Chapter 18 Refund

"Congratulations! We are all set and free from each other now."

After a long time, Melinda murmured to herself. Looking at the divorce agreement in his hand, Jonas had a complex expression on his face. He had always hoped that this could happen, but now that it had finally happened, he had a strange feeling at the pit of his stomach, as if he had just made the biggest mistake of his life.

Melinda stood up from the floor, carefully hiding the divorce agreement away in her bag, and then turned away. There was nothing left for her to do at the Gu's mansion anymore.

Melinda gingerly got her phone from her bag and found a private space to talk, "Kent, could you please come to the Gu's mansion and pick me up? Jonas and I are finally getting divorced. He signed the papers."

When she said the word "divorce", she was somewhat absent-minded, and a trace of a smile appeared. Kent was a little surprised that she had managed to get the papers signed, but he was very happy for her. Moreover, he could not refuse her request.

Soon, Kent arrived to pick up Melinda. The servants gave her strange looks as she was leaving so late in the night, escorting her with judgmental looks until she left. Standing by the front door, Jonas couldn't ignore the sound of the car that came in and left as soon as it had arrived. Irritated by the intrusion, he changed his clothes and went back to his company.

"It's late. Where are you going at this time of night?" Queena who had applied a facial mask ready for bed opened her room's door when she heard a commotion. Jonas paused mid-step on his way out and then said in a low voice, "We are now divorced."

"What? Divorce? I will not allow that to happen in our family!" said Nelson, getting agitated.

When he heard the noise around the house, he had ignored it, thinking it wasn't anything important. As a result, the butler quickly informed him that Melinda had left the premise.

"Grandpa, we have already signed the divorce agreement," Jonas said, sounding exhausted.

Just then, Nelson's face turned ghastly pale as he felt a cluster of spark plugs emanating from his abdomen. Tension built in his face and limbs; he felt a vice-like grip on his heart as his breathing became more labored and shallow; he found it difficult to breathe.

"Master, are you okay?" the butler yelled as he rushed to Nelson's side. Nelson fell stiffly on the ground not even fighting to breathe anymore. The butler held Nelson as he yelled trying to frantically pump his heart to form a rhythm and keep his heart beating.

"Grandpa are you okay!"

"Get the car, we need to take him to hospital fast."

The Gu family was shocked by Nelson's sudden attack. Jonas's lips were pursed in a thin line, a pale line forming at the top of his lips, indicating how hard he was biting on his lips. He silently contemplated the actions that had led to his grandfather's dire situation. He didn't expect that their divorce would make him so angry.

Kent took Melinda back to the place where she had rented, but they were informed that their rental contract had been canceled. The landlord asked her to evacuate from their premise, so she had to pack up her things in a hurry.

"I thought I had signed a one-year contract with you and I didn't cancel my lease. What changed?" Melinda was confused. She had used up almost all her savings in order to rent the house and was now being asked to leave without any explanation.

"It's your husband who came to cancel your contract. If you and your husband are having problems, you need to solve your issues on your own. But the house has already been rented out to another tenant. You should move out as soon as possible, hopefully within the next two days, or I will throw your stuff out," stated the property manager.

They had awakened the property manager in the middle of the night, who was now annoyed with their constant questions instead of communicating among themselves. Melinda knew without a doubt that it was only Jonas who could be this petty. She felt uncontrollable rage building up right from her belly because Jonas managed to make trouble for her even after they had divorced.

"I know. I will move out as soon as possible. But I need a place to rest for tonight," Melinda said. The property manager yawned, seeming sleepy, tired and totally disinterested in her explanations, her mind probably focused on sleeping. Covering her mouth as she yawned again, she said, "Whatever. Just do whatever you need to do to get out of here, I'll get the key from you the day after tomorrow."

After sending Kent away, Melinda thought of her remaining money and sighed, "I shouldn't have settled for nothing because I was trying to seem dignified. I should have asked for something as part of the divorce settlement if I had known this was going to happen."

Some of the jewelry that she had been gifted would be enough to cover a half year's rent if she had been brilliant enough to keep them.

The next morning, Melinda woke up early and began to pack up trying to cover as much ground as possible. When Kent brought breakfast for her, he found that she had almost packed everything up.

"You have packed everything, are you going to find another house today?" Kent asked while putting breakfast on the table. Melinda washed her hands and started eating without waiting for Kent to settle down.

"Well, it's impossible for me to sleep on the street, right?" In fact, she had stayed up late at night checking out several houses on the Internet. She planned to visit them one by one today to see if she could find one that she liked.

"I'll go with you later. I don't have much work today," Kent offered.

Since he had begun his own business, he was always busy, but his schedule was flexible. In addition, Kent was still not comfortable with letting Melinda find a house alone.

"Okay, thank you, a second pair of eyes would be very helpful. I checked several places last night which are quite a distance. I am lucky I will have a free driver today," Melinda stated happily.

Melinda's impish smile grew of its own accord making her look younger than her early twenties. When she smiled, her bright eyes would shine, emphasizing her innocence which was like a fresh breath of air. Melinda loved literature and was very conscious of how she behaved including her table manners.

After finishing her breakfast, she took her bag and started to visit the places that she had marked as having houses of interest for her. There were five spots in total, which were a little far from each other. It was not until three o'clock in the afternoon that they finished checking all of them. Finally exhausted, Kent took Melinda to a coffeehouse for a drink to regroup.

"There is another place that I think you would like. Let me show you," Kent said. Kent noticed Melinda's hesitation, though he had no idea what she was worried about.

Melinda nodded, and then followed Kent to have a look. The house looked good from outside and once they got inside it was just as good. After looking around, she asked for the price of rent. It was affordable.

"Well, to tell you the truth, I own this place and it's been empty for a while hoping to get a tenant but no one has lived here for some time now. Just do me the favor of moving in so that you don't put any more pressure on yourself."

Melinda was a smart woman. Kent knew that even if he hid this kind of information from h

er, she would sooner or later find out that he was the owner. The revelation put Melinda in a complicated situation. It was a good place to live, but she didn't want to be indebted to Kent more than she already was.

"Thank you, Kent, for your generosity."

When Kent heard Melinda's response, he mistook her gratitude for consent, so he happily took her around to see the house. However, after Melinda said goodbye to Kent, she moved further from the city and went downtown to look for cheaper accommodation.

It was not an affluent area but bustling with activity, since there were a lot of students. She figured that life would be cheap, so her daily consumption wouldn't be too expensive and the rent would be cheap.

Melinda was lucky that one of the students had just graduated and so there was an open lease. The student had also left much stuff behind.

The matter of the apartment was settled within a short time. Melinda rented the house and moved in on the same day. She did the cleaning up until past eleven o'clock in the evening. After a long day of searching for houses and finally moving in, she was exhausted. She collapsed into the sofa with a long sigh of relief.

She was about to start a new life.

She hadn't been in the workforce for the past five years. She had been performing her duties and acting as the daughter-in-law of the Gu family the whole time. Now she had to return to society all of a sudden, and start from scratch. She was a little bit overwhelmed and at a loss.

Melinda took one day off, after moving into the new house, just to take things easy and organize the house. The next day she began to search for a job online. Although she had no loans to pay, she was still broke and wondered when she would receive payment from her new book.

She had a good education background, but her practical and social experience was really pitiful. She finally saw an agency that was advertising a job that didn't require much experience. She rushed from the house and went to the agency on the same day to apply for the job.

"We mainly sell online. As long as you have a good sales ability, you can make over ten thousand per month in commission; besides the company doesn't hire many people, they only need three. But the agency fee will be rather expensive. Of course, if you think it is expensive, we also have other jobs, which are kind of difficult and the pay is also very little, you can only get the salary of two or three thousand a month. You can think about it carefully and get back to us."

After hesitating for a while, Melinda thought of her current situation and decided to choose the online selling job. The agency fee cost more than 1,000. She had thought that she would soon make money from working hard, but she didn't expect that she would encounter a fraud, and the money she had made would all be gone.

She didn't have much money before, and after she was conned and also moving to a new place, she was totally broke at this point.

It was fortunate that the costs for her new apartment were not too expensive. The former student had left her a lot of things and saved her furniture and kitchen ware expenses. Melinda decided to activate the social media account that she hadn't used for a long time. She decided to use it to make some money from copy writing.

Not long after the miscarriage, Melinda had been busy actively running up and down. Now that she was free, she wasn't as active and she could feel her body's resistance.

Perhaps due to her change of marital status, Melinda had more time in her hands and therefore she had become more creative. The novel Melinda had been writing was now at more than a hundred thousand words and it seemed to flow more smoothly.

Kent who had been on a business trip for the last two days went to check the house immediately when he returned. He was shocked to find that Melinda hadn't moved in. He made a call to ask her what was happening and why she had changed her mind.

"Okay, but you should tell me where you live now," Kent said, feeling a bit disappointed.

Melinda did not feel the need to hide her new location, so she promptly gave him the directions to her new residence. That day, Kent came to visit her with many things.

"Kent, did you buy all my food for the next month?" Melinda helplessly looked at the things that Kent had brought for her, but did not refuse his kindness. Beggars can't be choosers.

"This is not much. It's enough for a week at most," Kent said with a smile.

Seeing that Melinda had a nice place to live and the environment was very welcoming, he was relieved. He had been a little worried that she would probably put herself in danger since she had led a sheltered life.

"How have you been recently? Are you adjusting well?"

Melinda looked peaceful and happy, with a faint smile on her face.

"Not bad. Kent, please read this article for me. I have been slaving over it and it's almost two hundred thousand words," Melinda said.

Kent had more experience in doing literary work and therefore was more sensitive than Melinda in this aspect. He also suggested a lot of good ideas for her.

"I heard that you are also helping others to copy write."

Kent couldn't help but ask as he thought of what his classmate had mentioned two days ago. Melinda nodded and said, "I have been out of the society circles for five years. I don't know what else to do except write."

"Do you want to try writing some articles for me?" Kent asked tentatively.

He knew that there was a higher chance of him being rejected by Melinda, and just as he had expected she did refuse.

"I'm fine now. I'm good at writing and I get a lot of money. Most of my attention is on novels. I want to work hard on it and see if I can make enough money to sustain me."

Melinda knew what she wanted to do for her future, so Kent certainly supported her.

In the following days, Kent came to visit her from time to time. He took good care of her and bought a lot of things every time he visited, which made her helpless and overwhelmed by his kindness.

Melinda worked late the previous night to make a copy. The next morning when she woke up she felt very uncomfortable. She was in more painful than she had felt in the last two days. She was weak, dizzy, and the pain in her lower abdomen reminded her of the time when she lost her child. That was the pain she was now feeling.

Kent carried the usual things he always bought to Melinda's house again, but when he knocked, no one opened the door. He was worried and hurried to find the property manager to ask them for a spare key to open the door, only to find Melinda lying weakly on the bed.

"I'm fine. I just need to take a rest."

Melinda stopped Kent from sending her to the hospital. She didn't like the hospital and she didn't want to bother Kent any more than she already had.

Kent had felt that Melinda was not well from time to time and he had even mentioned it to her a few times, but she had always insisted that she was fine and ignored his words.

But this time, it seemed that she had gotten worse. He could not help frowning and looking at Melinda. He was helpless due to her stubbornness any time he tried to persuade her to go to the hospital.

"Kent, I can't joke about my health, I am really fine, just a little tired," Melinda said with a smile.

Kent was helpless, but he had stayed by her side to take care of her the whole day.