My Son Wanted His Fathers Last Name and They Cried When I Agreed Chapter 04
For five full seconds, no one said a word.
Linda was the first to explode.
“What are you talking about? Your sons are already grown! Why would you want a divorce now?”
Nathan immediately tried to reason with me.
“Mom, I admit we handled this badly, but isn’t divorce going too far?”
“No, it isn’t.” I had no desire to listen to any more of their nonsense. “Now get out of the Bennett house. Walter, I’ll be filing for divorce tomorrow morning.”
Nathan frowned.
“Mom, do you really have to take this so far? Ethan and I are still your biological sons, no matter what our last names are. Dad hasn’t done anything to betray you all these years. You’re already in your forties. Aren’t you embarrassed to get divorced at your age?”
I studied my eldest son.
He had graduated from a top university and was strikingly handsome. He resembled Walter in some ways, but most of his features came from me. He was the kind of young man women considered perfect—wealthy, attractive, and capable.
Yet the ugliness he showed now made me realize that some traits ran too deep in the blood to ever be erased.
“I’m not embarrassed. I was twenty-two when I gave birth to you, which means I’m only forty-four now. I still have half my life ahead of me, and I won’t waste it on people who aren’t worth it.”
“Since both of you have changed your last names, leave with your father. You’re no longer welcome here.”
Unlike Nathan, who cut people down with polished words without ever raising his voice, Ethan immediately flew into a rage.
“Fine! You said it. Just don’t regret it later. We’ll leave. We don’t need to stay here and put up with you!”
The brothers led the rest of the Carter family away.
They seemed certain that I would regret my decision and beg them to return.
They were going to be disappointed.
I wouldn’t beg them to come back. I would cut all ties with them.
After spending the night alone in the Bennett family home, I filed a divorce petition the next morning.
Walter didn’t arrive on time.
When I called him the first time, he sounded irritated.
“You’re actually serious about this?”
I looked at the courthouse sign. “Yes. I’m already here.”
He hung up in a fury.
After waiting for more than an hour, I called him again.
“I’m almost there!” he roared when he answered. “You want a divorce? Fine. You’ll get one!”
Walter didn’t come alone. Nathan, Ethan, and his parents came with him.
They had deliberately waited until the clerk’s office closed for lunch before arriving.
With no way to file the divorce paperwork, Walter couldn’t hide his satisfaction.
“That works out just fine. Before we file anything, we need to settle the division of our property. I’ve already drafted an agreement. Let’s find somewhere to eat and discuss it.”
I nodded and followed them to a nearby restaurant.
Walter handed me the divorce settlement agreement.
The first page contained a detailed list of every asset owned by the Bennett family.
It included Bennett Manufacturing, real estate, and commercial properties, right down to the mahogany table in our home. Nothing had been overlooked.
Walter wasn’t clever or meticulous enough to prepare something like this.
My eldest son was.
I looked up at Nathan. He looked away awkwardly and cleared his throat.
“Mom, you’re the one asking for a divorce, so splitting the marital property equally is only fair.”
“But I still don’t think you should go through with it. There’s no reason to tear the family apart like this. It isn’t too late to change your mind.”
Even though I already knew my sons had sided with Walter, seeing them take things this far still left me struggling to breathe.
After taking a moment to steady myself, I closed the agreement.
“I won’t sign this. Walter, you won’t get a single cent of these assets.”
The entire Carter family stiffened.
“What do you mean?”
I leaned back in my chair, completely relaxed.
“You signed a prenuptial agreement before we got married. Have you forgotten? The Bennett family’s assets have nothing to do with you.”
More than twenty years of living in comfort had made Walter forget all about it.
Back then, the Carters had been desperate for him to accept my family’s marriage arrangement. They had agreed to every condition my parents set.
After all these years, they’d assumed they’d already won and forgotten that inconvenient detail.
That reminder finally jogged their memories.
“You… you vicious woman!”
I shrugged. “The feeling’s mutual. The Bennett family made the mistake of supporting you and your two sons all these years. I won’t ask you to pay back what we’ve already spent on you, but you won’t get a cent of what belongs to the Bennetts.”
Nathan Bennett—or rather, Nathan Carter—quickly regained his composure and spotted what he thought was a hole in my argument.
“Mom, the prenup only covers the property you owned before the marriage. Anything acquired during the marriage may still need to be divided.”
“That includes the estate you inherited from Grandpa and Grandma. If they didn’t leave a valid will clearly stating that everything went solely to you, Dad could still make a claim to it.”
He was betting that my father’s illness had taken him before he could draw up a valid will.
Nathan was using the education the Bennett family had paid for to help the Carters seize everything we owned.
I stared at him coldly and answered him point by point.
“First, your father and I never earned a dime together during our marriage. My parents supported us completely.”
“Second, my parents had their wills drawn up years ago. They explicitly left their entire estate solely to me, their only daughter. No one else has any claim to it.”
“That means I have nothing to divide with Walter in this divorce.”
Nathan finally looked defeated, and the way he looked at me began to change.
In his eyes, I’d always been a quiet woman who spent her days arranging flowers, reading, or taking walks. He saw me as a delicate flower sheltered in a greenhouse.
He had never imagined that flower could grow thorns.
Walter read the answer on Nathan’s face and clenched his jaw.
“You think you can divorce me that easily? Not a chance!”
Linda started hurling insults at me.
“Evelyn Bennett, I seriously underestimated you! You act all weak and gentle, but you’re completely heartless. My son has suffered in this family for years, and this is how you treat him? Aren’t you afraid you’ll pay for this? Every last one of you Bennetts is a scheming monster!”
Ethan, who had remained silent until then, finally spoke.
“Mom, I honestly don’t understand why you’re creating all this drama. We could be a perfectly happy family, but you insist on tearing everything apart.”
“Whether you divorce Dad or not, Nathan and I are still your sons. Changing our last names doesn’t automatically remove us from the Bennett family trust. You can hold on to the estate for now, but that doesn’t mean we have no claim to anything.”
Nathan took a deep breath and softened his tone.
“Mom, can’t we go back to being a family and pretend none of this ever happened? We went behind your back and changed our last names. I’m sorry. Dad can apologize too.”
Walter clearly didn’t want to, but after Nathan gave him a pointed look, he reluctantly gave in.
“I’m sorry, Evelyn. Can we forget about the divorce? I’ll make it up to you.”
I rose to my feet.
“No. I don’t want you anymore, and I don’t want your two sons either.”
“You can refuse the divorce if you want, but I promise you this.””None of you will get anything.”
