Chapter 9-look for a job

After Adeline left for work, Laurent spent the entire morning sleeping alone at home, resting and recharging. After waking up, he made himself something to eat and then started using Adeline's computer to look for a job.

She had originally thought that Dave would quickly agree to the divorce, and then she would take her daughter and leave the county to return to her parents' home.

Her parents lived in a small third-tier city affiliated with the county, about an hour's drive away if traveling entirely on highways.

She planned to settle her daughter with her parents first, then look for a job there. As for the county, she had no intention of coming back.

There was nothing in this place that made her want to stay, and there was no point in remaining here any longer.

Moreover, after becoming a mother herself, she increasingly understood the struggles her parents had faced and could feel the deep affection they had for their children. After this failed marriage, her only place to go was her parents' home.

In this world, only her parents were her most stable and reliable shelter from the storm.

But now, Dave said he wanted to fight for custody of their daughter, meaning the divorce wouldn't happen anytime soon. She couldn't just continue to sit around doing nothing. Since she had already decided to leave the marriage and that family, she needed to have her own income and a job to support her future life.

Although she knew full well that finding a job as a woman who had been out of society for five years with no work experience would be nearly impossible, she had to take the first step.

On the other side, Dave had just finished a meeting and was walking toward his office while seriously and sternly delegating tasks to his secretary. However, he had only assigned a few tasks when he received a call from his sister, Lilian.

For Dave, who spent his days immersed in the deceitful and cutthroat business world, this so-called simplicity was nothing but foolishness!

However, Laurent described Lilian as simple, sweet, kind, and adorably naive. The relationship between the aunt and niece was unusually harmonious, even more so than his own relationship with his sister.

It made sense, though. That woman saw only the good side of everyone and everything, and it seemed like she automatically filtered out the darker side of human nature.

Therefore, Dave believed that the reason she could get along so well with Lilian was because they were the same type of person—both lacking in depth!

For some inexplicable reason, just from a phone call from Lilian, he was reminded of that woman. This irritated Dave greatly, and when he answered the phone, his tone was far from friendly. He snapped at his sister, "What is it?"

However, instead of hearing Lilian protest about his harsh tone, he was taken aback by the urgency in her voice, trembling with panic.

" Dave, something's wrong, a big problem! You need to come back right away. Mom's going to divorce Dad. She's packing her things and leaving now."

Furious, Dave abruptly hung up on Lilian and coldly instructed his secretary to push back his afternoon schedule. He quickly rushed to his car, heading for the Burg Eltz family estate.

On the road, Lilian's words echoed in Dave's ears:

"Didn't your wife bring up the divorce at the lord's birthday banquet last night? Mom says it's all Dad's fault for forcing you to marry her. It's because of that that your marriage with her ended up so unhappy, and now you're getting divorced. Mom says she hates Dad, that he ruined your happiness for life, and that's why she can't go on living with him."

Dave felt a wave of irritation, rolling down the windows of his car and letting the wind blow through to ease the growing frustration inside him.

His parents' relationship had been in a stalemate ever since his father's scandal five years ago, when it was revealed that he had an illegitimate son older than Dave himself. But Dave never expected his usually gentle mother would actually bring up divorce this time.

As for his parents' relationship, he often avoided delving into it, because every time he thought about them, he saw echoes of his own marriage with Laurent—an arrangement that wasn't based on mutual love…

His parents' marriage had been a business-political alliance. Burg Eltz was strong in business, and his maternal grandfather held political power. Their marriage had been a huge sensation at the time, cementing Burg Eltz's dominance in business and creating a political legend for his grandfather.

His father had had a lover before marrying his mother, and he had not wanted to marry her. This seemed so similar to Dave's own situation with Laurent.

The marriage he had with Laurent, one that he did not want, was the main reason for his strained and even resentful relationship with his father. His father had experienced a marriage without love, yet he still forced his son into a loveless marriage. How could a father who disliked his own son so much expect any respect or affection from him?

Yet, when it came to the illegitimate son, his father had been nothing but kind, keeping the mother and child well-supported abroad all these years, secretly maintaining them. Moreover, because of this son, his father even tried to tear Dave and Clark apart, using manipulation to force Clark into a relationship with that son, all to fulfill the son's desires.

How could a father who never once thought about his own son ever earn Dave's respect or love?

Naturally, his anger toward his father had been redirected toward Laurent, the perfect daughter-in-law who was always obedient and understanding in his father's eyes.