Leaving
1037 Words
“What else did she say?”
Charles found it hard to believe that Anna would agree to the divorce so easily. A woman who had gone through so much to become Mrs. Bennett, the wife of Bennett Global Enterprises' CEO, wouldn’t just give up her position without a fight.
His frown deepened as he tightly gripped the divorce agreement, the paper crumpling slightly under the pressure of his hand.
Michael Collins, his assistant, noticed the tension in Charles’s face and assumed that Anna had made unreasonable demands in her modifications, pushing the limits. Internally, Michael began to harbor a quiet disdain for Anna. He had been present when the CEO had instructed Brian Peterson to draft the original divorce agreement and knew that Anna had been more than fairly compensated. If she still wasn’t satisfied, Michael began to wonder if Anna’s love for Charles was ever genuine or if it was always about the wealth and status he represented.
Curious, Michael sneaked a glance at the revised divorce agreement, expecting to find a list of demands. Instead, like Charles, he was stunned.
Anna wanted nothing—not even the shares that the old man had gifted her, which she was now returning to the CEO.
Michael was baffled. How could Anna, who once seemed so attached to her status and lifestyle, now be walking away with nothing, even giving the CEO a parting gift of sorts? The 5% shares of BGE might not seem like much on paper, but the annual dividends alone would have allowed her to live in luxury for the rest of her life.
“Nothing else, sir. Mrs. Morgan only asked that you arrange a time to finalize the divorce at the courthouse,” Brian Peterson said.
Rather than bringing Charles any sense of satisfaction or relief, Brian’s words only deepened the unsettling feeling gnawing at him.
“Leave me,” Charles ordered, his tone brooking no argument.
Brian Peterson and Michael Collins quickly exited the office, leaving Charles alone with his thoughts.
Once alone, his expression darkened further.
Leaning back in his leather chair, the coldness in his eyes deepened as he processed what had just transpired.
He refused to believe that Anna had genuinely agreed to the divorce. The same woman who was adamant about keeping the marriage intact just yesterday had suddenly changed her mind overnight?
Charles let out a bitter, cynical laugh, setting aside the divorce agreement that Brian Peterson had brought him.
An unexplainable anxiety churned in his chest, a sensation so foreign to him that he didn’t know how to handle it. He reached for the work on his desk, hoping to distract himself, but for the first time in his life, he found himself unable to concentrate. The words on the page blurred together, meaningless.
“Madam, are you going somewhere?”
A servant asked when she noticed Anna Morgan descending the stairs with a suitcase in hand.
Everyone in the Bennett household was aware that Anna and Charles’s relationship was strained. Even the ladies at the Bennett family’s ancestral home knew that the eldest son had been coerced into the marriage by the old patriarch. Now that the old man had passed, Mr. Bennett had filed for divorce. It was no surprise that the mood in the house was somber, especially for a woman who had loved her husband so deeply that she would have given her life for him.
Recalling the lawyer’s visit yesterday, who had bluntly discussed the divorce in front of the servants, Juan Rodriguez couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sympathy for Anna.
There were rumors that Mrs. Bennett was nothing more than a stand-in for the man’s true love, a mere substitute. And now, it seemed those rumors were true.
“No, I’m moving out,” Anna replied with a soft smile. “Thank you for taking care of me this past year, Juan Rodriguez.”
Anna had never been a difficult mistress to serve. The only thing that ever truly bothered her was anything related to Charles.
“Are you really leaving, madam?”
Anna nodded, the smile never leaving her face, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes. She suppressed the brief stab of pain in her chest and continued walking toward the door.
After taking a few steps, she suddenly stopped, as if remembering something, and turned back to Juan.
“Oh, and could you arrange for the crabapple trees in the garden to be removed?”
“What? But madam, you planted those yourself…” Juan Rodriguez frowned in confusion.
“Cut them down. Charles doesn’t like them,” she replied simply.
Since the divorce was final, it was better to leave cleanly without leaving anything behind that might irritate Charles.
With those words, Anna walked away without a backward glance, leaving behind a house that had never truly been a home.
When Charles returned home later that day, the first thing he noticed was a digger in the yard, uprooting the crabapple trees that had been a fixture in the garden. His face instantly darkened, an icy fury settling in his chest.
“What’s going on here?!” he demanded, his voice sharp.
“Sir, you’re back,” Juan hurried over, sensing the tension radiating from Charles. “It was the madam’s order. She said…”
“What did she say?” Charles interrupted, his tone dangerously calm.
“She said you didn’t like them,” Juan replied cautiously, watching as Charles's expression softened slightly. Gathering his courage, he added, “The madam… she has already left.”
Left?
The word echoed in Charles’s mind, and with it came the same unsettling anxiety that had plagued him at the office earlier. It twisted in his chest, making it hard to breathe.
But he kept his face impassive, merely responding with a heavy “Hmm” before heading inside.
Just before stepping through the door, he paused and added, “Stop the work and restore everything to how it was.”
“Yes, sir,” Juan replied, though he was thoroughly confused.
Everyone knew that Charles had never liked the madam, so why was he suddenly so concerned about the garden she had nurtured?
- Writer
