The Wasted Ten Years Chapter 07
When Shannon returned home, she found that everything was exactly as the housekeeper had said.
Jude had moved out.
The house looked no different from before. His belongings were still there, along with traces of the life they had shared.
Yet the place suddenly felt enormous.
Shannon stood in the spacious living room, pacing back and forth, unable to settle down.
She stared blankly at her phone screen as unease filled her heart.
Her chat history with Jude was still frozen on the day before their wedding anniversary.
Jude had been planning their schedule for that day and had sent her countless messages.
However, at that time, Shannon had been having too much fun with Micah.
In the end, she sent back only a brief reply. [Anything is fine.]
After that, Jude never messaged her again.
Shannon hesitated for a long time before finally calling him.
However, he did not answer.
When the housekeeper saw Shannon return, she seemed to remember something.
“Miss Jervis, before Mr. Stafford left, he asked me to tell you not to worry. He said he would meet you to finalize the divorce one month from now, as planned.
“As for the things in the house, you can keep whatever you want and discard the rest.”
Shannon should have been happy after hearing that, since Jude had done exactly what she wanted and finally listened to her.
Instead, she felt a heaviness settle in her chest, making it difficult for her to breathe.
She frowned as she thought, ‘Jude has learned some tricks. He thinks that by doing this, he can make me worry about him and regret my choices. But he’s wrong. I don’t regret a single thing I’ve done.’)
Before she could figure out where Jude had gone, news about Micah reached her.
The rumors online had already spiraled out of control.
(Who would’ve thought he had staged the whole thing himself? What depression? He was clearly expelled for bullying a classmate.]
(I heard that student exposed him for being the other man, and that was what drove him to lash out. Does anyone know it the affair accusation is true?]
The online chatter grew louder, with speculation pouring in from all sides.
Then, the interview Shannon had given ten years ago resurfaced online.
[The affair is probably true. I heard the two of them are still married.]
[Ten years ago, she told the media it was true love. Ten years later, she stood before the media again and asked everyone to look out for her young lover. The irony is unbelievable.]
All the color drained from Shannon’s face as she read through the comments.
If netizens had not brought that interview back into the spotlight, she would have long forgotten the promise she once made to Jude.
Shannon took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. Then, she turned her attention to investigating Micah’s situation.
However, before she had even reached the door, she heard him laughing and joking with several of his friends inside.
“So, I staged the whole thing. What of it? Shay with definitely believe me. I only wanted to get rid of Jude. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“You’re the other man. I’m not wrong about that. Even if you beat me half to death, that won’t change the truth. I’m calling the police-”
A punch landed, followed by the sound of someone coughing up blood.
“If Shannon weren’t rich, who would ever want to stay with a woman in her thirties?”
The moment Shannon heard Micah’s words, she understood everything.
His claims of suffering from depression and being forced to leave school because of Jude had been nothing but lies.
Worse still, Micah had relied on Shannon’s protection and used it to threaten the students around him.
When Shannon pushed open the door, Micah’s raised hand froze in midair.
Guilt flickered across his face as he looked at her.
“Why are you here? I’ll take you home.”
Shannon pulled her hand free from Micah’s grasp and met his eyes.
“Did you stage all this yourself?”
Micah looked somewhat displeased.
“Shay, you heard everything? I just wanted Jude to stay away from you…”
Shannon inhaled deeply.
She hated being lied to more than anything else, yet Micah had deceived her in exactly that way.
“Shannon, you can’t do this to me! You were already going to divorce him. only helped push things along.”
Shannon ignored him and handed everything over to the police.
Within a day, everyone found out that Micah had been taken into custody.
After Shannon returned home, she stared at the digital calendar.
The next day was the day she and Jude were supposed to finalize their divorce.
Throughout this time, she had not been able to reach him. He had not replied to any of her messages, and none of her calls had been answered.
It was as if he was deliberately avoiding her.
Shannon slowly exhaled.
‘Micah is already in police custody. If Jude reconsiders tomorrow, I can still choose not to divorce him,’ she thought.
