The Contracted Ever After (Cordelia and Ronan) novel Chapter 36

Cordelia had some sweet reveries about Ronan, but she wasn't pinning high hopes on the marriage. Being kicked out, she didn't feel the sting of loss or gain.

She even shot Adrian a message: [Look what you've done. You threatened Ronan and he threw me out straight away. How much space you reckon I occupy in his heart? He throws me a dime when he's in a good mood and I don't even dare to take it, yet you thought it was a good idea to blackmail him!]

The whole point of this was to get Adrian to drop the idea of blackmailing Ronan, to alert him that Ronan was no pushover.

Adrian, seeing the message, got even more pissed off. He too realized that Ronan was no easy mark, let alone someone to be trifled with.

"Heartless! Cold-blooded!" Adrian muttered bitterly.

"Who are you talking about?" Jamie asked.

Adrian was the Colby family's driver, tasked with taking Jamie to the accounting firm today. Jamie had his own firm.

"Ronan, he kicked Cordelia out!" Adrian said.

"Why?" Jamie asked.

"I don't know. Maybe he did it to mock and trample on the dignity of us poor folks. Who knows what his real motive was?" Adrian replied with a dark chuckle.

As expected, Jamie furrowed his brows.

After a while, Adrian went on, "Also, when I last visited Ronan, he said that his marriage with Cordelia was just a formality. Apparently, Ronan's grandfather is sick and he needed to get married to show him how happy he is, just to put the old man's mind at ease. That's why he picked Cordelia."

That was Adrian's well-considered conclusion.

During his last visit to Ronan's place, the maid had whispered to him that Barney was ill and sleeping, asking him to keep his voice down. Adrian also noticed the medical supplies and loads of medications around Ronan's house.

Later, Adrian found out that Ronan's grandfather had only recently moved in, most likely because his condition had worsened. Ronan was probably putting on a show, clandestinely getting married to cheer up his grandfather and then quietly divorcing, with Barney being the only one in the dark.

Ronan kicking Cordelia out really did make it seem like there were no feelings between them. No wonder he showed her no sympathy.

So, Adrian figured that the key to the whole marriage situation was Barney. Barney was the key!

It seemed like people enjoyed watching her rise and then fall hard. The sounds of mocking and ridicule kept ringing in her ears.

Jordan often made Cordelia work overtime and assigned her the heaviest tasks, under the pretext that young people needed to toughen up.

Cordelia didn't complain; she just quietly got on with her work. She knew Jordan was deliberately making things difficult for her, but she didn't hold it against him. After all, power came with responsibility. She did rely on Ronan to get out of her financial woes, so she was okay with facing a bit of backlash now.

One day, Cordelia didn't finish work until five in the morning. As she packed her bag, she stared at the umbrella inside and fell into deep thought. She wanted to see Ronan again, but never got the chance.

As Cordelia was in the elevator yawning and clutching her bag, a man appeared before her. Thinking she was seeing things due to fatigue, she rubbed her eyes.

"Haven't you seen me before?" Ronan’s cold voice came through.

"Mr. Evans? Why are you here so early?" Cordelia was pleasantly surprised.

She had been longing to see him but never got the chance. Maybe her prayers had been answered. And now, here he was, standing right in front of her.