The Year She Stopped Being Crazy for Him novel Chapter 4

Words failed her. A suffocating tightness gripped her chest as she stormed back out, ablaze with fury.

The crowd of onlookers had vanished; Zeke and a few bodyguards had cleared the area.-

Hassan stood next to the black Bentley, his eyes lowered, his expression completely detached.

Natalie poured all her remaining strength into her words, the veins in her neck pulling taut. "Hassan, what are you doing out here?! Weren't we here to get a divorce? Get inside!"

"Natalie, you were the one who begged me to marry you. Did you forget?" When he finally looked up, his gaze was dark and razor-sharp. "You held me and told me that even if I didn't love you, as long as you could stay by my side, you'd be perfectly happy waiting for me for the rest of your life."

"None of that counts anymore!" Her chest heaved violently, her throat raw. "It means absolutely nothing now!"

A dull ache throbbed in her chest, tearing her heart open like a jagged wound.

For as long as she could remember, she had followed him like a shadow. He was six years older, and her family always told her to be polite to him. But she never used formal titles. She just called him Hassan.

As the heir to the Carlson family, he had grown up under crushing pressure. Mature and brilliant from a young age, he was the golden child every parent envied. When she couldn't figure out her homework, she went to him. When she fought with her parents, she ran to him. When she ran out of allowance or got into massive trouble, it was always him.

During her rebellious teenage years, she had a huge blowout with her family and ran away overseas. Hassan had tracked her down and, instead of lecturing her, matched her wild streak.

Those days abroad, they would lie on the deck of a yacht, staring up at the endless sky, feeling the ocean breeze. She would ask him endless questions—childish, bizarre, sometimes undeniably dark—until even she was sick of hearing her own voice. But he was endlessly patient, indulging every whim, his deep voice wrapping around her like the gentle sway of the sea.

She used to think he was exactly what the adults said—a flawless student entirely consumed by duty and academics. But during that time, he was wild with her. He taught her everything: racing, wilderness exploration, skydiving, and shooting.

Throughout her childhood, her teenage years, and into adulthood, he had always been the person she admired most. She genuinely believed she had seen a side of him no one else ever had. She thought what they had was entirely unique. That was why she had sworn she would gladly wait for him forever.

But now, he was different.

"Right. I'm just that vicious. I'm that selfish. So you need to divorce me immediately. They reopen at 2 PM. I'll stand right here and wait. I guarantee you'll get to divorce this vicious, selfish woman today!"

Hassan stared at her, his thinly veiled patience finally snapping. The last shred of his rationality warned him not to speak. He grabbed her by the wrist and hauled her into the car.

"Let me go!"

Against his strength, she was as helpless as a lamb.

The door slammed shut with a heavy thud. Inside, Natalie came face-to-face with the little boy quietly doing his homework in the backseat.

In that instant, the final thread of her sanity snapped. Her face flushed a deep, furious red as she glared at Hassan. "Are you even human?! You actually brought him here for me to see?! Do you believe I could kill him right now?!"