A very brief encounter.
Like a gust of wind passing through the night.
It blew past, and then it was gone.
Even though she had gone to sleepte, ire woke up bright and early. She dressed up nicely and stepped out looking radiant.
Destination: city hall!
When ire arrived, she noticed it was exceptionally crowded today.
Even though she was early, there was already a line.
Clearly, the divorce rate was skyrocketing.
ire went to pull a queue ticket.
The clerk asked her, "Marriage or divorce?"
"Divorce."
The clerk pointed to the other side. "No need to wait in line for a divorce. You can head straight over."
She nced over at the divorce counters and saw there was hardly anyone there.
The massive crowd was entirely for marriage registrations.
Curious, she asked a couple waiting in line and found out today was October 10th— the tenth day of the tenth month, symbolizing perfection.
It was a highly auspicious date.
That exined why so many couples were lined up to tie the knot.
Weren''t people saying the marriage rate was dropping every year?
Looking at this crowd, there were still plenty of people eager to jump in.
Processing a divorce didn''t require waiting in line, but it did require both parties to be present.
And Felix wasn''t here yet.
ire checked the time. It was 9:00 AM. A bit early.
She''d just wait another hour.
She found a seat, pulled out her phone, and started a round of a mobile game.
Before she could even finish a single match, her manager sent a message: "Check the trending topics! Madeline got exposed as a homewrecker! It''s so satisfying!" For such a thrilling piece of news, ire absolutely had to join the spectacle.
She abandoned her game and immediately opened the social media app.
There were four or five trending hashtags involving Madeline, and three of them hadpletely blown up.
Especially the one explicitly calling her the ''other woman''-it had easily surpassed thirty million views.
That was more traffic than all of Madeline''s past acting rolesbined!
She was legitimately viral.
Rumor had it that a high-profile insider leaked the information to an entertainment blogger.
Even without photographic proof, the details were so incredibly specific that it was highly credible.
The entire inte was ripping Madeline apart, calling her a shameless homewrecker.
It seemed the public''s moralpass was still functioning perfectly.
Feeling incredibly satisfied, ire closed the app and exchanged a few casual texts with her manager.
The moment the clock struck 10:00, ire called Felix to ask where he was.
The phone rang, but nobody picked up.
Refusing to give up, she called several more times, but the result was always the same.
Growing anxious, ire called Felix''s assistant.
The assistant answered but imed not to know where the boss was.
He exined that Felix had been in the middle of a morning meeting when he received a phone call. He abruptly meeting rushed out of the building, and never said where he was going.
suspended th
For some reason, hearing the assistant''s exnation made ire''s eye twitch.
A deeply unsettling, yet painfully familiar premonition rose in her chest.
There were only two people in the world who could make Felix drop everything in the middle of a
Wov
corporate meeting and run content
One was his grandmother. The other... was Madeline.
As if needing confirmation, ire called Old Mrs. Quigley.
Seeing it was ire calling, the elderly woman answered joyfully "My sweet girl, what made you think to call me? Aren''t you supposed to, beat city hall today that brat didn''t try to back out, did he?" "Content"
ire felt a lump in her throat. It took her a moment to reply, "Not yet."
"Good! If he gives you any trouble, you let me know. I''ll give him a piece of my mind!"
ire pretended everything was perfectly normal,forted the old woman for a few minutes, and then hung up.
So, Felix had gone to find Madeline.
She should have guessed as much.