Too Late to Love Her: When She Divorced, He Fell Apart-Chapter 52: How Do You Spend Christmas?

Chapter 52: Chapter 52: How Do You Spend Christmas?
"I don’t think that’s a good idea."
Claire decisively rejected him.
"You’re just well taken care of by me, and you think I can be your nanny, taking care of your daily needs. But your heart is still with Jade."
Tristan calmly replied, "Is your heart not also away from me?"
"That’s why I’m asking for a divorce."
Claire smiled at him, raising her eyebrows slightly, and said, "Tristan, you can’t be too greedy. Since your heart is with Jade, don’t expect anything more from me. Next time you get sick, I won’t be taking care of you. Find your pea princess instead."
After speaking, Claire went to wash up and put on makeup.
When leaving the house, Tristan was sitting alone on the living room sofa with a laptop in front of him, conducting a video conference.
His voice was still a bit hoarse, stuttering as he spoke, clearly struggling.
Out of the corner of her eye, Claire noticed the divorce papers tossed into the nearby trash can.
She said nothing and left the house.
Approaching the end of the year, the law firm’s divorce cases were increasing. Tina Hayes had just ended a call with a client, complaining loudly, "President Hale, ever since the cooling-off period was introduced, divorce cases have been getting harder and harder. It’s like one delay after another, yellow flowers have turned cold before the divorce goes through!"
Claire sighed, thinking to herself, isn’t that true.
She wanted a divorce herself, but without Tristan’s approval, she couldn’t get it.
With his power and methods, if he decided against a divorce, no matter how experienced she was, she couldn’t do much.
Claire simply couldn’t understand why Tristan, who had been passive in their marriage, and was eager to divorce her recently, now seemed unwilling.
After pondering for a while, she could only conclude he didn’t want her to have a peaceful life.
Just then, her phone buzzed.
It was a message from Sean Lockwood asking if she had made any progress.
Claire truly wanted to reply, "Just ask your nephew and you’ll know."
But thinking of Tristan’s gloomy face, and glancing at the thriving scene in the office cubicles, she hesitated.
After some thought, she took a screenshot of Sean’s message and sent it to Tristan.
Since Tristan was blocking her from leaking information, dealing with Sean would also be Tristan’s problem.
Once she sent it, Claire felt much lighter. She was like a camera recording their love triangle, documenting all sorts of beautiful moments for them.
Tristan replied quickly, but the content was completely unrelated to the screenshot.
Tristan asked her, "How are you spending Christmas?"
How else would she spend it but just living through it?
"President Hale, do you have plans for Christmas tomorrow?"
Tina suddenly came into her office to ask.
Claire put her phone aside and said, "No."
"I plan to go shopping with Xiaoxiao tomorrow night and have fun, two single dogs spending Christmas together. I thought you’d join since you’re half a dog anyway, so I wanted to ask if you would come."
Claire raised an eyebrow, "Half a dog?"
Tina giggled twice.
"I’ll go."
She agreed.
As for Tristan’s message, Claire got busy and completely forgot about it.
When he sent the same message again the next day, she realized Tristan seemed to be asking her out for Christmas?
Claire replied: Did you send this to the wrong person? You should be asking Jade.
Imagining the prince and the pea princess spending Christmas together sounded quite romantic.
Tristan replied: I didn’t send it to the wrong person.
Claire: Well, I have plans.
Tristan: With whom?
Claire closed the chat box and didn’t reply.
Outside the floor-to-ceiling window, snowflakes began to drift down.
Winter days are always short; although it was only four o’clock, the sky was already a bit dark.
Claire sent a message in the law firm group chat notifying that they could leave work early today.
Cheers erupted from the cubicles outside.
"I’ll drive!"
Tina volunteered to be the driver, so Claire left her car in the company parking lot and left the office with Tina and Xiaoxiao.
As the BYD car disappeared around the street corner, a Porsche slowly approached the office building from the other direction.
Tristan glanced at the parking lot; Claire’s car was still there.
Close to her leaving time, he got out of the car and waited for her by the street.
A number of people gradually exited the building, and the sky was completely dark.
The Christmas eve snow felt especially cold.
Tristan was waiting by the street but hadn’t seen Claire’s figure.
"Are you waiting for President Hale?"
A colleague of Claire recognized Tristan from the previous mountain camping trip where they had met as Claire’s handsome friend.
Tristan nodded slightly.
"President Hale has a date tonight and left early. If you’re looking to delegate a case, you’ll have to come back tomorrow."
The person said and then walked off, glancing back at Tristan still waiting alone by the street corner, not helping but sigh:
"Seeking a lawyer to file a lawsuit on Christmas Eve, what a pity for this handsome guy."
...
On the way to Jiangjing Road, Tina couldn’t stay quiet and asked, "Xiaoxiao, aren’t you spending the day with your dream guy?"
Xiaoxiao blushed and said, "He’s my dream guy, but I’m not his dream girl, so he’s definitely not spending the day with me."
"Then why do you still like him if he doesn’t like you?"
Xiaoxiao sighed, "Liking someone is not something I can control."
Tina, frustrated, said to Claire, "President Hale, our firm handles marital cases! We’ve seen so many lousy men, yet you can still have a romantic mindset!"
Xiaoxiao quietly contested from the back seat, "I liked him even before I joined the firm."
Claire raised her eyebrow in surprise, "You’ve been here for two years, yet your affection for him hasn’t faltered?"
"To be honest, President Hale, I’ve liked my dream guy for ten years, still waiting like a loyal puppy."
Xiaoxiao laughed embarrassedly, while silence suddenly filled the car.
Tina shook her head helplessly, "There’s no saving it."
Claire seemed thoughtful but said nothing.
Xiaoxiao leaned forward and asked, "President Hale, as a modern independent woman, do you particularly look down on someone like me who’s shamelessly in love?"
"Of course not."
Claire gently patted her on the forehead and said, "No one dictates that you can’t love someone for ten years. If you choose to, no one can blame you. As you said, liking someone isn’t something you can control. Who knows, maybe tomorrow morning you’ll wake up and stop liking your dream guy."
Xiaoxiao blinked and gazed at Claire emotionally, "President Hale, you’re so good at this! I even want to marry you!"
Claire smiled unbothered.
The determination in Xiaoxiao’s eyes reminded her of her former self.
Stubborn, obsessive, unwilling to turn back even in death.
But she never regretted it.
Without those constraints, she wouldn’t be who she was today.
In fact, Claire quite liked who she was now.