Chapter 6 She Must Divorce

Larry's brow drew together slightly, as if the sight of Aria had somehow displeased him.

Back when Sophie first returned to the country, Aria had simply assumed Larry had found someone else. It wasn't until she saw Sophie's photograph and the tenderness spilling from Larry's eyes in that image that she realized she'd lost completely.

At the beginning, she had tried to express her dissatisfaction to Larry. But all he cared about was that she'd secretly followed him and Sophie, firmly believing that her actions proved she was scheming and manipulative.

Now, seeing her here, he probably assumed she'd followed them once more.

Aria felt a cold laugh rise in her chest. She decided to pretend she hadn't noticed Larry at all and turned back to the saleswoman to continue trying on the necklace.

But Sophie approached first, recognizing her immediately, her eyes widened slightly, deliberately showing a look of pleasant surprise.

"Aria! I truly did not expect that you would be the one interested in this necklace. I absolutely adore it too. Would you mind letting me have it instead?"

Sophie's eyes gleamed with anticipation, but when Aria met her gaze coolly, she saw the greed hidden beneath that carefully crafted look of hope.

Sophie was not simply asking her to give up a piece of jewelry.

She was telling her to give up Larry.

But there had never been anything for her to return. Larry's heart had belonged to Sophie from the very beginning, hadn't it?

The situation felt both ridiculous and ironic to Aria. A faint, brittle smile appeared at the corners of her lips.

"If you like it so much, you're welcome to have the gentleman beside you make an offer. Let the store decide who gets it. Why bother asking me?"

The gentleman beside you?

Larry's expression darkened further.

First she'd asked for a divorce, and now she was addressing him as though he were a complete stranger. How far was Aria planning to push this act?

Larry stepped forward, hands in his pockets, his expression darkening as he stared at Aria.

"Mom's still in the hospital, and you're here shopping for emerald necklaces? Aria, do you have any conscience at all? Is your heart made of stone?"

Aria felt a sharp pain tighten in her chest, and heat immediately rushed into her eyes.

Once, she'd given Larry her entire heart. All she'd received in return was his cruelty and indifference.

Now she only wanted to take that heart back, but in Larry's eyes, that made her more heartless than before?

How utterly absurd.

Aria bit down hard on her lip, tasting the sharp metallic sweetness of blood before finally suppressing the churning emotions inside her.

She turned her attention to the saleswoman.

"How much is this necklace?"

The clerk glanced at Larry and Sophie, then back at Aria, the disdain in her expression became even more obvious.

"This emerald necklace is from this year's collection. It's valued at over five million dollars. Miss, if it is beyond your means, perhaps you should step aside for someone who can."

Sophie deliberately leaned closer to Larry, sighing with exaggerated concern.

"Oh, so Aria can't afford this necklace. Larry, maybe you should give Aria a more generous allowance? As for the necklace, I can pay for it myself, after all, I have a career. Aria's situation is different.She has not worked for quite some time"

Whether it was intentional or not, Aria could clearly hear Sophie placing emphasis on those last few words.

And though Sophie's words seemed considerate on the surface, every syllable dripped with scorn and condescension.

Aria's heart clenched. Instinctively, she looked at Larry.

As expected, he offered no explanation and no defense on her behalf. Instead, he calmly took out a black card and handed it to the clerk.

"We'll take the emerald necklace."

Then he turned to Aria, his eyes cold and hard.

"Aria, you should not be causing a scene here. After all these years, no one has wronged you."

Aria opened her mouth, but her throat felt sealed shut, as if something had blocked it completely. No sound would come. She could only feel her heart seemingly exploding inside her chest.

He was right. Larry had never wronged her.

It had been her own decision to save him. It had also been her own choice to accept everything that followed.

Aria lowered her gaze, slowly clenching her fists. The bitterness in her heart burst through like a dam breaking, flooding everything.

Perhaps she should have come to her senses long ago and ended things with Larry decisively. Then she wouldn't be standing here today, a laughingstock in everyone's eyes.

The saleswoman quickly wrapped the emerald necklace and personally handed it to Sophie.

Sophie accepted it gracefully, then turned toward Aria with an apologetic smile.

"Aria, please don't think I stole this from you. If you see any other jewelry you like, I'd be happy to have Larry pay for it."

Sophie carried herself like the lady of the house, as if she were the rightful Mrs. York.

Aria shook her head. She had no desire to continue this pointless exchange. She turned to leave.

However, before she could take more than a few steps, Larry suddenly appeared in front of her, blocking her path.

He raised his hand and casually tossed something into Aria's arms, a packaged agate bracelet. Compared to the emerald necklace, it was clearly inferior in quality.

"Sophie picked this out for you. She said it's to make up for things."

Aria pressed her lips together. Her gaze dropped to her left hand, which had long since become withered, unable to suppress a bitter laugh.

"Is this supposed to be compensation? Are you sure it's not just another humiliation?"

Larry's gaze also fell on Aria's hand. A flicker of pain crossed his dark eyes before being quickly suppressed by composure.

"Sophie said that even with your condition, you can live like a normal person. As long as you don't dwell on it, no one else will either. Besides, this is Sophie's goodwill gesture, how can you twist it into something ugly?"

Ever since Sophie returned, every argument between her and Larry about Sophie ended the same way—with Larry taking Sophie's side unconditionally.

No matter how emotional Aria became, in Larry’s eyes, she was nothing more than someone making a scene.

At this moment, as she looked at the man she had once shared years of her life with, Aria felt an overwhelming sense of exhaustion wash over her.

She truly didn't want to keep fighting anymore.

"Larry, is it that everything Sophie says is right, and everything I do is wrong? If that's the case, why don't you just divorce me and be with Sophie?"

Her voice was calm, but beneath that calmness lay deep fatigue and quiet sorrow.

Larry frowned, and the trace of pain in his eyes seemed to deepen slightly.

"Aria, is marriage really something so easily disposable to you? You want to get married, so you do. You don't want to anymore, so you divorce. Do you know what the fundamental difference is between you and Sophie? She never makes things difficult for people. But you, you're always making things difficult for everyone else just to get what you want."

Each word from Larry struck Aria’s heart sharply, leaving her struggling to breathe.

Even after Larry turned and walked away, Aria remained frozen in place, her heart feeling as though it had been torn completely apart by invisible hands, the pain unbearable.

If she'd known Larry would come to resent her this much, she would have refused his marriage proposal no matter what.

This marriage was like a cage. She'd once believed she could nurture something beautiful within it, but over the years, the cage had become shackles, leaving her with no way to escape..

She didn't want to waste the rest of her life trapped inside.

She had to get this divorce.