A flash of panic crossed Hildegarde's face. She hurried after him and grabbed his hand. "Wilfred, I'll say this one last time. Come home with me now, and I'll pretend none of this ever happened."
"It's not too late to turn back."
Wilfred glanced over at Patrick, who stood nearby with a smug, challenging look on his face. Then he gently removed Hildegarde's hand from his.
"Let's go. You never loved me anyway. Staying together would only mean more suffering for both of us."
"I'm setting you free."
"You—!"
"...Fine. If you want a divorce, let's get divorced."
"Wilfred, I hope you don't regret this."
She spat the words out and stormed into the building.
The process was straightforward.
With the divorce agreement already prepared, there was no need for mediation. The cooling-off period had been waived. Within the hour, their marriage certificate had been split in two and replaced with divorce papers.
The moment Wilfred stepped outside, the drizzle stopped.
The sun broke through the clouds.
Patrick rushed over, beaming. "Congratulations, Hildegarde! A brand new life awaits."
He reached for her hand, but she shook him off before he could touch her.
Irritation flickered across her face, her eyes cold as frost. "Wilfred, even if you don't care about yourself, what about your daughter? Taking Penelope away from the Pruitt family will ruin her."
"Hilary's birthday—she had an allergic reaction, didn't she?"
Wilfred's expression turned cold.
"You knew?"
Hildegarde's face twisted with fury. "So you knew all along! You blocked my number just to watch me suffer, is that it?"
"Do you have any idea how dangerous that night was?"
"The doctor said if we'd been even a little later, Hilary could have gone into respiratory failure. She could have suffocated to death."
"Hildegarde..."
Wilfred spoke her full name again.
He looked at her and shook his head. "I didn't block your number. It was the other way around. The day you took Hilary to Phuket happened to be our wedding anniversary. I called you over a dozen times. You never picked up. The system flagged my number as spam and blacklisted it automatically."
"You're the one who blocked me."
Hildegarde froze.
It came back to her now. That day, she'd been rushing to catch a flight to Phuket to take care of Patrick, who had a cold. She hadn't had the patience to answer Wilfred's calls.