While My Husband Cheated I Married His Powerful Brother novel Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Chapter 8 The Divorce

The divorce papers sat on the kitchen counter for three days.

Veyra looked at them every morning while she drank her coffee. She looked at them every night before she went to sleep. She had printed three copies. One for the lawyers. One for Caspian. One for herself, to remind herself that this was real.

Caspian had not signed them. He had looked at them, laughed, and thrown them in the trash.

"You don’t have the balls," he had said. "You’re too scared to actually leave."

She had picked the papers out of the trash and smoothed them flat. She had not argued. Arguing with Caspian was like arguing with a brick wall. The wall never changed its mind. It just stood there, heavy and immovable, waiting for you to exhaust yourself.

So she had stopped arguing. And she had started planning.

The trap was simple. Too simple, maybe. But Caspian had one weakness, and it was the same weakness that had destroyed their marriage: he was lazy. He did not read things carefully. He signed whatever she put in front of him because he assumed she was too stupid to trick him.

She had been counting on that.

The surgical consent form arrived by courier on a Tuesday. It was for a procedure she did not need, on a date she would not keep, at a hospital she had never visited. But Caspian would not know that. All he would see was the word surgery and the space for his signature as her spouse.

She placed it on top of the divorce papers. The same font. The same spacing. The same legal formatting.

Then she called him into the kitchen.

"I need you to sign this," she said. Her voice was steady. She had practiced in the mirror. "It’s for my ankle. The hospital needs spousal consent before they can operate."

He glanced at the paper. His eyes moved over the text. She could see him not reading it. She could see him already bored.

"Where do I sign?"

She pointed to the line. Right above the line that said I hereby consent to the dissolution of marriage in font so small it was almost invisible.

He signed.

She watched his pen move across the paper. Watched his name take shape in his familiar handwriting. Caspian Thorne. He had signed their marriage certificate the same way. The same loops. The same slant.

He had signed away his marriage without even reading it.

She waited until he left the room. Then she picked up the paper, folded it carefully, and placed it in an envelope.

Her hands were shaking.

She was not sure if it was fear or relief.

*

*

The courthouse was the same one where they had gotten married.

Veyra stood at the bottom of the steps and looked up at the gray stone building and felt nothing. No nostalgia. No sadness. Just a dull, empty quiet where her heart used to be.

Dorian was already inside. He had arrived early, because he was the type of man who arrived early to everything. His lawyers were there. Her lawyers were there. A judge was there, because Dorian Thorne could make a judge appear on a Tuesday afternoon with twenty-four hours’ notice.

She walked up the steps. Her ankle still hurt. The fracture was healing, but slowly. She used a cane. The cane made her feel old and broken, but she used it anyway because she could not afford to fall.

The ceremony took seven minutes.

Seven minutes to undo seven years.

Dorian stood beside her at the altar. He was wearing a dark suit with no tie. His hair was neat for once. He looked like a man attending a funeral, which was fitting, because that was exactly what this was.

The judge read the words. Veyra said I do in a voice that did not sound like her own. Dorian said I do in a voice that sounded exactly like him, flat, controlled and unreadable.

They signed the marriage certificate. His signature was sharp and efficient. Hers was shaky.

The judge pronounced them married.

And then it was over.

Dorian turned to her. He held out the marriage certificate. His fingers brushed hers and it was warm and brief.

"I have to fly abroad," he said. "Urgent business. I’ll be back in three days."

She nodded.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify