Our Anniversary, You Chose Her – I Chose Divorce

Holding the documents, Chloe Reed stared blankly at the open cabinet before her.

In the past, she used to help him organize his study: where to place the books he used most often, how to categorize regular and confidential documents, where to store important files...

These things were practically engraved in her muscle memory.

She felt no sense of discord entering this room. She was intimately familiar with every part of it, every nook and cranny.

After all, this place was once her home.

For the four years of their marriage, she had lived here.

’Why was I so resistant to coming back here before?’

’It was only because this place held so many of her emotions—her joys and sorrows. It had witnessed her growth and her changes, and it was also where her heartbreak was buried.’

’If she wanted to cut ties with the past, the first thing she had to distance herself from was this place.’

’But after everything, she had come full circle and returned.’

Her thoughts in a whirl, she tightened her grip on the documents, then turned, sat in the chair, and opened them to read.

These documents detailed Miles Hawthorne’s employment history abroad.

As she read on, her brow furrowed. ’There’s nothing suspicious in here, is there?’

”The day your grandmother was taken, after the assassination attempt outside the sanatorium, I had people investigate the staff’s connections. The trail led to Miles Hawthorne. He’s very close with the sanatorium’s director. I suspect he had something to do with that assassination attempt.”

Just then, Walker Grant’s voice sounded.

Chloe shook her head. ”Impossible.”

She closed the document folder and said, ”He’s been helping me this whole time. There’s no way he’d want me dead.”

Walker Grant watched her with cold indifference in his dark phoenix eyes. ”Why is he helping you like this? Has he asked for anything in return?”

Chloe said, ”I’m going to pay him a lot of money.”

”Hah...”

Walker Grant let out a soft chuckle. ”He doesn’t need money. He has his own businesses abroad. As a member of the Hawthorne family, his annual stock dividends are a substantial amount. Does it really make sense for him to help you this way, to the point of opposing me, just for the money you promised?”

A cold glint appeared in Chloe’s clear eyes. ”And you’re guessing he’s the one who wants to kill me based on just that? The information you dug up doesn’t even point to a motive. Your speculation is baseless.”

”Of course *he* doesn’t have a motive. But what if his boss does?” Walker Grant walked over to stand beside her. He opened a drawer and handed her a folder.

”Chloe Reed, it’s time you learned who you really are.”

Hearing his words, Chloe’s eyelid twitched violently.

’What... what does he mean by that?’

Looking at the folder he was holding out, Chloe reached for it, feeling a strange sense of unease. The moment she flipped it open and saw the contents, her pupils contracted sharply.

”This... how is this possible?”

What he had given her was a DNA parentage report between herself, Charles Reed, and Autumn Linton.

The results showed that she was not biologically related to them.

She was not their biological daughter.

’But... but...’

She snapped her head up to look at him. ”I already had a DNA test done! It said she and I were mother and daughter!”

The expression on Walker Grant’s handsome face remained impassive, but his phoenix eyes seemed to deepen. ”Do you remember the details of how you got that test done?”

Chloe replied, ”Of course I remember. I asked Miles Hawthorne to find someone to do it for me. The first time I went to get the results, they told me there had been a system malfunction and the data was lost. They made me wait several more days.”

As she spoke, the expression on her face went slack.