Zoey went to the law firm Anne's friend was working at.The initial consultation fee wasn't too high. It was still within the range she could afford.Zoey's appointment with the lawyer was at 10 am, and they'd agreed to meet at the cafe downstairs from the office.She ordered two cups of coffee, and the lawyer arrived on time.It was a very young lawyer."Are you Miss Jenner?""Yes."After he sat down, Zoey pursed her lips, then she told him directly, "The situation is like this: I want to divorce my husband, but he's not willing. What I want to know now is, how long would the legal process be if we were to go to trial?"The lawyer already had a rough idea of her request before meeting her. Filing for divorce wasn't exactly hard. "Miss Jenner, let me put it this way. As long as you want to get a divorce, there's no way it won't happen."She just might need to spend more time and effort.The majority of the divorce cases he handled were to fight for property or child custody.
Zoey went to a private hospital nearby. After she registered herself, she waited on a bench in the corridor.She stared into space as she sat there, seemingly in a trance. She didn't even play with her phone. She didn't even hear the text notification go off.When her name was called, half an hour had already passed.It was unclear if it was just in her head, but she felt her hearing start to blur again. She hadn't even heard her name clearly.Zoey raised her hand to touch her ear. She'd worn a hearing aid in the past. When she was still in school, she felt embarrassed about wearing it. She was afraid that people would find out and look down on her because of it. If this ear was having problems again, she truly had no idea what to do.There was no particularly good treatment for hearing issues.When Zoey walked into the doctor's office, she was still a little out of it. Her mind was foggy. For some reason, she thought of what had happened in the abandoned factory again.That k
Zoey instinctively wanted to stretch her hand and snatch it back, but she was pinned down by Laurence.There was indeed a bunch of professional data on the medical assessment form, so a person without proper medical knowledge wouldn't be able to understand it too well. However, the last column, which was the summary, was easier to comprehend."Moderate hearing loss. Hearing aid might be needed."Laurence looked down at these two sentences. His fingers were pinching the thin piece of paper so tightly that his knuckles turned white. His entire body was stiff.Zoey was a little annoyed. Even when she was angry, she didn't look threatening at all. Her face was completely flushed. "Give it back!" She stood up and snatched the assessment form back from him. Laurence saw her snatch the medical assessment form back angrily. He stared right at her face, then his gaze slowly moved to her ear.Zoey was pretty, and her facial features were very fine.Her ears actually looked good, and her
Zoey turned away slightly, not wanting to be touched by him.Laurence didn't ask her if she was in pain. He knew it would be very painful without asking.He truly had no idea that her ear had been injured before. Anything he said at that moment would sound like he was putting on an act. The most useless thing in this world was to feel regret after the fact.From Zoey's angle, she could only see Laurence's Adam's apple and his indifferent side profile.Laurence's expression was rather unpleasant. It was a little somber, and it seemed like he was in pain as well.However, Zoey didn't believe that Laurence was in pain. He was merciless when it came to people he didn't care about, and she wasn't someone he would care for.He was probably feeling a little bad at that moment, just because he felt a tiny bit guilty for the harm he caused her."Are you satisfied? I've gotten my retribution for cheating on you, and my ear is injured now. Laurence, you should feel happy now, right?" Zoey
Zoey took a nap on the plane. When she woke up, they still hadn't arrived at Southgrove. She took off her eye mask, and when she opened her eyes, she felt someone staring at her. Shawn hadn't rested; his dark, beautiful eyes looked slightly dazed. It looked like he'd been staring at her the entire time she'd been asleep. Zoey’s sixth sense hadn’t let her down.Zoey and Shawn had met again when she transferred to the high school he was attending. He'd only had hatred in his eyes then. Extreme hatred.It wasn't like she'd never tried to salvage that little relationship they had left, since it was better to have more friends around anyway. Since she had yet to make friends at that new school, she eagerly approached him but was met with a pair of cold eyes staring down at her. She'd felt hurt then. He'd grown taller in the second year of high school, and as he leaned lazily by the door with raised eyes, the first thing that came out of his mouth was to ask who she was. Zoey had been
Zoey's face fell as he brought up the story of their brief fling.She couldn't remember much from that night; the memories were blurry.She didn't understand why Shawn acted like their relationship was fine without any resentment. She still remembered the cold look he'd given her when he'd threatened to have people gang-rape her."Shawn, there's no need to dwell on that one night. My memory of it is hazy, and I assume yours is too," Zoey said. She didn't mean to hurt his ego. She was just being truthful.Even though Shawn looked like a mess, everyone had their own secrets. It wasn't surprising that he was unpredictable, cruel, and twisted.Shawn didn't expect her to misunderstand him. He knew she didn't have any vivid memories of that night; otherwise, she'd know that he hadn't touched her at all."It's fine. Maybe there'll be a next time," he said lazily.Zoey knew he would never say anything nice. She never wanted to have another encounter with him in this lifetime. She would
Ever since she'd been a kid, Sarah had been very observant, so she'd quickly learned to study the behavior of others from her mother.When Zoey had been rescued, seemingly on the brink of death, Robert hadn't even taken her to the hospital. He hadn't wanted anyone to find out that Zoey was his daughter, or everyone would find out about the incident in Southgrove. So Zoey had recovered from her injuries at the Jenner Residence.Sarah had witnessed the wounds on Zoey’s body firsthand, but she hadn't felt an ounce of sympathy. Instead, she'd just been glad that Zoey had gotten hurt and not her.Sarah had also guessed the details of the matter after studying Zoey’s wounds and hearing Zoey’s unconscious rambling while she was asleep. Yet she'd deliberately acted as a mere observer—until Laurence came knocking on the Jenner Residences door.Sarah had taken one look at the eldest son of the Scott family, who'd been kidnapped alongside Zoey, and taken on Zoey’s identity without a second
Laurence thought he was already going easy on Zoey. He wasn't doing anything wrong by not agreeing to a divorce since the contract hadn't expired yet. He even felt that he was already being very forgiving by not making a fuss about the hotel incident. He silently scrolled through their chat history while suppressing the displeasure in his heart. She still hadn't replied to him. He knew he couldn't keep staring at his phone, waiting for a reply. He'd already been more patient than usual that day. After a pause, he texted her. "I'll pick you up tomorrow." He felt worried, but she wouldn't know what he was worried about.Zoey pretended as if she hadn't seen Laurence's text inquiring when she would return. She went downstairs to make a bowl of instant oats, and just as she was about to boil the water, her phone buzzed again. She switched it on and saw another text from him. She already expected him to say something like that, but she really didn't have the mood to deal with him, even