Chapter 24

Ashton was just about to head out for dinner with Giselle when he looked up and saw Claire standing there. In just a few days, her appearance had completely changed—pale, exhausted, with dark circles under her eyes and red veins streaking through them. She handed him a few sheets of paper and said, almost pleadingly, "Curtis has signed the divorce agreement. Very shortly, the divorce will be finalized. "I'm not tied to him anymore, Ash. You can come home with me now, can't you?" Even now, Claire still naively believed that Ashton had left because she had married Curtis on paper. In an effort to make things right, she had used up nearly all of her savings to pay off Curtis' debt to the Carneys, just to get him to agree to the divorce. The moment she had those papers in hand, she rushed over to find Ashton, clinging to the hope that he might change his mind. However, Ashton simply frowned and took a step back. "I've made myself clear, Claire. I don't love you anymore. We're over.