Reclaiming the Empire

Everyone in the hall turned to look at us.

The clerk jumped in fright and dropped the stamp on the table. "Sir, what are you doing? Don't be rash!"

Javier ignored her completely and stared fixedly at me, his eyes swirling with complex emotions.

Shock, regret, and even a trace of... panic?

I calmly pushed his hand away and said to the clerk, "Ma'am, please continue."

"Michelle!" He grabbed my wrist. "We're not getting divorced!"

"Why not?" I pulled free and looked at him coldly. "Javier, you were the one who asked for the divorce. Regretting it now doesn't seem a bit ridiculous?"

"I..." He opened his mouth as if to explain but found no starting point.

In the end, he could only repeat over and over, "We're not divorcing. Michelle, let me explain..."

I refused to waste more words on him and said directly to the clerk, "Please hurry. I'm in a rush."

The woman glanced at me, then at Javier who teetered on the edge of breakdown, her face full of hesitation. "Well... maybe you two should talk it over more?"

Amid the chaos, a younger clerk leaned in. "Clark, hasn't the stamp already been applied?"

He pointed at the papers on the table.

In the earlier commotion, the fallen stamp had landed perfectly on the divorce papers.

Javier followed his finger and froze completely.

The clerk handed us each a divorce paper. "You two, the procedure is complete."

I took mine and slipped it into my bag.

Then I turned decisively and walked away.

Just as I prepared to leave, a thud sounded behind me.

I looked back and saw Javier slump to the floor.

He tilted his head up at me, eyes red-rimmed. "Why?"

His voice rasped terribly, laced with endless despair and confusion. "Why did you hide it from me?"

I stopped and looked down at him. "Hide what from you? That my grandfather founded the Walsh Group, and Kaiden was just a student he sponsored? Or that the shares in my name were my inheritance from my grandfather, not charity from the Walsh family?"

His pupils contracted sharply.

I smiled. "Javier, I did try to tell you. Right after we married, I wanted to explain everything. But did you ever listen? Every time I mentioned my grandfather, you accused me of being ungrateful to the Walsh family, always clinging to a dead man. In your heart, the only thing that mattered was the Walsh family that could help you rise. You never truly respected me as the 'false heiress,' did you?"

Each word stabbed into his heart like a knife.

His face drained of color inch by inch.

Yes, he looked down on me.

That explained why, when Brenna returned, he sided with her without hesitation.

In his eyes, Brenna proved the legitimate Walsh heiress, the one who could bring him greater benefits.

While I remained nothing more than a disposable substitute.

Now he regretted it.

But regret offered no remedy in this world.

I withdrew my gaze and stopped looking at him. "Javier, from today on, we're even."

With that, I walked out of the city hall without looking back.

The sunlight outside shone brighter than ever.

And my new life officially began in that moment.