Chapter 7
“Claire.. “Grant’s voice shook uncontrollably.
“Even if you blame me for being late today.-even if you’re angry with me-you can’t make a joke out of our marriage!”
Even now, he still believed this was nothing more than a performance.
Claire said nothing.
She simply stood there, so calm that she barely blinked.
Julian gave a quiet laugh and unhurriedly buttoned his suit jacket.
“Mr. Prescott, watch your mouth.”
“Claire is my wife now.”
Grant glared at Julian, wild with rage.
“Who the hell do you think you are? You took advantage of her!”
“Took advantage of her?”
Julian walked slowly toward him.
“Grant, there’s something you probably don’t know.”
“I’ve had my eye on Claire since our junior year of high school.”
Grant went rigid, his pupils contracting sharply.
“I thought I would never have a chance with her.”
“So I truly should thank you, Mr. Prescott.”
“Thank you for giving me this opportunity. Thank you for pushing her toward me with your own hands.”
“Because of you, I can finally marry the woman I’ve wanted all these years.”
Grant spun toward Claire and stared at her wildly.
“Is that true? Claire, answer me!”
“You married some random man just to punish me? Is that how little our eight years together meant to you?”
Claire finally moved.
Lifting her skirt, she stopped ane step away from him.
Eight years?”
“Grant, what made you think I would stay here holding on to something you destroyed with your own
hands?”
Grant stared at her.
Claire shook her head slightly.
“All of you said I was easy to calm down.”
“I let that work on me once-for eight years.’
“Once was enough.”
She pulled out Tessa’s spare phone and threw it onto the lawn in front of Grant.
The phone rolled twice across the grass before coming to rest with its lit screen facing upward.
The car door slammed shut, completely blocking Claire from his view.
Grant gasped for breath as he reached down with a trembling hand and picked up the phone.
It wasn’t locked.
A WhatsApp group chat was open on the screen.
The first messages that burned into his eyes were the ones he had sent the night before.
[Just let Claire put up with it this once. She’s easy to calm down.]
[Once we’re married, I’ll have plenty of time to make it up to her.]
He scrolled farther down.
There were Tessa’s and Ethan’s smug comments, their agreement, and their ridicule.
A deafening roar seemed to explode inside Grant’s head.
He had believed his plan was flawless.
He had mistaken his condescending handout for an act of devotion.
He had thought their eight-year relationship was entirely under his control.
All of it had died the moment Claire saw those messages.
She had known all along.
She hadn’t screamed, confronted him, or shed a single tear.
She had simply switched grootns-and chosen a different life.
Then she had thrown the entire mess, along with all his sordid, shameful behavior, straight back in his face.
Grant dropped to his knees on the lawn and stared at the messages.
Each line now felt like a hard slap across his face.
It wasn’t that Claire had no temper.
She simply couldn’t be bothered to give him another chance.
She hadn’t even considered him worth an argument. She had only left the group chat open and watched his
hypocrisy and schemes play out like a cheap circus act.
His head rang as countless memories flashed through his mind.
Then his pupils constricted as a thought struck him.
They still had to make the marriage official.
Of course-that was what they had agreed to do.
They were supposed to go to the County Clerk and Recorder’s Office the morning after the wedding.
Claire valued her promises more than life itself. Once she gave her word, she never broke it.
She was only angry.
Julian was nothing more than a convenient stand-in she had picked to get back at Grant.
Legally, the two of them were still nothing to each other.