Love Me Back (Amelia and Daniel) novel Chapter 113

As Amelia retrieved her phone, the clock struck midnight.

The door was already unlocked. Daniel stood by the entryway, watching her change her shoes. His heart felt battered and hollow, yet he couldn’t help lingering. “Let me walk you out.”

Amelia ignored him completely, stepping through the open door without so much as a backward glance.

Their calico cat scampered over on its stubby legs, pausing in the hallway to meow plaintively at the closing door.

Daniel crouched to scratch the cat’s head. He sounded every bit the bitter dad after a messy divorce, whispering, “Your mom doesn’t want you anymore.”

That didn’t feel like enough, so he added, “That cold-hearted woman—she doesn’t just leave you behind, she’s leaving me too.”

Daniel snorted bitterly. Despite the warmth radiating through the house, a chill seeped deep into his bones—one of those lonely, soul-level colds that leaves you feeling small and defeated.

But disappointment or not, a capitalist is still a capitalist.

He stood up and opened the door again, nudging the calico’s rear with his slippered foot. “You can’t just freeload all that cat food. Go on, bring her back.”

The calico: …Me?

…

The moment Amelia unlocked her phone, it buzzed with a barrage of texts and missed calls.

Most were from Sophia. Mr. Harper had tried twice as well.

She slid into the backseat of a cab, quickly texted Sophia, then called Mr. Harper.

“Since the petitioner failed to appear without a valid reason, the court dismissed the case,” Mr. Harper explained.

Amelia had expected this outcome. Still, she felt apologetic. “I’m sorry you had to wait so long for nothing.”

“Your grounds for divorce are ‘irreconcilable differences.’ If any new circumstances arise within those six months, you might have standing to file again.”

Amelia forced a wry smile. In the grown-up world, there’s no such thing as an amicable ending. She and Daniel had reached the ugliest chapter.

“Daniel cheated during the marriage. I have chat logs and some recordings. I’ll send them to you—see if they’ll count as evidence.”

As soon as she hung up, Sophia called. Amelia gave her the highlights of last night’s mess. Sophia launched into a furious tirade that lasted until Amelia’s cab pulled up to the lab complex.

“Damn it, when will they ever fix the laws on marriage? As long as you’re married, domestic abuse isn’t a crime, confining someone isn’t a crime—if you and Daniel weren’t legally bound and he locked you up for a day, I’d sue him into the ground!”

Listening to Sophia, Amelia felt a pang of regret. She thought, right, abuse means nothing if you’re married. If she’d known, maybe she’d have stabbed Daniel with a kitchen knife—after all, marital fights always end up swept under the rug.

Amelia spent the day sleeping in her dorm room. That evening, her senior colleague Oliver Miller came by.

“After the holidays, the institute’s putting you in charge of a new project. You should start handing off your current work. Be ready—you won’t get much notice before you have to leave. When they say go, you go.”