing at Hayden's messages.

She had to engage with him to some degree; the military inspection meant they were still legally tethered.

Her priority was ensuring Lily wasn't caught in the crossfire.

"Not interested,"

she replied flatly.

Nothing he offered held any value to her.

Hayden drove straight to The Highland Retreat. The surrounding hillsides were blanketed in irises he had ordered planted years ago.

The view was breathtaking.

He hadn't seen Zoe in so long and wanted to offer her the grand romantic gesture she had always craved.

Recording a quick video, he sent it to her.

"The irises were planted for you. You said you loved them, so I had the entire hillside covered. Come back. You're still my wife."

He was willing to forgive the past. No matter how much of a fuss she made, he knew she loved him; she just had a terrible way of showing it.

Hayden despised dramatic women. The sheer amount of tolerance he had shown Zoe was the absolute limit of his patience.

Meanwhile, Zoe finally finished running a new data set. She tweaked the programming and smiled at the result.

The female AI unit immediately reached out, calling her 'Husband' in a hilariously glitchy tone.

Bored, she opened Hayden's message. Seeing the word 'irises,' a look of absolute contempt crossed her face.

"Take a wild guess why our daughter's name is Lily."

Irises? To hell with his irises.

She loved lilies of the valley.

But a lady didn't swear.

Too exhausted to waste another breath on him, she dove back into her coding, hyper-focused on introducing a catastrophic malfunction into the neural chip linking to Sienna's AI units.

Hayden's thumb hovered over the screen.

After her biting text, silence reigned.

Dismissing Colin, he stayed at the new villa alone.

The interior design was vastly different from Blackwood Manor. Nestled in a lush, natural landscape with winding paths and crystal-clear streams, it was a sanctuary meant for healing.

It was the perfect environment for someone with Zoe's temperament.

The clock struck 5:37 A.M. Hayden hadn't slept a wink. Suddenly, the sharp ring of his phone shattered the morning silence.

He flinched slightly, assuming Zoe was finally returning his call.

He had suffered and waited the entire night.

He knew her personality inside and out; she could never last a full twenty-four hours without crawling back to him.

Over the past few years, every tantrum she threw had just been a desperate plea for his attention, a test of his boundaries.

He understood her completely.

Moving deliberately, he picked up the phone, but the screen flashed Sienna's name.

Not Zoe.

Hayden stared at it, letting it ring until it finally disconnected.

The usually pleasant ringtone now grated on his nerves like shattered glass.

For the first time in five years, Zoe had actually stood him up.

Two minutes later, Sienna called again.

Hayden finally brought the phone to his ear.