Crown Up! From Discarded Wife To Unrivaled Empress

Coralie could not bottle it up anymore. The words burst out of her before she could swallow them down.

At last, she drew her mouth into a frigid smile and shot back, "Sebastian, if you and Lilliana are so hopelessly devoted, why return to Moon Estate just to make a spectacle of me?"

His accusation made her want to roll her eyes. She straightened her rumpled nightdress and set her bare feet against the thick, velvety carpet.

"Enough! Stop pulling Lilli into every single thing!" The trace of amusement disappeared from Sebastian's lips, and his expression turned thunderous, as though clouds had gathered across his face.

He had remembered the date and had deliberately come back to Moon Estate to mark her birthday. Yet Coralie had bristled like something trapped, shoving him away without hesitation.

"Lilli…" Coralie murmured the name under her breath. Even in the midst of their clash, there had been a thread of softness in Sebastian's tone when he spoke it.

It carried her back to a long time ago, when that same gentleness had once been meant for her. But that warmth had thinned out and vanished with the passing of time.

If not for the title of wife she still bore, Lilliana and Sebastian would have looked every bit the devoted couple.

After all, for the past year, Sebastian must have been sharing a home with Lilliana.

The stretch of distance between them had slowly cleared Coralie's haze.

Clinging to what had already cost so much made no sense. It was wiser to draw the line. Remaining stuck in the mire would only drag her deeper; leaving sooner was the only sensible choice.

There would never be a better moment than this, Coralie told herself as she lifted her gaze to Sebastian, her eyes steady and still like unfathomable water. "We should get a divorce."

Once that opening line slipped free, everything else followed without resistance.

Coralie let out a slow breath, as if emptying her chest of every unspoken ache. "Life doesn't stretch on forever, so our time ought to belong to the people we truly cherish."

A faint sting pricked her heart as the sentence left her lips.

Sebastian's eyes thinned as he fixed them on her. He almost demanded to know who she meant by the one she cherished, yet the question remained unvoiced.

Though he had known her for years, marriage had turned her into someone he could no longer read.

What, exactly, did she carry in her heart for him?

If there had been love, why had she done those things…

"In your dreams!" Sebastian cut off the spiral of his thoughts, tossing out the words before striding away and banging the door shut behind him.

...

Coralie remained perched at the bedside, her gaze locked on a slant of light spilled across the floor, oblivious to the fact that night had slipped into dawn without her noticing.

A night without sleep had only hardened her determination to walk away.

She cast a look through the window at the hollow yard below. Sebastian had summoned a driver and left the villa the previous night. He never came back after that.

She remembered the way the word "divorce" had flown from her mouth during their quarrel. Even though the timing had been far from perfect, she could not pretend it had not been spoken. Since she had raised the matter, remaining at Moon Estate no longer felt fitting.

She arranged her next moves with care and reached out to an attorney to lay out the circumstances.

Although Sebastian bore the blame, she had no desire to profit from him. The only lingering regret in her chest concerned the company's project.

It had first been put forward by her parents, but complications had surfaced during the initial round of clinical testing, forcing everything to a halt. After she married Sebastian, the two of them had recognized its promise and revived it under a different title.

Once she had conferred with her lawyer, she texted Sebastian. "I'll be leaving Moon Estate within a few days. The divorce papers will be delivered to you through my attorney. I'll talk to your grandmother myself. You don't have to trouble yourself over it."

Ten minutes later, Sebastian texted back. "Come to the office now. Perhaps I'm open to discussing the divorce properly."

"Alright." She agreed without pause.

Coralie rose and headed into the bathroom. The woman staring back at her wore heavy shadows beneath her eyes, dark and stark. She usually went without cosmetics, yet this time she set aside habit and carefully applied makeup on her face before leaving for the office.

If this marriage was to end, she would face it polished and poised, not resembling someone cast aside.