Chapter 133 Divorce
It was apparent that Stella was not in the wrong today, but why was she terrified by Miles in the end?
The next day, Stella was in the factory when she received the message that Audrey was going back to Southlin.
The name Southlin sounded good to her, so she asked Audrey what she was doing in Southlin and what the place had to do with Audrey.
Audrey texted: ‘My father-in-law passed away. He worked all his life in the town and raised a good son, but unfortunately, I’m not fortunate enough to be his daughter-in-law.’ Stella then realized that Southlin was Matthew’s hometown. So, the old man using the sewing machine carved on the jade plaque has died?
However, it was not a good time to get involved too much with Matthew now that her relationship with Matthew was sensitive to Miles. After all, Miles was going to kill Matthew previously. Audrey said she did not sleep all night last night when she recalled everything that happened in the past, including her and Matthew’s meeting in America. She even sent Stella some photos from that time.
Stella carefully looked at the photos and realized that Matthew had not changed much, but now he did look calmer and more mature than before. In fact, he now looked more like a gentleman. After looking over these photos, Stella was particularly interested in a photo of Matthew and Audrey on the university campus. There was a vague figure behind them, and the picture should be taken with a DSLR camera. And thus, the focus was on Matthew and Audrey. Still, Stella saw the person in the background at a glance. He did not look much different from now and still looked arrogant and cold, with a hand in his pocket and a straight gaze. At that time, he already liked black and gray clothing.
Stella’s heart couldn’t help but thump. It’s Miles!
The corners of her lips could not help but turn up into a smile, and a shy look surfaced on her face as her heart silently recited his name. Miles, Miles.
Audrey seemed to have taken Zachariah and Matthew back to their hometown to attend the funeral.
After a few days, Stella was sitting in Miles’ office when someone suddenly pushed open the door and came in. At that time, Stella was standing behind Miles with her hands around his neck. When she saw someone coming in, she froze for a moment and then realized it was Matthew. He was wearing a funeral badge on his left arm, and when he saw Miles and Stella, he bowed deeply to them. Stella had heard that there were places with such a custom that when someone in the family passed away, the descendants of the deceased must go to the families who sent bereavement money and thank them one by one. But Stella did not expect that in such a big city, Matthew still strictly abided by this custom. After all, Miles was not Matthew’s elder and could only be considered as a peer. It appeared that Miles had given Matthew some bereavement money, and so he was aware of the news of Matthew’s father’s passing. Moreover, Stella understood why he did not tell her.
Matthew’s expression was grave and serious, and with a rustic air, he bowed and said, “Thank you.”
Then, he left. After he left, Miles looked up and looked at Stella. “W-Why are you looking at me?” she asked.
“You already knew about his father’s situation? He told you that?” Miles asked.
“N-No, Miles, we haven’t been in touch. What made you say that?”
“Your hand that you pressed on my shoulder kept its original strength. There was no shock! Thus, I know that you probably already knew the news of his father’s death. Since the person using the sewing machine on the jade plaque is his father, I’m sure you’re somewhat familiar with this person. In any case, you definitely won’t be so calm, right?” Miles raised his head slightly and looked at Stella behind him.
Stella’s head hung low at his words. Miles was right, but at the same time, it made her inhale sharply. After all, she didn’t expect Miles to have such sharp judgment. How much does he know about what I’ve done in the past? Or has he pretended not to know all along?
“No, it was Audrey who told me! She said she was going back to Southlin.” Stella spoke up.
“You know Audrey?”
“Well, we met when Zack was hospitalized back then. She is quite nice.” Stella did not want to tell Miles that her first meeting with Audrey was when Audrey persuaded her to be Zachariah’s mother.
Miles raised his head and looked at her for a few moments without saying anything. Then, the human resources department sent Miles a stack of documents. Next, Miles looked at the papers, signed them, and handed them back to the human resources department.
“What’s that?” Stella was eager to change the subject and asked.
“The company is organizing staff medical examinations. Do you want to go? If you want, I’ll talk to them.”
“I’m not going. No!” Stella waved her hand in panic. Since working, she had not gone through a medical examination, and she did not know what it consisted of. She was afraid her physical condition would be made known in front of all the people of Miles Conglomerate, and she feared that Miles would be made fun of by the whole company.
Now, the inability to conceive a child had become a major problem for Stella. She bought a great deal of pregnancy tests and tried almost every day, but the results were the same: Negative.
She knew that it couldn’t be Miles’ problem and that it was her. In fact, she felt like her relationship with Miles was going downhill, and it was approaching the end every day. Thus, she was distracted.
“What are you afraid of?” Miles asked her.
“N-Nothing. I want to go to the medical examination alone. Why do I need to go with the people from your company?” Stella said somewhat distractedly.
New Year’s Day was around the corner.
One day, Korbin told Stella to come home. He said that he was old now, and now that he did not need to bother about the factory anymore, he had time to think about the past.
Then, Stella did not refute him. Anyway, she did not have a place to live in Hollowcrest. After all, she had a grudge with her father for so many years, so originally, she did not want to stay with him, but she could not ignore his weak and ‘gradually old’ tone when he talked to her. In any case, they were biological father and daughter, and besides, she and Miles had not gotten married, so it wasn’t appropriate for her to keep living here. Thus, Stella simply told Miles that she would be going back home.
Before leaving, Miles lay on the bed and took Stella’s hand. “Will you miss me when you leave?”
“I’ll just go back for a few days. I’ll be back in a couple of days.” Stella was packing her clothes.
“Aren’t you worried about your man being all alone?” Miles asked teasingly.
Stella’s hand paused in mid-air. That’s right. If I’m going back to spend the holidays with my father, wouldn’t that mean Miles would be all alone?
“How did you spend the holidays before?” Stella asked. “If it was with others, then go to them again. If you have spent it alone, then continue to be alone.”
After saying that, she smiled and felt that her answer was quite witty.
“Before?” Miles asked and then frowned. Stella suddenly remembered that he was with Matthew during the Easter holidays, so she thought that they would spend other holidays together as well. At that point, Stella felt even more guilty because they were initially good friends…
After Stella went back home, she saw Korbin. In the past, she had never paid attention to him, and now he did look rather old. But he still looked handsome, and Stella felt that many girls would like how he looked as a mature man. Now, Korbin was no longer as domineering as before, and he inquired, “How’s Yulia’s attitude toward you now? She’s not causing trouble for you, is she?”
Stella was quite startled because she did not expect Korbin to know about the matter between Yulia and her.
“After Yulia sold the steel bars in the factory, I knew that she probably did it for Miles. Sigh… Why can’t you find a man that not everyone is after?” Korbin sighed.
Stella still remembered that when her father said that she should take over the factory, he said that Miles was Stella’s backing. But to be honest, being her backing and being a man everyone was after were not contradictory at all.
The two were talking when someone from the property management came to make a registration. Korbin’s house had four rooms, and it was a modern-style house. The management came to register because it was the end of the year now, and they wanted to prevent theft. Thus, they wanted to register both the regular and temporary residents of each house and to prevent unregistered people from staying there. The registration was quite detailed, including the age, ID number, and even marital status. If there was a spouse, they had to write the name of the spouse, most likely to prevent cases of committing crimes through connections.
In the column on marital status, Stella wrote: ‘Divorced’.
Previously, she did not notice much, but now she felt that the word was rather unpleasant to the eye. At that time, she thought it was good to be divorced, but now she felt that her being divorced and Miles being unmarried was quite a big contrast.
His family affairs and her family affairs; his marital status and hers…
The most crucial thing was that she couldn’t seem to give birth to a child.
After Stella finished filling out the form, the person from the property management had to call out to her before she realized that she had been in a daze for some time. In order to alleviate the awkwardness just now, she filled in her father’s information as well.
When she received a message from Audrey, she was making ravioli. Audrey said that Matthew’s father had passed away on New Year’s Day, and Matthew had a bad cold these days. Moreover, she herself had to go abroad, so no one was taking care of Zachariah. Therefore, she asked Stella if she could help.
Stella agreed because Zachariah was, after all, a child.
After Stella sent the location of her father’s home to Audrey, Audrey soon came in a white BMW. As Zachariah just arrived in a new environment, and because it was the first time he met Stella’s father, he was rather stiff and formal.
Smiling, Stella asked Zachariah to make ravioli with her and have a chat in the meantime. After all, Korbin did not like making ravioli. The two people chatted away, and somehow, they brought up Matthew.
Zachariah had brought his father up on his own, saying that Matthew had cried that night on the balcony, and the boy had witnessed it. After Stella heard that, her heart constricted as her hands, which were initially on the dough, paused. I’ve never seen a man cry before. Why was Matthew crying?
“Do you know why your father was crying?” Stella asked.
“It was the day my grandfather died. My father cried so much on the balcony,” Zachariah said.
Stella couldn’t imagine what it was like for Matthew, who was always so gentle, to cry, let alone what it was like for him to cry so badly, so she felt sorry for him. So, she made more ravioli than usual today and put them in the refrigerator. She wanted to wait until the next day when Zachariah was going home before giving him some to take back to Matthew. Since the man was down with a cold, he would not be free to make his own New Year’s food.
There were three food containers at home that were precisely the same, and so Stella put some into one of the food containers for him.
On the next day, it was indeed Matthew who picked up Zachariah. Stella took the box of ravioli to him, and he said to her, “Thank you.”
However, he didn’t get out of the car, much less enter Stella’s house.
Hearing that, Stella just nodded and didn’t say anything.
