Carina contacted Leo first thing in the afternoon.

"There's nothing much to do after both parties have signed the agreement. However, there's a waiting period of 30 days for the divorce to be finalized, and the divorce can be annulled and further discussed if either party changes their mind."

Of course, Carina had long known about the divorce laws in her state.

She went back to the mansion and started packing. She was planning to hide the divorce from him.

Come to think of it, she had been living in this mansion for five years, and it seemed to be filled with traces of her in every corner. But when she gathered all her belongings, she realized that she didn't own a lot of things after all.

That was further proof that Aster had basically been forced into marriage with her back then. Otherwise, their five-year-long marriage wouldn't have been unhappy and full of frustrations.

When Aster came home, Carina was in the midst of putting away her towel in the suitcase with a bitter smile on her face.

He frowned and asked, "Carina? Why are you packing? Where are you planning to go?"

Carina didn't expect Aster to come home so early today. Still, she steadied herself and continued packing casually.

"I'm not going anywhere. It's just that some of my clothes have gotten old and moldy, and I was planning to donate them."

"Donate them? Why?"

Carina smiled and looked up at Aster. "Have I never told you before? From a young age, I grew up in a—"

She couldn't finish her sentence because Aster interrupted her. That was because his phone just started ringing then, and he was immediately too distracted to continue listening to Carina.

Carina caught sight of the caller ID on Aster's phone screen just as he lifted the phone to his ear. The contact was saved as "Kitty".

Wow, such a specific, intimate, and cute little nickname for Stella.

Meanwhile, she was only saved as "Carina Sherwood" in his contacts list—her full name.

"I've already reached home. Wait at your place, okay? I'll be there at once."

Aster hung up after that with a smile on his face. He then looked up and realized that Carina had heard everything he said on the phone.

"Was that Stella looking for you?" Carina asked.

Aster immediately began explaining himself. "Don't get the wrong idea, Carina. It's just that the electricity went out in Stella's apartment again. It's not safe for her to be alone at home. Also, it's very dark, and she's scared of the dark, so—"

Carina quickly interrupted Aster's babbling with a smile and a nod. "I understand."

However, her response made Aster feel uneasy and insecure.

Carina had been acting weirdly lately, and he felt more and more perplexed about it.

It felt as though there was a thin sheet of paper right in front of him. The paper would tear easily if he poked through it, but for some reason, he just couldn't reach it. He couldn't find the answers to his questions.

He watched as Carina packed up everything into her suitcase. Then, he took a look around the mansion and saw that everything was still how it looked before. Nothing seemed to have changed.

His work shirts were all steamed and neatly hung up in the closet as usual. Even his vests, suits, and ties were all arranged neatly and laid out on the side.

Aster couldn't find the answer he was looking for. He began suspecting that he was simply too busy with work lately, that he was starting to hallucinate and make things up about Carina.

"What were you saying just now, Carina? Shall we head over to Stella's place together?"

Carina went silent for a few seconds.

She had meant to tell Aster that she'd grown up in an orphanage, and the few times she left the mansion were when she returned to the orphanage to visit the director and the other kids there.

But now, it didn't seem necessary for her to tell him about it anymore.

As for the invitation to Stella's apartment, Carina rejected it immediately. She smacked the suitcase full of her stuff and said, "I won't be coming with you. I still need to find a place that will take these donations."

Aster didn't manage to find anything wrong with Carina's excuse. However, he didn't let up this time.

"Then let me come with you instead. It's more convenient for us to take the car."

He gave Carina a deep look, as if he was trying to see right through her. This time, however, Carina kept her head down and didn't reject his offer.

She knew Aster like the back of her hand. She knew that he was getting suspicious of her.

She had 30 days left to wait, and she really didn't want any of her previous efforts to go to waste. So, she got into his car with him.

Just as Carina was trying to come up with a way to escape from Aster, Stella sent him a text message, and suddenly, Aster had to excuse himself.

He looked at Carina apologetically and said, "I'm sorry, Carina, but I can't come with you to donate the clothes after all. Something came up at the office and I need to deal with it now."

Carina nodded and agreed. After all, Aster still thought that he'd successfully hidden everything from her.

While getting out of the car, Carina suddenly asked Aster, "You wouldn't have married me if I had never saved your mother six years ago, would you?"

Her question didn't seem to get much of a response from Aster. He was already thoroughly distracted by Stella and probably wanted nothing more than to teleport to her side at once.

"Of course I still would have done that! We got married because I love you."

"Really? It's that simple?"

"It's that simple!"

Carina suddenly laughed and decided to give up on Aster, who wasn't paying her much attention anymore anyway.

She was going to give up on the man who couldn't even be bothered to focus while having a conversation with her.

Tears fell from Carina's reddened eyes when Aster's car finally disappeared into the dark of the night.

"Liar."

Carina and Aster only got to know each other due to a series of coincidences.

Back then, when Carina first arrived in Halowich, she ended up renting a room in Selena's house after going through plenty of listings. On the day she moved in, however, Selena suddenly collapsed from an illness and fainted on the ground.

Luckily, Carina found her in time and quickly sent her to the hospital.

Selena's surgery was successful. But she was still sick, and she needed a long-term caretaker to take care of her at home.

Coincidentally, Carina still hadn't managed to find herself a job because she'd only just arrived there. So, with some convincing on Selena's and Aster's part, she finally agreed to be Selena's caretaker.

Unfortunately, Selena's illness worsened, and she passed away a year later.

Aster fulfilled his mother's dying wish and married Carina. And just like that, five years passed in the blink of an eye.

Carina had been warm, enthusiastic, and passionate back then, thinking that she would eventually break through the layers of ice surrounding Aster's heart.

However, five years later, Carina was exhausted. She didn't want to continue like this anymore.

Carina slowly wheeled her suitcase out of the mansion and placed a call on her phone.

"Del? Help me find a place to rent. It doesn't need to be too big, just enough for one person. It would be even better if I could move in a month from now."

Delphine Foster sounded confused. "A place to rent? Carina, don't you have a bunch of properties for sale in your hands? Why would you think of finding a place to rent instead?"

She was the property agent who first introduced Carina to Selena back then. The properties that Carina bought over the years were also all handled by her.

In some way, Delphine could be considered one of Carina's few friends whom she could talk to in Halowich.

"If you have no place to stay and just want a change of scenery, then what about Mrs. Ducant Senior's old house back then? It's calm, quiet, and not too far from your workplace…"

Of course, Carina would never agree to Delphine's suggestion. She wanted to steer clear of Aster as much as possible, after all. There was no way she would choose to continue staying anywhere linked to him.

"Please help me find another place, Del," Carina said, calmly but determinedly.

Delphine seemed to finally get the hint. She sighed and didn't press any further.

Just then, Aster's voice suddenly appeared right behind her.

"Who are you talking to, Carina?"

Carina shuddered. She hurriedly said goodbye to Delphine and ended the call. Then, she turned to look at Aster, still as calm as ever, and said, "I hadn't talked to Del in a long time, and I was just inviting her to go shopping this weekend."

There was some truth in Carina's words, but it still put a frown on Aster's face.

He knew that Delphine was one of the few friends Carina had, and that they would keep in contact every once in a while.

However, Carina was usually the stoic type who never enjoyed shopping. He could count on one hand the number of times she actually went shopping over the past five years.

"Why did you suddenly think of going shopping?"

Aster took off his coat and looked at Carina, who was sitting on the couch without moving a muscle. The frown on his face deepened a little more.

In the past, Carina would always come up to greet him as soon as he got home, take his coat from him, and hang it on the coat hanger. However, he realized that he wasn't getting such treatment anymore.

This time, he was actually starting to panic.

"I thought that you never liked going shopping."

Carina kept her head down as she scrolled on her phone. "I'd just donated a pile of my stuff, and the seasons are starting to change. I need to get a few more shirts. I also thought of catching up with Del at the same time."

Aster stared at Carina, trying to pick apart her words. He knew that something was wrong, but he couldn't figure out what, and this feeling of losing control was making him feel more and more anxious.

"I should have some free time this weekend. Why don't I come with you instead? I haven't gone shopping with you for a long time either."

Carina finally looked up at Aster, some wariness reflecting in her eyes.

A few seconds later, she said in a miffed tone, "You're too busy at work. Forget about it. After all, everyone at the company is depending on you for their livelihood."

This was the line Aster used the most on her every time he rejected her. But now that the words were coming out of Carina's mouth, Aster sighed in relief and slung an arm over her shoulders.

"Are you still mad at me? I know that I have been quite busy lately and accidentally sidelined you. I promise that I'll spend time with you properly this weekend."

Aster never caught the hint of disappointment flashing in Carina's eyes.

She was mumbling to herself.

Soon.

She could finally leave Aster very, very soon.

The weekend arrived in the blink of an eye.

There were only 24 days left until the divorce could be finalized.

Over the past few days, Aster had been staying at the mansion for longer and longer periods of time. However, he was also getting increasingly distracted.

He never noticed anything amiss throughout the mansion, especially with Carina hiding the truth from him and pretending that nothing had changed.

The suitcase full of clothes had been at the front door for a few days, and nobody said a word about it.

Today was the day that Carina and Delphine had agreed upon to go house-hunting. However, Aster kept tagging along, as if he was planning to dutifully fulfill his promise to her.

Carina had no other choice but to go to the mall with him.

Plenty of things were on sale at the mall, but neither Carina nor Aster were in the mood to actually go shopping.

Carina kept thinking of ways to flee. Meanwhile, Aster kept looking at trendy clothes in styles that would only fit someone a lot younger than Carina.

"Why don't you ask Stella if she'd like to come shopping with you too, Aster?"

Aster's eyes lit up at once when he heard that. "Really? Can I do that? That might not be a good idea, though, because I promised that I'd spend all day with you today. I don't want to talk about work at all."

Carina sighed inwardly. Aster had already taken his phone out, ready to call someone.

So, why did he pretend to look reluctant to ask Stella out just now? What was the point of lying to himself as well?

Stella arrived very quickly. It didn't even take her more than ten minutes to show up.

Carina wasn't dumb. She guessed that Stella had probably already been waiting nearby. Aster had already given himself away earlier. After all, this was only something he would do.

So, the three of them continued browsing through the shops, but only two of them were happy with how things turned out.

Suddenly, there was a loud siren in the mall. A shop had caught on fire.

Thick, black smoke poured out and surrounded the crowd of shoppers, and everyone dispersed as quickly as they could.

Aster made sure to protect Stella the whole time. Meanwhile, Carina got pushed and shoved so much that she nearly lost her footing and fell.

She looked back and suddenly met Aster's gaze.

Aster looked anxious and wanted to head toward Carina, but Stella kept calling out to him. Ultimately, he turned and left.

"Wait for me, Carina. I'll come back to save you as soon as I've brought Stella out to safety."

Carina's face was void of emotion. She just watched quietly as Aster and Stella then disappeared into the crowd.

With panicked shoppers covering for her, Carina finally managed to get away and leave the mall. She met up with Delphine, and they immediately headed straight for the first house on their list.

It was dark by the time Carina returned home. She didn't think that she would see Aster still waiting for her.

He ran over to her anxiously when he saw her entering through the door.

It had only been half a day since Carina saw him, but his face had gone pale, and he looked like he'd seen better days.

"Where have you been, Carina? Your phone was turned off too! I was so worried about you!"

Aster grabbed her arms and kept checking her body for any cuts or bruises. Finally, he noticed a faint red mark on her neck.

Aster suddenly slapped himself in the face.

The sound was so loud and clear that it stunned Carina for a moment, and she froze. However, she quickly snapped back and stared at him in confusion.

"I'm sorry, Carina. Today was all my fault. It's all my fault…"

Carina suddenly burst out laughing.

She didn't feel touched because of what Aster was doing. On the contrary, she found it ridiculous, and she was quickly losing interest.

"Nothing bad happened to me. I just didn't realize that my phone went out of battery while I was shopping with Del."

She suddenly took one step away, neatly avoiding Aster's hand that was reaching out for her.

"I'm a little tired today, so I'm going to bed now."

Aster froze in place. He didn't know what to do.

He suddenly felt as though Carina was getting farther and farther from him. He couldn't even grab hold of her anymore.