Ex husband's Plea for Forgiveness

"Mellie, did I upset you?" Jonas called out as he strode behind his marching wife. It was a spur of the moment gesture; he didn’t expect her to react the way that she did. He had already been unsettled to begin with, and now that he was seeing his wife obviously displeased with something, he teetered on the edge of panic.

For a brief moment he wondered when he started to fear the instances when his wife just walked away without a single word.

He finally caught up to her, and reached out for her hand and held it tightly. "I’m sorry," he whispered, his voice low and heavy with some unnamed emotion.

Melinda turned to look at him, and said with utter indifference, "I hope this doesn’t happen again."

Jonas felt his breath hitch. There was no mistaking his wife’s disgust, nor the object of such emotion.

The fact that he had no idea how to salvage the situation only made him further disheartened. "I... Yes, I will be more careful in the future."

Melinda turned away from him and looked ahead. His grip was still tight around her hand. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to steady herself

She needed to harden her heart, to separate her emotions from the circumstances. She had been burnt many times before, and she would only continue to take painful hits if she revealed her true feelings to this man. "In the future," she repeated his words, saying each one crisply, "we will be divorcing. Just as soon as you get the right to inheritance. Like we agreed to."

She knew, despite being buried deep in her own personal affairs, that Aron and Rey had been more involved in business matters in recent days.

They were no doubt establishing their foothold in the company, making sure Nelson acknowledged their existence and contributions to the family enterprise.

Jonas's hold on her finally slackened. It seemed to him that the place grew colder as soon as the word "divorce" came out of her mouth.

He felt tight on his chest and found it hard to breathe, so he tugged at the collar of his shirt in an attempt to loosen it, with no small amount of irritation. "It's up to you," he said, his voice cold and hard.

To his wife, however, his answer sounded noncommittal somehow, and it didn’t satisfy her. Well. Enough with this farce. "Let’s go home." She matched his cold tone, not bothering to look back even once.

He didn’t reach for her again.

It was already eight o’clock when they arrived back at the mansion. It was well past dinner time, but the main villa was still lively.

Emily sat lounging on the sofa with Queena, reading fashion magazines. Across the living room table, Yulia was peacefully nibbling on a bowl of fruit while browsing the internet as per her usual hobby.

Attuned as she was to the dynamics of the household, she could sense something wrong as soon as her brother and his wife entered the foyer. 'Did they have a fight?'

She decided to prod. With fake cheer, she called out to her brother. "Oh, Jonas, you’re back. Aunt Queena had some dinner prepared for you in the kitchen."

At that, the other two women raised their heads from their magazines to look at the young couple. Emily, in particular, looked at them with an innocent expression on her face.

The truth was that all evening her attention had been towards the driveway, anticipating Jonas's arrival the entire time. She had known they were back the moment their car drove through the gates.

reprimanding voice. "Did you really have to miss dinner for your

at her daughter-in-law. Melinda only paused and waited for Jonas to say

her intent. He scrambled for an excuse. "I had something I needed to deal with. I asked Melinda to

say as much, but held herself back. She never really wanted to risk

ahead and left the mansion. Didn’t you already know we have a guest in the residence? Don’t you even know the basics of entertaining

She could never bring herself to be angry at her darling boy, so naturally she vented her anger on

spite of being insulted by her mother-in-law in front of other people—a sister-in-law that despised her, and her husband’s old flame. And lest anyone forget—in front of her very own

her seat with glee. She always loved witnessing Melinda being thrust into such humiliating positions, and she jumped at this chance

well that the thing between Emily and my brother was all in the past," she said to Melinda in a

It was no secret that if the older woman had her way, she would rather have Emily next to Jonas

that single word, and she shrank back in her seat immediately. It was Emily’s turn to step in and manipulate the conversation. "Yulia is still

conniving women under her

Emily was the family member in

tone civil, but couldn’t help the haughty edge to it. She tilted her chin

probably wouldn’t have

gave them a regal smile that

over the room. She mentioned no names, and still everyone present knew

emotions she felt at the moment. Beside her,

subject! It seems like you really are lacking in proper manners. I will have to ask Gavin to

in the face of such blatant bullying, and her response was classy and civil,

today. I’m sure that mother-in-law and sister-in-law are more than

at her temples,

brother’s earlier warning seemingly thrown out the

even stuck a finger to the air, and was pointing at Melinda rudely as she spat out her accusations. She was

her, and only continued to rub at her temples.

looked at Emily, shooting her with a weary glance. "Miss Bai, I do apologize. You can come visit the Gu's mansion some other day, and I will make sure to

room, leaving her

anyone to say another word, he called for Gavin, asked for something light to be

how careful he was in giving out his instructions, Emily felt the jealousy rear its head. Her fingernails dug into the palm

her. "I’ll ask Gavin to arrange a driver

smile faltered. This was his way of asking her—politely—to leave. Despite his manner,

and then looked at their guest warmly. "There are dozens of spare rooms in this mansion. And it is rather

single-word warning. Queena knew that tone. And she knew

go this time around. "It’s all right, Aunt Queena. I’m so sorry for overstaying my welcome. I have a

beamed. "What a good girl you are! Well it isn’t safe

implied that he was at the end of his