Chapter 3

Rowan's body stiffened, a look of shock flashing through his eyes. "What did you just say?"

"I don't want anything. I just want a divorce. I will sign the papers and mail them to you."

With that, I grabbed my suitcase, held the urn tightly to my chest, and walked toward the front door without looking back.

"Sienna! Stop right there!" Rowan roared furiously behind me. "If you step out that door today, don't you ever think about coming back to beg me to pay your brother's medical bills!"

My footsteps didn't falter. The door closed behind me, shutting out that absurd, suffocating world.

After leaving the mansion, I went straight to my best friend Mia's apartment.

Seeing me soaked and holding an urn, Mia immediately pulled me inside and shoved a mug of hot chocolate into my hands.

After listening to my calm recounting of Leo's death and the comment I left on Chloe's post, Mia smashed her coffee mug against the wall, cursing Rowan and Chloe as cold-blooded monsters.

Through Mia's introduction, I contacted my former mentor.

He had always been upset that I gave up my Ph.D. in archaeology. Hearing that I was willing to return, he immediately arranged a senior appraisal and restoration position for me at the auction house.

In just one month, that subservient Mrs. Rowan—who had to walk on eggshells just to buy tampons—was completely dead. In her place was Sienna, the antiquities appraisal expert.

My life had finally returned to peace. But it was only a matter of time before our worlds collided again.

On a Tuesday afternoon in the VIP appraisal room, I was examining a 17th-century diamond necklace with a loupe when the door was suddenly pushed open.

"I heard that diamond is flawless. As long as I like it, Rowan will buy it for me today to make up for the grievances I've suffered lately," a sickly sweet voice echoed in the room.

Chloe walked in.

When her eyes fell on me, her smug smile froze, quickly turning into obvious mockery.

"Well, if it isn't Sienna," Chloe stepped forward and looked me up and down. "Running away from home... I thought you actually had some backbone. So you're just a basement salesgirl now?"

I took off my gloves. "This is an internal appraisal room. If you don't have an appointment, please get out."

Chloe stepped closer, her eyes full of provocation. "Don't act so high and mighty. You're just doing grunt work. Rowan is about to bid on this necklace for me, and its price is way more than that hundred grand you were begging for."

I looked at her, completely unfazed. "Are you referring to the hundred grand you held back in the financial system? Or that diamond bracelet you flaunted online? Stepping on a human life to maintain your 'risk control'... you calculated it very well."

My words hit a nerve, and Chloe's face instantly flushed red. Before she could snap back, the doors were pushed open again.

Rowan strode in with two bodyguards.

Chloe instantly changed her face. Her eyes turned red as she stepped back and pitifully grabbed Rowan's arm. "Rowan... I just came to look at the necklace, but Sienna is here. She's slandering me about that hundred grand, and the internet has already torn me apart. Why won't she just let it go..."

Rowan's gaze immediately locked onto me.

For the past month, he had been firmly convinced that my asking for a divorce was just an impulsive tantrum. He was used to my submissiveness, certain that without his allowance, I wouldn't last a week and would eventually come crawling back to him.

At this moment, seeing me standing here in a white coat, working completely composed, a flash of surprise crossed his eyes.

But soon, that sense of losing control, along with the internet storm I caused, immediately turned into the rage of his authority being challenged. He strode forward and looked down at me condescendingly.

"Is this your idea of a divorce?" His voice was low and highly oppressive. "Running away from home for a month wasn't enough? You had to make up crazy rumors online and leave a massive mess, and now you scheme your way here just to make things difficult for Chloe? Sienna, when are you going to stop throwing these pathetic tantrums?!"

I didn't even bat an eyelid. "I'm just stating facts. Take your good assistant and leave my workspace."

Rowan slammed his hand on the display case. "I told you, Chloe's approvals didn't violate any policies! The bracelet was a project bonus! Stop acting like an unreasonable lunatic!"

He pointed at me, issuing an ultimatum like charity. "Now, apologize to Chloe immediately, and wipe clean all the nonsense you posted online. Drop this ridiculous divorce charade, pack your things, and come home with me. I can be generous enough to overlook your crazy behavior over the past month."

I stared at the man I had once abandoned all my dignity for just to borrow a hundred grand, and felt nothing but profound absurdity. How was I ever blind enough to fall in love with such an arrogant and oblivious man?

"And if I refuse?" I looked straight at him.

Rowan scoffed, leaned in a few inches, and threw out the trump card he thought would forever keep me firmly in his grip.

"If you don't apologize and keep making a scene, I can make one phone call right now and cut off all of your brother's medical funds. You know damn well, Sienna. Without my money, he'll be kicked out of the ICU tomorrow and left to die."

Rowan stared at me, waiting for my shoulders to slump in panic, expecting me to swallow my dignity and squeeze out an apology to save my brother's life, just as I had for the past three years.

However, a hollow smile touched the corners of my lips.

I looked right at him. "Be my guest. Go cut it off."

Rowan froze. His smug certainty vanished, replaced by shock. "Are you crazy? You'd watch your brother die for a shred of pathetic pride? Stop playing high and mighty with me!"

"Shut your damn mouth, you bastard!"

Mia, who had come looking for me, stormed in like an enraged lioness. "You want to cut off Leo's medical funds? Go to hell and cut them off! Leo died a month ago! Thanks to your precious assistant blocking his hundred grand in life-saving money, he didn't even get a chance to be resuscitated! He's been ashes for a month!"

Rowan jolted as if he had been struck by lightning.

He slowly turned to look at me. "Impossible... Sienna, that's not true. Tell me she's lying. You're just making this up to get back at me, right?"