Husband Fled with First Love, I Saved World with Medical Expertise Chapter 09
The morning the city officially exhaled, it felt like every engine in the grid roared to life at once.
The roads were jammed solid.
I rode a shared bike to the institute and passed flower shops, tea shops, and little restaurants as they pulled up their metal shutters one by one.
The city was alive again.
My phone rang.
Adrian.
“Claire, I booked a flight for the day after tomorrow. When I get back, we’ll sit down and talk.”
“Fine.”
“…Can you stop with the lawyer? This is a family matter. Dragging our private life into a courtroom is a bad look for everyone.”
“When you fled the country with a mistress, was ‘the look’ a high priority for you?”
“I didn’t run. I was—”
“Adrian, when you land the day after tomorrow, go straight to Mercer & Rowe. 118 Jianguo Road, 14th floor. I’ll be waiting there.”
“A law firm? Claire, do you really have to make it this ugly?”
“You made it ugly first. See you in two days.”
I hung up.
Five minutes later, Evelyn called.
“Claire, Adrian’s coming back! Can’t you give him a way out?”
“Mrs. Cole, I gave him a way out. For three years.”
“How could you be this stubborn—”
“Did you know he forged my signature on the loan papers?”
She went quiet for two seconds.
“What loan?”
“The second mortgage on this apartment. Eighty-two thousand dollars. The signature was forged.” I paused. “Mrs. Cole, that’s a crime.”
The line went silent.
After a long while, she spoke again, and for the first time, her voice was stripped of its usual bite. “Claire… what were you planning to do?”
“Whatever the law says happens next.”
After I hung up, I stayed at the institute working until eleven.
While I was sorting data, I noticed an email ping from an overseas address.
Sender: Vivian Sterling.
Subject: About Adrian Cole.
I opened it.
The message was short:
Claire,
I’m Vivian Sterling. There are things you should know. Adrian told me the two of you finalized your divorce two years ago. He said the retail property was a premarital asset. He also told me the money in the joint account was his personal income, and that you didn’t work. I’m not trying to excuse myself, but I think you deserve to know I was lied to as well. If you need my transfer records and screenshots of our messages as evidence, I can provide them.
I read it twice.
Then I closed the email and sent one back:
Thank you. Please send all wire logs, correspondence, and the sale agreement for the Hawthorne space directly to my attorney. His email address is below.
No pleasantries. No accusations. No questions about what had really happened between them.
I only wanted the evidence.
As for Adrian—He had gaslit his mistress, his mother, and his wife.
Now the love of his life had turned on him.
There was no scenario where he walks away from this clean.