A short while later, Aster brought a young woman into the mansion with him.

Carina knew her. She was Stella Winters. They were all colleagues working at the same company—Aster was the CEO, Stella was his secretary, and Carina was the financial director.

However, to avoid gossip at work, nobody at the company knew about Carina and Aster's relationship. Aster would even go as far as to make sure to arrive at work at a different time than her.

"Oh, you're here too, Carina? I thought Mr. Ducant was lying."

Stella went up to Carina and held her by her arm. Her voice was soft and gentle, but anyone could tell that she had an ulterior motive behind everything.

"Carina, can you secretly tell me what your relationship with Mr. Ducant is?"

Carina felt uncomfortable and freed herself from Stella's grip. She was just about to tell Stella the truth when Aster spoke up first, interrupting her.

"Carina and I are just colleagues," he said in a fond, gentle voice. "We were just sorting out the company's financial situation when you joined us. Did you really think everyone else could just turn on the TV as soon as they got home after work, like you can?"

Aster sounded nonchalant when he said they were nothing more than colleagues.

Carina stood opposite him, staring at him for a long time as her body began to freeze.

Although they often referred to each other as colleagues at work, hearing Aster call her nothing but a colleague in her face felt like a knife stabbing into her heart.

She gritted her teeth and spoke up in a disgruntled manner, "Aster, we are—"

"Shut up!" He immediately cut her off again, casting her a cold, dirty look. "Some things should just be left unspoken. I'm sure that I also have a say in that matter."

Carina shook her head in disappointment. The last sliver of hope in her eyes gradually dimmed out.

On the other hand, Stella grinned happily when she heard that he and Carina were nothing more than colleagues. She immediately took a seat right next to Aster, exclaiming in pleasant surprise when she saw the food on the table.

"Oh my gosh, they're all my favorites! You're so good to me, Asty!"

Stelle then lifted her head and pecked Aster on the cheek.

Aster froze for a second.

When he snapped back to the present, he carefully and quietly cast Carina a side glance.

He only heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that Carina's head was still lowered and that she didn't seem to have witnessed the peck.

"Eat all you want. I know you like them. I purposely ordered them for you."

Stella stuffed her mouth with her favorite food and kept humming in delight as she chewed.

"I hate you, Asty. You knew all along that the area where I'm renting would have a power outage today, but you never told me about it beforehand. I got such a fright halfway through my shower!"

"Did you hurt yourself? It's all my fault. I didn't expect such a thing to happen."

"Haha! I was just pulling your leg. I was long done with my shower when the lights went out."

"Well, this is the surprise that I prepared for you. Do you like it?"

Aster and Stella continued chatting happily.

Meanwhile, Carina never thought that Aster and Stella would be chatting so casually about such intimate topics. It was as if they had no boundaries with each other.

When Aster dished out more food onto Stella's plate, Carina finally realized that everything on the table was actually Stella's favorite food.

She had been looking forward to this anniversary celebration for a long time. But as it turned out, Carina was just the side character alongside Stella.

Aster had rushed home early to prepare and set out the 12-course meal, but it wasn't to celebrate their anniversary. It was all for Stella instead, not Carina.

For a split second, Carina thought that she knew exactly when Aster had started cheating emotionally on her. The realization was like a huge rock pressing against Carina's chest, rendering her unable to catch her breath.

She stood up, feeling bitter, and turned to leave.

"I'll be taking my leave if there's nothing else you need me for."

Stella didn't move from her seat. "Aren't you going to eat something before you leave, Carina?"

"No thanks. The food doesn't really suit me."

"Then let me see you out the door."

Stella then made to get up, acting like the lady of the house who was seeing her guest out. However, Aster pushed her back down and said, "She knows the way out. You don't have to do that."

That was the last thing Aster said before Carina left the mansion. He didn't even ask her to stay.

Carina stood outside the mansion, letting the cold night air blow around her.

She didn't just know the way out. It was her home, after all, but she couldn't even go back inside anymore.

She figured that she probably wouldn't even be staying here much longer in the future.

It started drizzling, and the night wind was cold and harsh. Leaves rustled noisily on the trees on either side of the road.

However, even the wind didn't manage to change Carina's mind.

She made a call and then headed right for a lawyer's office. She got into the building, pressed the elevator button, and entered the office. From how familiar she seemed with everything, it seemed as if it wasn't the first time she'd been there.

"Can you have the divorce draft ready by today, Mr. Chastain?"

Leo, seated opposite her, frowned and flipped through his records in his notebook.

"It's already half-completed. I might be able to finish it if I work overtime today. However, I had noted down beforehand that you only planned on starting the divorce process next month. Why did you suddenly decide to bring it forward?" he asked.

Carina smiled slightly. "It's going to happen anyway, so there's no point in dragging it out."

She stayed at the lawyer's office until late at night. When she finally left, she was holding a black file folder in her hands.

Her face had been tense ever since she left the office. Leo had said, "You'll need both parties to sign this divorce agreement for it to take effect."

Carina had signed the papers at once. However, the next most important thing was to get Aster to sign them as well.

Suddenly, the sound of her ringing phone interrupted her thoughts. It was a call from Aster.

"Where are you, Carina? Why aren't you home yet? It's getting late. Tell me where you are. I'll come and get you."

Carina thought about it for a second. Eventually, she gave in and told him the address. "Alright. Come here and pick me up. I need to tell you something as well."

She thought that if Aster really came to pick her up now, she would reveal everything to him so that they could have an honest talk. She would also tell him of her plans to divorce him.

However, two hours passed, and Aster was still nowhere to be seen.

When she finally decided to call him, she realized that Stella had posted a new update on her social media.

Stella's home was pitch-black, save for the candlelight that subtly illuminated Aster's left hand. Even though his figure couldn't even be made out in the picture, Carina knew that it was him.

She couldn't possibly fail to recognize the wedding ring on his finger.

There was a caption on the story that read, "It's dark at home without any electricity, but at least the big boss is here with me!"

Carina was stunned for a moment. Eventually, she laughed bitterly at the end.

No wonder Aster still hadn't come out to get her. Someone else had been holding him back.

Carina pressed the heart button on the story, reacting with a "like", and slowly walked all the way home.

After reaching home, she washed up and went to bed.

Aster only came home sometime while she was drifting in and out of consciousness. He habitually placed an arm over Carina's thin waist as soon as he got into bed. Then, he forcefully pulled her back against his chest.

His icy-cold lips brushed against Carina's nape.

"Carina, we haven't done it in a long time…"

As soon as he spoke, a sudden gust of overly-sweet perfume enveloped Carina, making her sneeze.

Coincidentally, this was the same perfume that Stella had been wearing earlier, and Carina felt like she wanted to puke.

She pushed him away tiredly and said in a calm voice, "Forget about it today. I'm not feeling well."

This was the first time Carina had ever rejected Aster. A suspicious glint appeared in his eyes, just for a moment.

However, Carina kept sneezing a few more times after that, reminding Aster that he had stood her up on his offer to pick her up earlier. A look of guilt appeared on his face.

"Have you caught a cold, Carina? I'll bring you to the hospital to get it checked."

He added, "I'm sorry for breaking my promise, Carina. Something came up at the office. I was already coming out to get you, but I got too busy and didn't manage to make it after all."

Carina closed her eyes and nodded before rejecting his offer. Then, she remained silent for the rest of the night.

She had been sharing the same bed with Aster for five years, but he had never spoken a word of truth to her.

Carina had initially felt guilty about wanting to trick Aster into signing the divorce papers. But now, she felt the last of her guilt dissipating.

The next morning, Aster and Carina still went to the office at different times as usual.

Carina caught sight of Aster helping Stella down from the same car just as she arrived at the office.

He was the kind who would over-explain his actions with Carina at the office, reiterating that they were nothing more than colleagues. However, he never refrained from acting intimately with Stella.

In his words, he and Stella had nothing to hide because they had absolutely nothing to do with each other. With Carina, however, their relationship was kept under wraps because it was like a dirty little secret.

When Stella caught sight of Carina, she jogged over and handed her a breakfast burrito, neatly wrapped up in a paper bag.

"What a coincidence, Carina! This breakfast burrito is for you. Think of it as a form of gratitude for liking my story yesterday."

Aster had been right behind Stella when he heard her say that. He was curious. "Liking what story?"

Stella took out her phone and showed him last night's post.

Aster's pupils narrowed at once. He seemingly recalled the lie he'd told Carina last night and anxiously turned to look at her.

However, he sighed in relief when he saw Carina taking the burrito from Stella with a calm look on her face. He told himself that Carina probably never put two and two together after all.

Carina took the breakfast burrito from Stella and thanked her with a smile. Then, she turned and went into the elevator with the other employees.

Aster frowned slightly as he watched Carina leave. He thought that something was amiss about her, but he just couldn't put his finger on it.

When he got into his office, he summoned people from the finance department to ask about Carina's situation at work.

"I saw Ms. Sherwood going to Chastain Solicitors last night. Maybe something happened in her family, and that's why she needed some legal advice."

That was enough to send Aster's heart to his throat. He was Carina's family, so he knew that there was nothing going on at home that would require her seeking legal advice.

He started getting suspicious.

He recalled the address Carina gave her last night. It happened to be close to the lawyer's office.

Just as he was about to summon Carina to ask her about it, Carina knocked on his office door and said, "Mr. Ducant, here's the documentation for last month's payday. I need you to sign some papers."

She then took out a black file folder from her bag and handed it to Aster. She had put a mark on every signature line.

"The pages that you need to sign are right here…"

"I know. Let me go through them first."

Carina didn't know what went wrong. Aster rarely ever paid much attention to the documents he was signing, but he was carefully scrutinizing every line this time.

"I heard that you went to the lawyer's office last night," he suddenly said, catching Carina off guard. She panicked internally.

Would Aster still sign the documents if he knew that it was a divorce agreement?

Carina didn't dare to risk it. She wanted to leave him as quickly as possible.

"You know that we're preparing for a massive upcoming project. I just went there to have the lawyers go through the contract and make sure there weren't any loopholes."

Carina's calm attitude quickly got rid of Aster's suspicion. He flipped to the end of the documents and suddenly frowned again.

"What contract is this? Why is there only the final page included?"

There wasn't much information on the sheet of paper, just a whole bunch of disclaimers in legal jargon. However, Carina was prepared.

She remained calm even though she sounded like she was in a hurry. "I just realized that there was a mistake in the contract this morning, so I took it back to have it changed. But you need to sign it first because it's rather urgent."

Aster looked up at Carina. He believed that Carina wouldn't lie to him. However, he still thought that something didn't add up.

Carina felt herself panicking again when she realized that Aster was hesitating. There wasn't much on the paper, but if he looked a little more closely, he would notice the tiny words that said "Divorce Agreement" in the top left corner.

"Aster, I think Stella tripped and fell outside," Carina suddenly said, using Stella to divert Aster's attention.

True enough, there was a muffled thud outside his door, and Aster suddenly got anxious and flustered. He didn't scrutinize the final page before signing his name on the signature line in a hurry.

Finally, Carina sighed in relief and left the office feeling victorious. Just before she left, however, she saw Aster carefully checking Stella's body to see if she was hurt anywhere.

Stella had actually only dropped her mug, but he looked at her like she'd gotten hurt as well.

This time, Carina was utterly calm as she watched them.

She'd already gotten over Aster the moment she decided to divorce him.