Chapter 20 “Surprise”

Zephaniah took a pen and signed the crumpled paper. Then, he put down the pen, grabbed his coat, and left very calmly. He did not talk right up to the end. Jade could no longer hold her tears. She threw herself into her mother's arms and burst into tears. If she wanted to keep her baby, she needed to get a divorce. If they were still married, she could lose her baby with just one word from Zephaniah. Therefore, she could only put up an act with Easton and her mother to force Zephaniah into the divorce. However, when he truly signed the divorce agreement, Jade felt all her organs churn; she felt horrible. Zephaniah did not even know how he managed to get down the stairs. On his way back, he met someone smoking, and he walked toward the man, giving him some money. “Sell me your cigarettes and lighter.” When the man saw the one hundred dollars, he immediately sold his cigarettes and lighter to Zephaniah. Zephaniah lit up a cigarette. He did not like the smell of cigarettes. He would only get one when he was in a business meeting and when he was compelled to smoke. But now, he felt empty inside, and he wanted to get something to fill it up. Coincidentally, cigarettes were able to fill up the void. When he raised his hands to smoke, Zephaniah noticed a platinum ring on his finger. He then took out a velvet box from his pocket. While he was on a business trip in Singapore, he saw the rings in a jewelry shop that he happened to pass by. He recalled the time they got married. He seemingly bought Jade a diamond ring that cost thirty thousand dollars, and she wore it all the time. If he was not mistaken, she had never taken it off. Perhaps he wanted to compensate for something, but Zephaniah had walked into the shop and contacted the manager to custom make a pair of rings. He got them the next day, and both were platinum. When he received the rings, he was afraid that he would lose them at work, so he put the man’s ring on his finger first and sent the woman’s ring back to the country. He had originally planned to give Jade a surprise once he returned from his business trip. He did not expect Jade to return the previous ring to him before he could even give her the ring. On top of that, she gave him a big “surprise”! Over the past few years, he had been busy with his own career. Although he was forced to marry Jade, he always believed that he did not treat her badly… He remembered what Jade said in her mother’s place earlier, and Zephaniah subconsciously became angrier as he stared at the ring longer. Eventually, he took the platinum ring directly off his finger and threw it along with the velvet box into the manmade lake. Divorce changed nothing. He was still Zephaniah Owens. For the sake of the baby inside her stomach, Jade, who usually ate at irregular hours, started to take note of her diet. She needed to take folic acid and was not allowed to touch any cigarettes or alcohol. She even changed all of her heels to flats. Sometimes, she worked overtime, but it would not be too late. As time went by, her belly slowly became obvious. She could no longer put on the tight-fitting suits she owned and could only wear loose-fitting clothes now. Jade touched her round belly through her clothes, and she felt saddened. When the third month of her pregnancy arrived, the loose-fitting clothes would no longer hide her belly. At that time, everyone in the company would know about it, and her boss would not allow her to continue working at a job with such a high workload. However, she was afraid that her position would be replaced when she came back from giving birth. Her salary for the job was in the tens of thousands. The salary there allowed her to pay for her house rent and car loan. If the job was truly gone, she would definitely be extremely stressed. “Miss Redfern.” When she saw a colleague striding toward her, Jade hastily put her hands down and smiled faintly. “Yes?” “Mister Whittle’s asking you guys to go to the conference room for a meeting.” Her colleague put some documents on Jade’s desk, went closer to her, and whispered, “I heard it’s a visitation from the people of Dragon's Ascent Investment Company. Mister Whittle even booked the entire restaurant downstairs to welcome them!” Dragon's Ascent Investment Company… Jade pursed her lips. ‘I think it’s been around a month since Zephaniah and I got divorced, right?’