They Voted Me Out Of The Wedding So I Canceled It Chapter 17
Evan transferred two hundred thousand dollars, plus interest, into his lawyer’s trust account.
It was the money from my grandmother’s necklace.
I instructed my lawyer to return it untouched, with a single sentence attached:
“That was an investment in the marriage I had at the time. The marriage is over. The investment failed. I accept the loss.”
At the final document handoff, Evan brought a cardboard box.
Inside were Ava’s childhood drawings, her certificates, the photos, the Mother’s Day cards she’d written to me.
“This belongs to you,” he said.
“I already donated everything,” I said, turning the last page of the agreement. “This is the one box the movers missed.”
His face fell. “Claire, that’s ten years of Ava’s life.”
“Then you should keep it. She’s your daughter.”
“How can you just throw it all away?”
He pushed the box toward me, as if he were certain that one more look would make me unable to let go.
I took out my phone and, right there in front of him, called Goodwill to schedule a pickup for the last donation box, downstairs from the law office.
Evan froze.
“You’re really not keeping any of it?”
Outside the window, a Goodwill employee was already pushing a cart into the building lobby.
I taped the box shut and handed it to him.
“I had planned to keep these as mementos.”
A flicker of hope lit Evan’s eyes.
Then I let go of the box.
“But then I realized there was no need. I’ve resigned from that job. These are just archived work files. Whether they’re kept or destroyed has nothing to do with me anymore.”