The next morning, Serena was still sleeping, with no signs of waking up anyti soon.
anwhile, Natalie had shared the good news with Marina and, of course, Aaron, who was not surprised to hear it but was happy that he was going to be an uncle.
Marina had no way of containing her happiness, as if all of a sudden all the gloominess in her life was gone and everything looked rry.
"I can’t tell you how happy I am," she hugged Natalie and Justin, and then looked at Aaron, "What about you? What are you going to do with your aningless marriage now that it’s all over?"
"I will take care of it," Aaron assured.
"Do it quickly. I want you to marry a good woman soon and give another piece of such good news," Marina insisted. "I want to see at least half a dozen grandkids before I die."
"Do you take our wives as breeding goats?" Justin asked and declared, "This is the first and last pregnancy for Natalie. I don’t care if it’s just a single child or there are more. I can’t let her suffer for our greed of having kids around."
"Won are strong, and they are ant to bear the pain of childbirth," Marina countered.
"She can experience another kind of pain with ... Ummm..." His mouth was shut even before Justin could say sothing truly bold, and she warned him, "Keep quiet." Her face flushed as she knew what he was going to say.
This shaless man.
Marina couldn’t help but laugh while Aaron smiled. The air in the ho felt playful.
"Is she expecting a child?" a familiar voice ca through.
They looked at the old man standing at the door.
"What are you doing here?" Marina asked coldly. The happiness she was feeling vanished in a mont upon seeing her husband.
"I asked sothing," Aeldric said in his usual arrogance.
Justin pulled Natalie behind him and glared at the old man, "Nothing related to or my wife concerns you. Rember, we are Handrix, not Riverdales. You better stay away, or I might not be rciful towards you anymore."
Justin had been considering Marina’s feelings and kept his actions in check against this old man.
"You still can’t deny you and even your kids have my blood," he said.
Marina stepped forward to stand facing him, her gaze icy. "If there was any way to separate your blood from my kids, I would have done it happily. But unfortunately, there is none. I can only curse my fate for falling for a man like you and even giving birth to kids that I couldn’t protect. You are nothing but a hateful old man."
"Marina..."
"Get out of my ho," she shouted. "If you won’t leave, today I will kill myself for real. I don’t have to look after Serena, and I am free to die."
Aeldric was shaken by her outrage.
Tears rolled down her eyes. "Just go and die sowhere and don’t co to anymore." She repeated, "Or you will see dead."
Seeing her so enraged, he had no choice but to leave.
Natalie ca to Marina and cald her down.
Later, the good news reached the imperial city. Jas and Caryn were, of course, happy, but Julia was on cloud nine. ira and Noah shared the sa feelings—they were happy for Justin and Natalie.
-----
In the evening, Justin reached the Riverdale estate, which seed to have lost its initial grace. The lights, the servants, the guards—everything was like before. But it seed to have lost its soul.
When Justin entered the drawing room, he went to Aeldric’s study, where the old man was sitting alone in the dark. Justin turned on the lights and stood in front of Aeldric.
The old man simply looked at him. Though he was defeated, the usual arrogance was still on his face.
Justin put the file on the desk and said, "I am returning the Riverdale empire back to you. I want nothing of it. You can keep it."
"It’s all yours anyways," Aeldric said.
"I don’t want anything which has stains of my parents’ blood and their suffering," Justin said coldly. "You can keep it and enjoy it yourself."
Justin turned to leave, only to hear Aeldric say, "You are still my family."
"I am not," Justin denied again and inford him, "All of us are leaving the eastern country and going back to the imperial city. I would advise you not to follow us there."
"Marina..."
"She is coming with as well," Justin inford him and looked at him. "It’s her own choice."
Aeldric could say nothing. Justin left, after turning off the light. Once more, the old man sat there, left alone in the dark.
-----
anwhile, Aaron reached the Hartz family residence, where he t Grace. The Hartz family had buried Colin and was now in mourning.
Seeing Aaron, Grace thought he had finally co for her, as she was his wife, but...
"Sign these papers," Aaron instructed her as he put the docunts on the center table in front of her.
She looked at the divorce papers and then heard him again, "Though this was not a marriage in my opinion, I still want to go through this divorce, as I don’t want to have any kind of ties with you."
Grace knew better than to disobey him and signed the papers, her eyes moist, her expression helpless.
Aaron picked up the papers and slid another file toward her. "There is enough money in this for you. With this, you can spend your life comfortably. This is the least I can do for you, as once we had our nas signed on a wedding certificate," he said and left.
The Hartz empire was ruined and bankrupt now, and even this ho—they had to vacate it soon. Grace opened the file and looked at the huge alimony amount written inside. At the sa ti, despite the entire Hartz empire being gone, this ho was still theirs, and she didn’t have to vacate it.
Aaron had given this ho back to her. He hadn’t left her to succumb to poverty or suffering or to be holess.
She then looked at the exit of the ho where Aaron had just left. She imdiately ran out of the house and called after him, "Aaron!"
The man, who was about to sit inside the car, stopped and looked at her.
"Thank you for not being cruel to even after what my family did to yours," she said.
"What your father did—you and your mother were not at fault," he said, then sat inside the car, which left the next mont.
She wiped her tears and returned to the ho. She had to live a well-thought-out and careful life with her mother now that she had been given a second chance.
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