"Kitty, why did you agree with Graham’s stupid idea? You know I can find a much better lawyer, right?"
"We both know that’s not possible," Kate said. "He is the best in his field. You said it yourself before."
"Tsk, I didn’t search far and wide enough. Let ask Michael and so colleagues to find the best. I will not allow you to be humiliated in the court!" Henry insisted. "I can’t do this, Kate. I get angry when I think everyone will look at you with pitiful eyes. You’re my woman and deserve to be praised and hailed, not pitied!"
"Calm down..." Kate continued tapping Henry’s chest to soothe him. "This is my choice, Henry. I did this to annul the prenup and get all the assets I’ve worked hard for."
Henry clenched his fist. He wasn’t angry at Kate, but at her decision and why they had to go through this, "Kitty, can’t you just let go of those assets? I can give you ten—no, a hundred tis the amount of assets you have to share with that deadbeat bastard," Henry persuaded. "For that small apartnt, you have to give to him, I will purchase a mansion under your na, and for a car you have to give, then I will buy you a yacht to match that. It’s a great offer, right?"
"Henry, this is not about the money. This is about my pride," Kate said.
"And this is about my pride as well!" Henry was frustrated because they had to argue about this. "I can’t let you look pitiful and poor in front of others. It’s my pride as a man to protect my woman. You’re supposed to have everything in life!"
Kate stared at Henry, who got agitated by this argunt between them.
She found him quite funny because he made such a big fuss about his pride as a man, even though Kate never asked for his money.
"Why don’t you put aside your pride and let act like a poor and dumb wife in court? I’m sure you can put up with it, right? You can put up with Erin for so long. You have the ntal fortitude," Kate said, but Henry didn’t seem to agree.
"This is a different case. This involves your dignity and my pride. I can’t let you look poor and dumb, not when you’re a very capable woman on your own."
...
"Henry, I am that dumb woman," Kate murmured.
"Huh? What do you an?" Henry got confused by her statent just now. "You are a smart and tough woman. Why are you degrading yourself like that?"
...
Kate didn’t like telling her weakness to soone else. She always saw herself as a fragile woman on the inside, easy to get manipulated and taken advantage of once she got vulnerable.
Thus, she always put on that tough exterior to ensure she wouldn’t et the second Matt or Erin in her life.
But Henry was different.
He wouldn’t try to manipulate Kate, or so she believed. So it should be okay for her to be completely vulnerable to him, right?
"But I was truly that dumb woman who gets manipulated by my useless husband," Kate admitted. "Matt had never worked all his life. He was always busy chasing his unreachable dream. He’d use my money, and things worsened after we married."
"Since we couldn’t have a baby, he’d constantly bla . Telling that I am stupid and useless," Kate recalled. The wave of pain began to wash over her heart. She truly had no good mories of Matt.
All she rembered was how he mocked her because she was infertile.
"He told everyone in our family about my infertility, and thus, I beca the laughingstock of many of them," Kate said. "He told that I should just work and earn a lot of money to compensate for my inability to have a baby."
"And so I did. I worked so hard to give us a good life. I was scared that he’d leave for another woman. I was scared to be alone," Kate laughed mirthlessly when she rembered her pitiful self. "After all, who would want to marry a barren divorced woman in her 30s? No high-quality man would do that."
"I would," Henry interrupted without hesitation. "Even if you are actually barren, I’d still marry you."
Kate smiled. She felt loved by this man and was forever grateful for that, "But I didn’t know you back then. I just thought I had nobody except Matt, so I must satisfy him no matter what."
"That’s why I willingly manipulated myself into thinking that Matt and I could work on our problem. I allowed him to do whatever, including giving a prenup that was disadvantageous."
"You know what’s the funniest part?" Kate asked. She then chuckled as she got no reaction from her man. "The funniest part is... I could always go and have a fertility check myself. But I kept asking him to co with many tis, and he refused with the sa answer. There is no use in checking when the result will be the sa. I am the woman. Therefore, I must be infertile because it’s a woman’s job to bear a baby."
Kate rembered how she was depressed because, for five years, she really thought that she was barren. She was not a complete woman and didn’t deserve to marry even a failed man like Matt because of her condition.
"I could’ve break free from his chain if I’m not stupid enough to listen to everything that Matt said," Kate tried to smile at Henry to hide her pain, but the bitter smile couldn’t fool him at all.
"So, if you really think I’m a smart woman who wouldn’t make a mistake, then you’re gravely mistaken," Kate said. "I made a lot of mistakes, and I was dumb for taking Matt’s words as the absolute truth."
"Well, I should thank you for proving Matt wrong. It turns out I am not the infertile one in that marriage."
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