Chapter 4
925 Words
"I've had enough of your schemes."
"What schemes?" Shawna stared at him blankly, lost and confused.
Zane's gaze flickered toward Liam, who was lying on the hospital bed.
"You know exactly what you did."
Only then did Shawna realize that Zane had misunderstood. He thought she had deliberately let Liam eat that much ice cream.
"I didn't..."
She instinctively tried to explain, but Zane had no intention of listening to another word.
"I'll have the divorce agreement drafted and sent to you."
With that, he left.
Shawna's head was spinning.
'Maybe divorce is for the best. We were never supposed to belong in the same world anyway. We're just two unlucky people whose lives were thrown into chaos by that illegal transmigrator.'
Only...
Shawna looked at Liam on the bed.
This child was the most innocent one of all.
Shawna stayed by his side in the hospital all night.
The next day, when Liam woke up, he was surprised to find that Shawna was still sitting beside his hospital bed.
She even apologized to him again.
"I'm sorry, Liam. I shouldn't have let you eat so much ice cream."
Liam just stared at her. He didn't know what to do with an apology. He'd never gotten one before.
He looked at her for a long while before asking awkwardly, "Can I still eat ice cream in the future?"
Shawna smiled.
For the first time, she felt that this child was actually rather adorable.
But then she remembered what Zane had said the night before about divorce.
After hesitating for a long time, she asked tentatively, "Liam, if your father and I got divorced, would you..."
Before she could finish, Liam's face suddenly turned pale.
"Can you please not get divorced?"
Shawna froze.
"Why?"
Liam's small hands clutched the blanket tightly, his lips pressed into a hard line.
If they got divorced, he would no longer be useful to Shawna.
When that happened, Shawna would definitely abandon him.
And Zane had always hated him...
Thinking of this, Liam felt his small chest tighten painfully.
In the end, he simply lay back down, closed his eyes, and refused to communicate with Shawna any further.
Liam's reaction left Shawna at a loss.
For a moment, she did not know what to do.
Just then, her phone rang.
The caller ID read: Devin Davis, her agent.
She answered the call, and a sharp, affected male voice rang out from the other end.
"Shawna, get to the company right now!"
"What company?" Shawna was completely confused.
"Stop saying weird things and get over here!"
Even through the phone, Shawna could almost feel him rolling his eyes on the other end.
'Another mess that illegal transmigrator left behind for me.'
Shawna's voice turned cold.
"I'm at the hospital and can't leave. If there's something you need, come here and say it."
After hanging up, she immediately searched her own name.
Only then did she learn that the illegal transmigrator had actually given up the place at Halstead University that Shawna had worked so hard to earn, dropped out, and gone straight into acting.
Unfortunately, aside from wanting to be a star, she had no acting skills to speak of. Now, she was basically a Z-list celebrity mocked by the entire internet.
Shawna's vision nearly went dark.
Half an hour later, Devin stormed into the hospital.
The moment he saw Shawna, he pointed at her with his pinky lifted and started yelling.
"Pulling the diva act on me now? Do you even want to survive in this industry?"
Shawna only asked, "What do you need me for?"
Devin choked on his anger for a second, then sneered.
"I'm here to tell you that Trivia Gauntlet tapes next Saturday."
Trivia Gauntlet was a highly respected intelligence-based quiz show that had been running for twenty years.
Most of its contestants were gifted amateurs.
When Shawna was 16, she had also received an invitation to appear on the show, but she had not been interested at the time and had turned it down.
Shawna asked, "Can I skip it?"
Devin shot her a mocking look.
"Aren't you the one who signed up for it yourself? You said you wanted to use your old 'genius girl' reputation as a gimmick to stir up some publicity."
"Huh?"
Shawna's brows drew together.
In her heart, she cursed that illegal transmigrator countless times.
Devin did not care about her reaction. He said directly, "Consider this our last collaboration. Once the recording is over, we'll terminate the contract. A useless piece of dead weight who can't do anything except look pretty really thinks she's something special."
After saying that, he threw down the notice sheet, turned around, and left.
Shawna stood frozen in place, her chest tight and heavy.
All her life, people had only ever called her a genius.
This was the first time anyone had called her useless.
For the first 18 years of her life, everything had gone smoothly. But now, one mess after another was crashing down on her all at once.
There was nowhere for her to run.
She could only face it.
*****
That afternoon, after Liam had mostly recovered, Shawna completed the discharge procedures for him.
When they returned home, Zane was in the living room.
Shawna hesitated for a long while before finally taking Liam's hand and walking over.
"Zane."
At the sound of her voice, Zane lifted his eyes but said nothing.
Shawna took a deep breath and looked at him.
"About the divorce you mentioned yesterday—I don't agree."
- Writer
