###Chapter 101: Nina Wainwright, You Are Just an Ant
When Zachary Hawthorne received the divorce papers, he glanced over the terms. Still, he couldn’t help but ask Silas Sinclair, who was at his side, "She didn’t say anything else?"
"That’s right." To Silas Sinclair, it seed Nina Wainwright had been all too eager to sign.
Zachary Hawthorne said no more, rely stamping the agreent with his seal with an air of indifference.
When he returned to Avelon Residence that night, all of Nina Wainwright’s things had been cleared out. In reality, she didn’t have much. She hadn’t taken any of the expensive things Zachary Hawthorne had bought for her, including the necklace he had chosen for their third wedding anniversary.
Zachary Hawthorne walked around the room. When he saw the necklace she’d left on the vanity, he went over and picked it up. He opened the box and stared at it.
The necklace wasn’t as expensive as Luna Sterling’s diamond ring, but it was extrely rare—the kind of thing money couldn’t buy.
’She could have taken these. If life got difficult later, she could have sold them for a good price.’
He shut the necklace box and placed it inside a cabinet.
With one person missing, the place felt devoid of life. But it was as if everything about her hadn’t been completely erased; wherever Zachary Hawthorne went, he could still find traces she had left behind.
For example, strands of her hair were still wound around her comb, yet to be cleaned away.
That night, Nina Wainwright was jolted awake by a nightmare to the sound of her phone vibrating. She picked it up and saw it was a call from Zachary Hawthorne. She didn’t answer. Instead, she blocked his number.
A mont after she blocked him, another number rang.
Annoyed, Nina Wainwright answered it anyway.
Even without asking, she knew it was Zachary Hawthorne.
"Was your affection for in the past all just an act?" Zachary Hawthorne asked.
’Otherwise, how could soone cut ties so decisively, without a single look back?’
Over the years, Zachary Hawthorne had never felt her love for him. At first, this would have made Nina Wainwright sad. She would have wondered if she hadn’t done enough. But not anymore.
’He couldn’t feel it because he never cared.’
"Zachary Hawthorne, we’re divorced. You should be happy. You don’t have to sneak around with Luna Sterling anymore, and you don’t have to keep us both happy. Isn’t that a relief?" Nina Wainwright’s voice was laced with mockery.
"You never trusted either," Zachary Hawthorne continued.
"Zachary Hawthorne, why should I have trusted you? Even if there was nothing going on between you and Luna Sterling, your behavior from the mont she returned until our divorce was not that of a husband. There’s no point in getting hung up on the past. My family, the Wainwrights, lost two lives—not to ntion the child in my womb. Do you really think we can still coexist peacefully?" Nina Wainwright said, then hung up.
She had nothing more to say to Zachary Hawthorne.
Right now, Nina Wainwright only wanted to climb the social ladder and find the enemies who had killed Raymond Wainwright!
Nina Wainwright spent two days in the hospital before being discharged to arrange the funerals for Raymond Wainwright and Mrs. Wainwright. By the ti the services were over, night had fallen.
Standing outside the cetery, Nina Wainwright watched the bamboo grove rustle in the wind. It was only then that the realization slowly dawned on her: she had no parents anymore. Her eyes grew red, and a choked sob escaped her throat.
"Nina..." Catherine Grant ca to her side and put an arm around her shoulders. "It’s okay. You still have us."
Nina Wainwright humd.
Adrian Pemberton, standing to one side, sighed softly. "You should go back to the hospital first and recover. That’s the only way you’ll have the strength to face your enemies."
Nina Wainwright looked at him. "I know. Thank you for being with these last few days. I’ll pull myself together soon."
’Right now, she had to pull herself together whether she wanted to or not. The more ti passed, the harder it would be to investigate what happened to her family.’
「Back at the hospital.」
The mont Nina Wainwright walked into her hospital room, she saw Luna Sterling.
As soon as Luna Sterling saw her, she put on an apologetic expression and said, "I was trying to help your mother that day—"
"Stop pretending. She already told what you said to my mom," Nina Wainwright cut her off, her expression cold.
Seeing that there was no one else in the room, Luna Sterling dropped the apologetic facade. Her expression turned mocking as she looked at Nina. "I hear you want revenge on the Sterling family. Soone like you? I don’t think so."
Nina Wainwright’s eyes were filled with contempt. "You think you can keep up this charade forever? Zachary Hawthorne and I may be divorced, but we were married for three years. I know the kind of person he is. So I wish you the best of luck keeping up this act for the rest of your life. Because if he ever finds out you’re two-faced, he’ll be disgusted by you."
"That’s none of your business," Luna Sterling retorted. She knew Zachary Hawthorne would find out about her act sooner or later.
’But as long as I can make him fall in love with —make him feel like he can’t live without —before he finds out, then it’ll be fine, right?’
And Luna Sterling was confident.
’The fact that Zachary Hawthorne was willing to buy her a thirty-million-dollar diamond ring proved she was special to him.’
"If there’s nothing else, you can leave now." Nina Wainwright didn’t want to look at her at all.
Luna Sterling stepped closer, her eyes raking over Nina from head to toe. Her voice dripped with contempt. "My three years away gave you an opportunity to have him. But I’m back now, and I won’t be giving him up to you again. You want revenge on the Sterling family? Why don’t you take a good look at yourself and see what you’re worth."
She despised Nina Wainwright from the bottom of her heart.
’No family standing, no background to speak of. Did she really think that after three years with Zachary Hawthorne, she’d climbed the social ladder? That she could actually stand up to people like us? She doesn’t even know her place.’
"For us, crushing you would be as easy as squashing an ant. You’d better learn your place and behave, or the Wainwright family’s last remaining sprout will be gone too." With that, Luna Sterling turned and left, her chin held high.
Nina Wainwright’s hands, which were at her sides, clenched into tight fists.
’She had always known how hard it was to transcend social classes. Luna Sterling and the others had laid such an elaborate trap, one that had shattered her family and left her parents dead, and she had been utterly powerless against it.’
’But even so, Nina Wainwright would fight her way to the top.’
She sat in the hospital room for a long ti before finally contacting her forr teacher, Sandra Walsh.
When the call was answered, Nina Wainwright said in a low voice, "Teacher... I want to co back to dancing. I... I’m divorced now. I won’t be called away anymore."
Her voice was bordering on a plea, small and humble.
Sandra Walsh was well-connected. Every dance she organized was a touring production, and many of her lead dancers had gone on to join the national dance troupe.
"Why the divorce? Was Mr. Hawthorne not good to you?" Sandra Walsh had always had a love-hate relationship with Nina Wainwright.
She loved Nina’s talent but hated that she had married so young, throwing away her future.
"We weren’t compatible, and the marriage wasn’t a happy one... Besides, I want to co back to dancing." It wasn’t appropriate to tell her teacher about her family’s troubles, so she could only fall back on the standard, generic explanation.
"Dancing could cause a miscarriage. You need to have the baby first," Sandra Walsh said, her voice softening.
Of course, Sandra Walsh would welco her back to the dance troupe.
"The baby... is already gone..." Nina Wainwright said, unable to suppress a low, choked sob.
’From losing her child to her parents’ deaths... It had been such a short amount of ti, yet to Nina Wainwright, it felt like a century had passed.’
The initial, heart-wrenching pain of her miscarriage had slowly given way to numbness.
*****
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