Chapter 10
All of his assets had already been frozen and seized after the company’s bankruptcy and lawsuits.
I didn’t want a cent from him.
All I wanted was to pull myself out of his rotten life as quickly as possible.
On the day the paperwork was finalized, I saw him one last time outside the courthouse.
In just half a month, he looked twenty years older.
His hair was streaked with gray, his eyes were muddy, and the suit that once fit him so sharply was now wrinkled and shapeless.
When he saw me, he tried to reach for me.
“Catherine…”
I stepped back, avoiding him.
“Don’t touch me.”
My voice carried no warmth.
“Gregory, your worst mistake wasn’t cheating, and it wasn’t lying to me.
“It was that you have never loved anyone-not even yourself.
“You only loved your pride, your profit, and your fake perfect life.”
He froze where he stood, staring at me, tears spilling down.
I didn’t look at him again. I turned away and left in a cab.
In the rearview mirror, his figure grew smaller and smaller until it blurred into nothing.
One year later.
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With the savings I’d built before the divorce, I bought an old house with a courtyard in Miami, near the river, and turned it into a cafe.
I called it Caelum Cafe-a place to carry me through my storms, and through my life.
The hundred-year-old oak tree in the courtyard was the biggest reason I kept it.
In autumn, its branches turned deep bronze, as beautiful as a painting.
The sun was shining brightly one afternoon. I sat in a rocking chair in the yard, reading a book leisurely.
A wealthy lady in a tight-fitting dress walked in, swaying her hips, with a fake smile I knew all too well.
She was one of the women who used to play card games with my mother-in-law. She used to eye me with sympathy.
“Oh my, isn’t this Catherine? I didn’t expect you to open such an elegant cafe here.”
She glanced around, her sharp eyes barely hiding her calculation.
“I heard you’re close with the owner of that piece of land in New Orleans? You know, my son’s company has been looking for-”
I cut her off before she could finish.
“Mrs. Morris, here we only talk about coffee, not business.”
I called over my barista. “Jaxon, see the guest out.”
Her face turned blue, then white, then blue again before she stormed out embarrassed.
I watched her leave without the slightest ripple in my heart.
Stephanie called.
“Catherine, are you busy counting money?” she teased.
“Busy catching some sun.” I chuckled.
Her tone turned gloating.
“Got some gossip for you.
“Gregory was sentenced the other day-five years for fraud.
“I heard he wasn’t having a good time in there. That pretty boy was so hated that he had his legs broken right after he got in.
“His dad didn’t make it. He passed away last month.
“His mom’s still lying in the nursing home, completely demented.
“Every day she clutches a pillow calling it her grandson, telling people her daughter-in-law is you. Pretty ironic, isn’t
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it?
“As for Emily, I heard she scraped out the last bit of money from her father.
“She had plastic surgery, changed her identity, and married abroad.”
I listened quietly, without a ripple in my heart.
Those people, those things, felt like stories from another lifetime and had nothing to do with me anymore.
Stephanie asked softly on the other end.
“Catherine, do you regret destroying them in that way?”
I looked at the oak tree in the courtyard, its leaves glowing in the sunlight.
“Why should I regret it?” I said.
“I didn’t destroy them. I only took back the life that should have always been mine.”
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