Once Bitten, Twice Shy

The man's voice was cold as always. "What is it?"

Harmony lowered her voice and said a very clear phrase.

Timothy did not hesitate at all after hearing that and replied, "Okay."

…

The word 'okay' resounded in Harmony's ears like a big hand that was comforting all her sadness, grief, and unwillingness.

Back then, 'that man' told her that the process was of little significance. What was important was the result.

Everything between the process and the result was unimportant, as long as the end goal could be achieved and they were the ones who had the last laugh.

Therefore, it did not matter that Samantha forced her to not marry Timothy three years ago and made her lose her career. She was willing to exchange all that to get the best possible result.

Harmony's mood improved completely.

She did not need to be busy with her career and could rest well while concentrating on letting Vincent treat her body. In the future, she could conceive Timothy's baby and give birth to the Barkers' heir.

She stroked her lower abdomen and saw an extremely bright future in front of her.

…

The live broadcast had just ended but the internet was already abuzz.

Of course, everyone was not particularly interested in Harmony's sudden retirement. The liveliest discussion centered on her 'interference' in someone else's family.

Whose mistress did she become?

Plenty of guesses had been put forth, while busybodies flocked to Waybo and all other major forums for fear that they would miss any news or be left behind if they so much as blinked.

Inside the apartment, Rochelle scrolled through Waybo and was a little resentful to see that Timothy and Samantha were not on the list of couples that netizens guessed.

Timothy, that scumbag, was to blame for establishing the image of a good husband. He was so popular that his name did not even make the list.

She could not resist saying to Samantha, "Hey, Sammy, how about I register a fake account to drop some news so that scumbag Timothy and his pretentious b*tch Harmony can feel the wrath of the netizens!"

No one would tolerate that.

Although she knew that Rochelle wanted to vent that anger on her behalf, Samantha shook her head gently and said, "Forget it. Grandma has a Waybo account too, I'm worried she might scroll on it if she's bored and ends up seeing something. That wouldn't be good."

"Fair enough." Rochelle nodded and gave up on the idea.

Harmony was already ruined anyway, and if Timothy eventually married her, everyone would know that he was the scumbag who had an affair. There was no need for Rochelle to do something that was already destined to happen.

Moreover, being evil would only harm oneself and she did not want to get her own hands dirty.

After a pause, Rochelle asked again, "Sammy, are you sure you want to sign the divorce papers?"

After all, the three conditions that she proposed had been fulfilled.

Samantha finished the last strawberry and nodded. "Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Samantha caressed her lower abdomen lightly, and said, "I put forward those three conditions simply to get justice for my baby and I. I didn't do it to keep Timothy around."

There was a sarcastic little smile on the corners of her lips. "Why should I keep a man trapped when his heart isn't on me at all? It's pointless and I'll only become more and more inferior to the point that I'll lose myself in the process."

She was in the same situation two years ago and nearly could not climb out of it.

She found it funny to think about how she once did not want to live anymore.

When she finally woke up and looked back at all the stupid things she did, she realized just how laughable it all really was.

It was not as though those heartless individuals would feel anything to see her life ruined. In fact, they might even be laughing at her!

From that time onward, she knew that she had to love and care for herself.

Rochelle had prepared some comforting words, but Samantha saw her swallowing it back down again. All she could do was open her arms and hug Samantha.

For Rochelle, it was enough that Samantha was happy.

Samantha smiled and hugged her back too.

The two hugged each other lovingly for some time. Rochelle then got up and went to brew some herbal tea for Samantha. She picked up her phone and her finger hovered over the screen for a few seconds before she called Timothy.

He answered about ten seconds later. "Hello."

Samantha gulped gently, cut straight to the chase, and said bluntly, "Since you've fulfilled my conditions, I'll keep my word and sign the divorce agreement."

A moment later, she added, "You can just get someone to send the divorce agreement over tomorrow. There's no need for us to meet anymore."

Timothy said nothing unnecessary and merely answered. "Okay."

His response was just as succinct and indifferent.

Samantha's lips twitched and she hung up.

Some people could remain friends even after divorce, but she did not even want to remain strangers with Timothy. It was better, perhaps, that they forgot about each other.

There was a ring on the doorbell at nine the next morning.

Rochelle yawned and went to open the door, where she saw a well-dressed Ronald standing there. Her irritation at being roused from her sleep, coupled with her resentment toward Timothy, prompted her to deride him, "Is he really in such a rush that he sent you here so early in the morning? If a stranger saw this, they might've thought that the scumbag was overly excited to live his new life!"

Ronald was trembling and did not dare say a thing.

He could only do as his boss ordered!

Samantha came over and glanced at Rochelle reproachfully. "Don't make things hard for Ronald. He's just obeying orders."

She smiled at Ronald and said, "Please come in, Ronald."

Ronald looked at Samantha gratefully and felt that his boss's wife was still the most beautiful and kind-hearted woman he had ever met. Unfortunately, she would no longer be his boss's wife.

He could not help but feel sad and regretful.

Inside the living room, Samantha and Rochelle sat on the sofa while Ronald took out two contracts from his briefcase. He then placed both of them on the coffee table.

He explained, "Ms. Larsson, this is the divorce agreement and this is the share transfer agreement. Please have a look. If there aren't any problems, you can go ahead and sign it."

"Sure."

Samantha perused through the two documents and found no problems, so she reached for the pen and signed her name.

Despite signing her name often and writing it smoothly for a long time now, she felt as though she had a bit of difficulty in writing it down.

Her expression remained unchanged but her fingers were trembling somewhat.

She tried to control her trembling as best as she could and signed her name correctly to seal the deal.

With the last stroke of the pen, Timothy—the name that was rooted in her heart—seemed to have been ripped out forcefully.

As it turned out, Timothy had never been hers…not in the past, not in the future.

She had repeatedly showered her love onto the wrong person.

Samantha's emotions were clearly stable but she could not control her eyes from becoming red.

The sight of that made Rochelle's heart tense up and she could not help but say, "Sammy, if you can't bring yourself to… you can always turn back."