Interested, he changed his shoes and sat down in the living room, preparing to listen to her. “Go ahead.”
Isla poured Alex a glass of water. Then, as she raised her hand and brushed the hair by her ear, she said with some embarrassment, “Alex, I remember the last time you went back to the village to save the people, you said that you had something to say to me when you came back. It’s been a long time since then, so can you say it now?”
“Did I say something like that?”
“Hmph… Alex, what do you mean? You said it yourself, but not only are you not taking the initiative to honor your words, you still refuse to admit it even when I bring it up?” Isla glared at him. She stood up all of a sudden and held up a cushion with a fierce glint in her eyes. “I’ll get straight to the point. Are you telling me or not?”
“Okay, okay, okay, I’ll tell you… I tell you, alright?”
Alex also felt a little embarrassed and scratched his head. “Isla, let’s get a divorce.”
Isla’s heart went cold at the words, but she was too embarrassed to show how shocked she really was, so she pretended to be calm instead. “Alex, you beat around the bush for so long just to say this? Is the marriage certificate preventing you from going after girls? Tell me, which lady are you in love with? Jane Simpson… or Liana Ballantine?”
“Isla, you got the first half right. That marriage certificate is hindering me from dating, but the second half is completely wrong. The person I’m in love with isn’t the two you mentioned. You’re very smart, so you should be able to guess who I’m really in love with.”
“Is the person you’re in love with… Alright, I see. I wish you happiness.” Isla slowly put down the cushion and slumped onto the sofa with a long sigh. She whispered with a stifled expression, “Tomorrow. Tomorrow, I’ll take the marriage certificate and handle the divorce procedures as soon as possible.”
“Wait… Isla, did you really guess who it is?”
“Who else can it be? Aren’t you in love with… Josie Liedl?”
Isla endured her heartache and said Josie’s name.
“Sigh…” Blushing in shame, Alex shook his head helplessly. “Isla, you guessed wrong. The person I love is… Forget it, let’s wait until the divorce formalities are completed.”
Alex’s relationship with Isla had always been unclear. If they continued on like this, they would grow even more awkward with each other, and they would never be able to go further — stuck in that ambiguous stage. In fact, he did not forget what he said but he had initially planned to confess his feelings to Isla and come clean after he finished dealing with the village affairs.
However, as a typical straight man, he had no experience in love. He was too embarrassed to express his love and dragged it out until now.
He proposed the divorce with Isla because he felt that only after the divorce formalities were completed and the contract marriage was completely settled could they truly return to the starting point. Then, a new chapter could be opened. They could start from the beginning of love and cultivate the feelings that belonged only to the two of them, without any outside factors.
Otherwise, with the agreement and the marriage certificate, he would always feel that his feelings for Isla were not pure.
As for Isla, she was not as dumb as Alex thought. She had deliberately said the names of other women as a means of provocation. Although Alex and she shared mutual feelings, she was a girl and was embarrassed to confess first. In that case, she had to find a way to force Alex to show his feelings to her earlier…
The next morning, Isla went out early.
Before she even got off work, she decided to go to her parents’ side to get the marriage certificate. She went to the office in the morning to handle some work and then went to the City Hall to do the paperwork in the afternoon.
Alex, accompanied by Big Ken, bought a sympathy gift and went to Military Hospital where they bumped into Jane who had gone out to buy breakfast at the gate. After inquiring, Alex learned that Harvey had woken up not long after his surgery was completed. Although his body was still very weak and his mind had not fully recovered, he was recuperating and could communicate normally.
Upon learning that the doctor said that it was still inconvenient to disturb Harvey too much, Alex handed the sympathy gift to Jane and looked at Harvey from afar by the door of the ward, and was just about to leave.
However, after Jane put the gift in the ward, she quickly came back out and said to Alex, “Uncle asked me to invite you in. He wants to have a few words with you.”
“Okay!”
With a nod, Alex swiftly entered the ward and as he walked over to the bed, he greeted Harvey.
Harvey gestured for Alex to sit down and said slowly, “Alex, I heard Jane said that you feel guilty about the explosion and still haven’t let go of the guilt?”
“Mmhm… Even now, I still don’t know how to face Chief Judge Whitman’s family.”
“I know, you think that if you hadn’t invited us to dinner, perhaps Chief Judge Whitman and I wouldn’t have gotten into this accident. But according to your logic, I’d also have to take partial responsibility for what happened to Chief Judge Whitman since I was the one who introduced him to you in the first place. Alex, what I want to say is that you’re overthinking it, really. The bombing for Chief Judge Whitman and I was fate. It was an accident and had nothing to do with you. Even if you hadn’t invited us to dinner, those who had their eyes on him would have inevitably found other opportunities to get him.”
“Captain Simpson, thank you for your words. My heart feels a lot lighter after what you said.”
“That’s good. Jane mentioned that the murderer framed you. At this point, not only are you not at fault, but you’re also a victim like us. Alex, what we need to do now isn’t to blame ourselves, but to catch the killer. I can’t help, so I can only count on you.”
“Captain Simpson, I didn’t come to see you last night because I went looking for the murderer.”
“Huh? You’ve already found him?”
“We found her. She should’ve been brought to Captain Pannell already.”
“That’s good, that’s good…”
When Harvey learned that the killer was caught, he instantly relaxed and his complexion looked better.
Once Harvey had straightened him out, Alex was much more relieved. He was not being melodramatic, but the understanding of someone who was directly implicated was much better than the comfort of an outsider. After chatting with Harvey, he went to greet Director Denver again before saying his goodbye and left. As soon as he got into the car, he received a WhatsApp message from Isla.
Isla had already taken the marriage certificate at home, so she told Alex to go through the procedures at 2:00 pm.
Alex replied to the message and rushed to Golden Stone Co. At 12:00 pm, he took Isla to a high-end restaurant and handed her the menu with a smile. “Isla, this is the last meal we’ll be having as a fake couple. Time flies so fast. It’s been almost half a year.”
“Yes…” Isla also sighed emotionally. “It seems like since we met, everything we’ve experienced has been quite dramatic. Looking back now, I seemed to have acted a little overboard toward you when I first signed the agreement. I didn’t even take you out for a nice meal the day we got married.”
“It wasn’t that you ‘seemed’ to have acted overboard. You really did act overboard, okay?”
“I’ve already admitted my mistake and agreed to be your servant for three years to make it up to you. How about… This meal is on me. I’ll treat you to this big meal to make up for it.”
“Sure, since you’re so sincere, I’ll give you a chance.”
“Do you have no shame? I’m completely baffled as to how there could be such a stingy man like you in this world.”
Although Isla rolled her eyes, her heart was full of joy.
This should be what love that was spoken of in legends were like, right?
However, Isla and Alex were different from ordinary lovers.
Other lovers got a marriage certificate after developing their relationship to a certain point, but they were going for a divorce instead…
After they ate, Alex realized that it was already 1:30 pm, so he was prepared to take Isla to the City Hall but he suddenly received a call from an unknown number.
Alex waited for a few seconds and when he felt that the caller did not dial the wrong number, he picked up the call. “Hello, who is this?”
A familiar baritone came from the receiver. “Is this Alex Cohen? Is it convenient to meet you?”
“Henry Doyle?”
“Yes, it’s me.”
“Hmph… What do you want to see me for?”
Since Alex’s memory was superb, he recognized Henry’s voice. However, he was quite surprised.
Henry hesitated on the other end for a few seconds before continuing, “I want to ask you a favor.”
“Are you mistaken?” Alex was amused. “Are we very familiar?”
“To be precise, I want to talk to you about a collaboration. I’ll send you an address. If you’re interested, come over and we’ll discuss it in detail.”
Alex pondered for a few seconds after he hung up, and said to Isla, “Let’s do the formalities another day…”
