The Year I Stopped Being His novel Chapter 27

"What is this?"

"Divorce papers."

The air in the room seemed to solidify.

Garrison's face remained entirely blank, though his fingers slowly curled into a fist. A second later, a mocking, derisive smirk touched the corner of his lips.

"Are you done throwing a tantrum, Sloane?"

"I'm not throwing a tantrum."

Her voice was as tranquil as still water, yet it carried an unshakable weight.

Making this decision had not been easy. It meant throwing away the romance she had once dreamed of and the marriage she had painstakingly maintained for five years. More devastatingly, it meant abandoning her only viable chance at a medical cure.

But what was the point of holding on?

She refused to live that way for another second. She didn't want another day of it!

Over the past few weeks, Sloane had done a lot of thinking. Ever since her mother passed away, the only thing she had desperately fought for was a "home"—a place where she belonged, even if it lacked love.

The tragic irony was that in both the Taylor family and the Foster family, she had remained an eternal outsider.

For twenty-six years, she had played the pathetic clown, constantly begging for scraps of affection.

In her final days, she was done begging, and she was done torturing herself. For once in her life, she just wanted to live for herself.

"Reason?" Garrison demanded, his voice steady but carrying a dangerous, icy undertow.

"Irreconcilable differences."

"I said," Sloane tilted her head up, meeting his gaze without flinching, "the Foster family can keep the child. I'm done."

"Done?"

Garrison repeated the word as if she had just told the most absurd joke in existence.

He raised a hand, his fingers clamping down on her chin. The grip wasn't painful, but it forced her to face him entirely. "Look at me, Sloane. Is this what you came all the way to Stockholm to tell me? You flew across the world just to say you're abandoning this family, and you don't even want your own son?"

"Yes." She didn't hesitate for a microsecond.

Garrison stared at her for a very long time. In the dark, his eyes swirled with a terrifying storm of emotions—shock, fury, bewilderment, and a faint trace of panic he didn't even realize he felt.

For the very first time, Garrison realized that Sloane had fundamentally changed.

He couldn't pinpoint exactly what was different. Perhaps he had never bothered to truly understand her, always arrogantly assuming that as long as Archie was there, she would stay tethered to his side forever.