Signed, Sealed, and Moving On

Noah Lloyd has long since gotten sick of me—we dated for three years and have been married for another three. He uses divorce to threaten me. He wants me to give up the racing championship title I risked my life to win to please his new lover. He's caught off guard when I sign the divorce papers without hesitation and kick him to the curb. Later, he comes to me with a bouquet and the ring I've discarded. He also rents massive billboards to beg me to remarry him. Asher Princeton has someone turn off all the billboards. Then, he wraps an arm around my waist and whisks me away. "Haven't you asked around about me? How dare you propose to my wife?" Chapter 1 I got into an accident while making my final round around the circuit at the qualifying. I'd driven nearly 200 miles per hour into the wall, causing me to break my leg. Luckily, I had been hospitalized in time and shied away from death's door. In addition to that, I'd still managed to bag third place as well. Even though I lay in bed at the hospital with my leg in a cast, I was still waiting eagerly to share this news with Noah Llyod. I wanted to tell him that I'd managed to bring pride to his racing club again. However, I saw him hugging Quincy Addams instead, happily celebrating and welcoming her into the club as the newest racer who had just won third place at the qualifying race. It was trending all over social media. I had nearly traded my life for that honor and that medal, but Quincy was now holding them in her hands without even needing to step foot into a racecar. I waited for days. Noah still never showed up at the hospital even after I'd recovered for days and finally got discharged after having my cast removed. After getting discharged, my best friend, Ingrid Fulton, brought me back to the racing club. I could hear loud laughter coming from Noah's private room ahead. "Hey, Noah! I can't believe that Lexy would agree to let you switch out her name in the qualifying to Quincy's so that she'd get the medal instead!" Noah leisurely lifted the wineglass from the table and sipped from it. "She has no reason to disagree with me. She's never dared to go against what I say. She's even more obedient than a lapdog!" His friends started laughing loudly with him. "That's true. Everyone in Jadeville knows that Lexy would do anything to continue being your wife. She just wants that title anyway!" Noah then dipped his head to look at the woman in his arms and leaned down to kiss her. He wanted to feed Quincy the wine he'd just sipped. Quincy turned red and pushed him away playfully. "Eww, stop that!" She then hammered her fists weakly against Noah's shoulder and tried avoiding his lips. "Mr. Lloyd, please!" In the end, Noah still fed Quincy the wine through their mouths. Quincy then turned even redder and pouted. "You're such a bad person, Mr. Lloyd! You've made me drunk. I can't go back now…" Noah then kissed her on the cheek. "What were you planning to do when we got home anyway, hmm? We could just do it together…" I stood outside the door, staring at Noah's face—the face I once loved so deeply—my fists clenching and unclenching repeatedly. I felt like the biggest joke in history. Someone suddenly quipped, "But didn't Lexy Jameson get hurt during the final round? She broke her leg getting third place. Didn't you go visit her at the hospital?" Noah didn't seem like he cared as he answered nonchalantly, "What for? She just broke a leg. It's not like she'd die from it." I wouldn't die from it, but I didn't want to continue living like this anymore either. I pushed the door open and went in. The room immediately went dead quiet. I went over to Noah, picked up his glass of wine, and splashed it onto his face. Noah wiped the wine off his face and turned black instantly. "Lexy Jameson! This is not the time and place to be making a fuss!" Quincy immediately pulled away from Noah's arms and tried to dab away the wine on his face too. She then spoke in a passive-aggressive tone, "I'm sorry, Mr. Lloyd. It's my fault for making Lexy misunderstand us. I'm sure she will make an even bigger fuss at home later…" I didn't hold back and splashed her with another glass of wine. Noah was mad. He threw a document onto the table. "I thought you said you broke your leg. You were just trying to get my pity, weren't you? I see that you're walking around and still have the energy to cause trouble for everyone. You have two choices, Lexy Jameson. Sign this or apologize to Quincy!" What a joke. Noah actually brought a divorce agreement with him wherever he went. I took it from the table and flipped through it. It just stated all the general divorce terms and mentioned in the end that if I were to divorce him, I wouldn't get a single penny to my name nor have the rights to any of his assets. Noah leaned back against the couch lazily, a hint of a mocking smile on his lips. He seemed so sure that I would immediately throw the divorce agreement away and beg him to let me stay by his side by apologizing to Quincy. He thought I'd be a pushover as usual. Well, over my dead body. I was sick and tired of living like this. I'd wasted them all on an animal like him and still never managed to rein him in. I was just going to pretend that the past six years never existed. I grabbed a pen and signed the agreement with a flourish. "Fine. Since everyone else is here, they can be my witness too. We'll go to the courthouse tomorrow to finalize the divorce. You better show up." Meanwhile, Noah stared at my signature on the document, never thinking for a moment that I would actually sign it. After being dazed for a long while, he suddenly flew into a terrible rage, his teeth clenched as he spat out, "Fine! We'll get the divorce! Don't you dare go back on your words!" Chapter 2 After coming out of the private room, Ingrid gave me two thumbs up and asked me, "Are you certain about it this time, Lexy?" I stood at the entrance to the club and looked at Noah's car parked right next to Quincy's bright red, limited-edition sports car, which he had so generously bought for her. For some reason, the cars looked like they belonged together and relied on each other. Noah had always been brazen when pursuing women. Back in the days when he'd been pursuing me, he kept buying me flowers and treating me to dinner every day. He would keep appearing before my eyes as if wanting the whole world to know that he'd managed to win me over simply by making his presence known to me as often as he could. We dated for three years and had been married for the next three years. He must have grown bored with me then and started treating me coldly since. He told me that he didn't like wilful and headstrong women like me. However, he knew from the start that I was the racing club's manager and the best female racer. I handled more than half of the club's administrative work in my position. Noah had been getting even more out of hand for the last two years. He would always bring home random women every other day. I couldn't bear it any longer and fought with him. Every time we fought, however, he would then threaten me with divorce. In the past, I would always cave in first and apologize. I hadn't wanted to leave him. And he knew that I'd never want to divorce him, so he just got even worse. Now, he didn't even bother hiding his flings from me. He'd make sure that I knew he was pursuing other women under my nose. He'd gift them flowers, luxury bags, and even sports cars. Bastard. Those were all our marital assets! I couldn't let him get away with it any longer. I took my spare key and got into Noah's car. Then, after calculating the angle and the force needed, I used my actions to give Ingrid the answer to her question. Crash! I rammed Noah's car into Quincy's brand-new sports car and shoved it right into the wall. That car was as good as gone. Then, I threw the spare key to the ground, got out of the car, and left. The sun was bright and piercing. Its rays shone mercilessly on the broken pieces of our marriage, which I had tried to mend and uphold for years. That night, I received a video from Ingrid. In the video, Quincy was crying hard as she draped herself over Noah's lap. "My car… How did my car end up like this?" Noah was standing on the balcony, smoking with a frustrated look on his face. It looked like he'd already seen the security footage of what happened. "She's gone overboard… Mr. Lloyd, I'm not sad about the car… But it's a gift that you just got me three days ago… Let's call the police…" Someone piped up softly, "I don't think calling the police would help. Lexy is Mr. Lloyd's wife, so whatever is his is also hers. The police can't do anything if she crashed into her own car…" Someone else tutted and said, "Lexy sure is a brazen one." Noah snuffed out his cigarette forcefully. "Brilliant, just brilliant! I'm definitely going to the courthouse tomorrow for the divorce!" … I turned off the video and started organizing all the documents needed for the divorce. The next day, I arrived at the courthouse bright and early. Surprisingly, I sighed in relief when I saw Noah coming out of a cab at the courthouse. "Lexy, I'm giving you one last chance…" I stood there and looked at him with a fake smile. "One last chance, by giving my third place and medal to Quincy, apologizing to her, and buying her another limited edition sports car?" Noah's face remained grim. "Quincy is a good person. I won't let her suffer like this!" "If that's the case, how could you bear to keep her as your mistress? Why don't you just give her a proper title instead? I'll help you." I burst into laughter and headed into the courthouse. Noah followed suit, his face as black as thunder, practically throwing all his documents down on the table. The employee at the counter saw our hostile attitude toward each other and didn't bother asking for any more details. A few minutes later, we finally got our copies of the divorce certificate. It happened so quickly that Noah seemed as if he still hadn't managed to wrap his head around it yet. He gripped the certificate so tightly that his knuckles turned white. "If this is some ploy of yours to try and grab my attention on purpose, let me tell you that it's not working! I'm going to see how you're planning to turn this around after making such a huge fuss about it!" To him, breaking my leg and staying at the hospital for a whole month had just been a ploy to grab his attention. And divorcing him was just another underhanded way of mine to create a huge fuss about everything. I had no idea how Noah and I ended up like this. However, I had made up my mind, and I wasn't going to look back this time. I threw the wedding ring I took off my finger last night at him and stormed off. Chapter 3 I sat in the car and looked at my leg, which had just had its cast removed just a while ago. Suddenly, I felt sorry for myself. If Noah hadn't persuaded me to participate in the qualifying race, citing its importance for the club's reputation, I would never have thought of entering it. The reason was that I had just been sick days before. I had had a massive headache and had taken painkillers to ease the pain. Races like qualifyings put a huge strain on the racers' mental and physical strength. They were quite dangerous, so accidents often happened. However, the medal I'd fought so hard to win turned out to only be a tactic for Noah to placate his latest lover with. I took a photo of my divorce license and sent it to Ingrid. She immediately asked us to meet up by the lakeside. It wasn't until I reached the place that I realized she'd brought along plenty of her other racing friends to have a bike race. The huge motorway next to the lakeside was very seldom used by the public, and one end of it was currently lined up with huge, expensive superbikes. There were many young men and women there, chatting and joking with each other. I stopped in my tracks and said, "I haven't fully recovered yet…" "Nobody's asking you to drive. There are plenty of guys here for that!" I only learned then that the rules of the race were simple—each guy had to choose a female partner to race. A few pairs were already couples with each other, so they naturally planned to race together. There weren't many single men left in the line. Ingrid then pulled me to the side and said in a hushed tone, "What do you think of Asher Princeton? He usually doesn't come even when invited. You're lucky today!" A towering man in a racing suit was standing at the barricade with his back toward me. He was half-leaning against the barricade as the sun shone on his back. He gave off a clean yet ethereal feeling to anyone looking at him. Slowly, he turned around to face us. I realized in glee that he looked exactly my type. Ingrid then pushed me toward him. "Hey, Asher! Bring Lexy with you!" Asher smiled as he gave me the once-over. His eyes were clear, and his voice was deep and soothing. "Okay." Ingrid then winked at me and said, "Don't let this chance slip by!" Asher brought out a pink helmet and made sure to check it thoroughly before helping me put it on. He even pulled on the safety clasp to ensure that there was nothing wrong with it. "Are you scared?" It suddenly dawned on me that Noah had never treated me so gently ever since we got together, even if I had still raced in countless other races after that. He would only stand at the podium far from the top as he mingled with other club owners and elites. He never once cared if my gear or equipment was safe or faulty, and he never personally checked anything. He was only ever concerned about my results and how much glory or benefit they would bring to his club. I felt a sudden rush of emotions at Asher's question. I shook my head and said, "Actually, I'm a professional racer. I just don't ride bikes that often." Asher seemed surprised. He then replied lightly, "That's great! We can go full speed then. Hang on tightly to me!" I knew just how fast these superbikes could go, so I hugged him as tightly as I could. Asher started up his bike, and the engine roared to life. I could feel Asher's extremely muscular waist beneath his racing suit. His muscles were as hard as steel, and I could even feel each pec individually through the suit. His racing skills were quite a contrast to how he looked—he was the aggressive type as he sped down the trail, quickly throwing the rest of his opponents behind him. I had always been the one driving before this. This was actually the first time I'd been a passenger princess. The wind screeched past my ears, and Asher's woody scent also invaded my senses gently yet assertively. Asher chuckled. "Relax. You're too tight…" I only realized then that I was clinging so tightly to him with my arms that he was probably having a hard time catching his breath. I knew what he was trying to say, but I couldn't help my mind going straight into the gutter when I heard his ambiguous words. I got so embarrassed that I quickly loosened up my grip on him. There was a sudden swerve up ahead, and I suddenly found my face smushed up against his back. Our positions got a little intimate. There were just two layers of thin clothing between us, and I was pretty sure that he must have realized my face was burning as if pressed against him. As expected, we placed first in the race. The prize turned out to be a dozen packs of beer. I cracked open a can and raised it toward Asher to celebrate our win. Racers rarely ever drank. I was particularly bad at holding my alcohol, but since I was a free bird now, I threw my head back and gulped the rest of the contents down. Things happened right after that. I felt so dizzy that I stumbled backward, and Asher had to catch me. Ingrid then exclaimed, "Oh no! Lexy's terrible with alcohol. Can you please bring her back for me, Asher?" I cocked my head to the side and stared up at him, who was also looking down at me. His eyes were gentle yet entirely focused on me. "Alright." His voice sounded heavenly. I could feel my insides melting into a puddle. Noah used to tell me that I was very unladylike in my behavior. He kept saying that I was only a pretty face who would scare any other men away as soon as I opened my mouth. For the past few years, I kept burying myself in work, trying to prove that I was worthy. However, the only thing I got in return was Noah's betrayal, time and time again, as he brought home different women who were more "ladylike" than me and showed them off. It felt like a hundred years had passed since anyone had looked at me so tenderly as if I were the main focus of their attention. When I finally got down from the bike, I swung my arms around his neck and found myself getting up on my tippy toes to kiss him on the chin. Chapter 4 Asher's face was a little grim as he helped me upstairs with gritted teeth. I felt dejected and hung my head in self-mockery. Maybe Asher was really only planning to send me back home and nothing more. However, just as I struggled to stay on my feet while searching for the keys to my door, taking forever, he suddenly pushed me back against the door and started kissing me passionately. I don't know why, but it felt as though this wasn't a kiss between two people who had just met less than 12 hours ago and fallen in love at first sight. It felt more like a desperate kiss between someone who had been pining after the other and held back for years until they finally couldn't anymore. Asher's kisses were hot, passionate, and desperate. Every kiss felt like he wanted to pull me impossibly closer to him until we were merged together in one body. I could even feel his heart thumping wildly. So, I reciprocated with some tongue action in the kiss. After a long, breathtaking kiss, Asher suddenly let go of me and looked away, not daring to look me in the eyes anymore. He leaned back against the wall and fought to catch his breath. "Lexy…" I was a little tipsy, sure, but I wasn't completely drunk. My steps felt light as a feather. I went to him, narrowed my eyes, and looked up at him. Asher was very tall, even taller than Noah, and he had a slim waist, long legs, and very handsome, prominent facial features. He looked both excited and restrained at the same time, making me drown in the delectable pheromones emanating from his body. It was obvious that he was having a reaction toward me. I pinned him back against the wall with my hand and cornered him. "Asher Princeton, are you getting cold feet now?" I tiptoed and pecked him on his red, swollen lips again. Asher's breathing caught in his throat. He then slid his hand into my pocket, grabbed the keys to my home, and opened the door with it. Then, he picked me up from the ground and practically ran into the bedroom with me. … It was bright when I finally woke up the next morning. Asher was no longer in bed with me. He had been at it tirelessly all night without giving me a chance to catch my breath as he stayed hard throughout the night. I was so tired out that I'd slept through the morning and only woke up late in the afternoon. I forced my aching body to crawl out of bed and shuffled out of the bedroom. At once, I could smell something delicious from the kitchen. There was some stew still bubbling very gently in a pot on the stove. I also found a plate of food in the oven, still warm and toasty, with some of my favorite ingredients in the cooking. The kitchen had been cleaned and dusted, though showing signs of use. Asher must have had quite a hard time trying to find something decent to cook in this lacking kitchen and pantry of mine. Yet, he still pulled through. I sat down and served myself a bowl of stew. With some hot food in it, my stomach started feeling less uncomfortable, especially after I had drunk the beer on an empty stomach yesterday. However, the hot steam from the stew seemed to have entered my eyes, and I found them welling up with tears. I lowered my head and took a bite of the piping hot stew, letting my tears plop into the bowl. In the past, Noah made fun of me for being a clumsy oaf in the kitchen and not knowing how to be a good wife. In fact, he often attributed his going out and seeking other women to my failure to act like a proper lady. This had been nothing but a one-night stand, and yet, I felt more coddled and taken care of than I'd ever been. After resting at home for another day, I finally figured that I'd regained most of my energy back and decided to settle some of my official things. As the manager and star racer of Noah's racing club, I had given all of myself to the club, including my time and energy, for the past few years. Now that I was finally divorced, I didn't want to have anything more to do with Noah, and I planned to resign from my position there. I would go over and complete the handover process officially. I changed into a set of clothes and set off for the club. I pushed open the door to the office and saw Noah and his other disgusting friends there. The atmosphere tensed when they caught sight of me. After a brief moment of silence, someone suddenly laughed and said, "Look, Mr. Lloyd. Lexy's come back to you after all. I told you—" Someone immediately interrupted him and said, "It's good that she's back. Let's just forget about what happened. She'd been hospitalized for a whole month, so it must have been hard on her. Don't you think so, Mr. Lloyd?" Noah's eyes were grim and dark. There was even a hint of ridicule in them. He looked at me disdainfully and said with a dark chuckle, "Are you finally regretting it now, Lexy Jameson? Don't you think it's too late?" It had only been two or three days since I had the last straw and gave up on him, divorced him, and now stood before him again. Yet, to me, he felt like a stranger now. Was this really the person I'd been in love with for the past six years? Suddenly, I found it disgusting yet hilarious at the same time. I had no idea what spell I'd cast upon myself to put up with someone like him for six whole years. "Mr. Lloyds, I'm only here to send in my resignation. From today onward, I will no longer be working for the racing club and no longer hold any position within." I placed a notebook on the table before him. "I've listed down all my job scope and tasks here. You can get someone to take over from me. Call me if there's anything you need help with, but I will only answer questions and queries that are directly related to work." Noah's face remained dark and thunderous. He replied in an icy, arrogant tone, "The contract you signed with us is a ten-year contract. Have you not read about the penalty you'd have to pay if you terminated it early?" I remained stoic. "I have, but the terms stated that the penalty only applies if the club never broke any rules or racing ethics." Noah frowned briefly. Just then, someone glanced at their phone and exclaimed, "Mr Lloyd! About the qualifying race last time… The organizers have released an official statement and corrected the list of winners. They… They also banned Quincy from racing for the next three years!" Chapter 5 Before going to the club, I had made a report and submitted all of the relevant proof to the organizers as needed. Since this wasn't the first time I was dealing with them, they took my report very seriously and launched an investigation at once. When I finally heard of their decision, it felt as though a burden had been lifted from my shoulders. I sighed in relief. Not wanting to get involved in Noah's matters anymore, I turned to leave. I went down the long corridor and could still hear Noah angrily breaking and smashing things up in the office. "How dare she… That shameless bitch! Get out! Get out of here!" I went to the bathroom before leaving the club. Just as I came up, I saw a woman clutching the edges of the sink as she dry-retched into it. I was just about to go over to her and ask if she was okay when she suddenly looked up at me through the mirror. It was Quincy. No wonder I hadn't seen her in the office just now. When she caught sight of me, she carefully stood up straight. She followed my line of sight to her slightly bulging tummy and said in a mocking tone, "That's right, I'm pregnant." I answered emotionlessly, "Congrats." Quincy then stared at my stomach for a while and suddenly burst into laughter. "I mean, that's the most you could do, anyway, to congratulate me. Mr. Lloyd has never slept with you for the past two years, has he? That makes sense. You're so unladylike—of course you'd never know how to act like a lady with men. Nobody would ever like you like this!" She paused for a moment and continued, "Oh, and by the way, Noah's mom called you a failure of a woman for not even being able to fulfil the least requirements of being one. She said you were like a hen who didn't know how to lay any eggs!" Noah and I had been sleeping separately for two years. We hadn't functioned like an actual married couple for a long time. At first, it was because the racing club was still in its initial stages, and I thought of helping him establish it by focusing on improving the club's reputation. That was why I never brought up the topic of children with him. In the end, Noah started getting sick of me and nitpicked me in every single way. Eventually, he stopped interacting with me even if we came home together, which was already rare in itself. It had only been a few days, and yet, Noah's mom, Rosie Hampton, had already been so accepting of Quincy, the mistress in our relationship. I guess I had wasted all of my time and effort on Noah and his family. Although he and I were already divorced, what Quincy said still left a bad taste in my mouth. I just chuckled at myself deprecatingly. Suddenly, my phone rang. I looked at the screen and saw that it was an unknown number calling me. "Hello?" I immediately recognized Asher's voice on the other end of the line. I guessed he must have gotten my number from Ingrid. "I'm outside your racing club. Wanna have dinner with me?" I didn't purposely cover the speakers to hide the call from Quincy. But judging by her facial expression, I bet she heard it, too. Suddenly, I felt myself perk up. "Okay. Wait for me." I looked at Quincy, nodded at her, and said, "All the best with your eggs, you egg-laying hen!" Quincy was so mad that her face turned purple with rage. I couldn't be bothered about her reaction. I slid right past her out of the bathroom, flung my backpack behind me, and strode determinedly out of the door. As expected, I saw the black Bentley Asher sent me home with last time. It was parked in a quiet and secluded corner outside the club. I was just about to get into the front passenger seat when the backseat door opened, and a large hand pulled me in. I fell against the plush leather seats and immediately, I was welcomed by a flurry of heated kisses all over my body. I could literally smell Asher's raging hormones in the air. He kissed me long and hard, focusing on every microreaction of mine, treating me as if I was the only person he had ever had his eyes on in the whole wide world. "I missed you. I missed you so much," Asher said, breathing erratically against my face as he sucked on my earlobes and collarbones. He also kept muttering soft nothings in my ear the whole time. We had actually only been apart for a day. However, Asher's emotions quickly strung me along, and I was immediately enveloped by his fiery passion. We were a tangle of limbs in the cramped backseat, our bodies pressed closed together. He buried his face in my shoulder and held me tightly in his arms. "Lexy, what should I do if I've fallen in love with you at first sight?" I didn't quite believe in love at first sight. However, I did believe in love at first fuck. Asher made it seem as though there was no other woman for him except me, and I liked it very much. In fact, I even found myself thanking Noah for distancing himself from me and treating me like trash because I wouldn't have met Asher otherwise. "Asher…" I slithered my arms around his waist and started groping his muscles, slowly sliding my hand dangerously lower. I was toying with danger, and I knew it. Memories from that half-drunken one-night stand immediately flooded my mind as my body started reacting naturally to him. Suddenly, sounds of footsteps appeared outside the car, and it quickly snapped me out of my reverie. I recalled that Noah's car seemed to have been parked somewhere nearby. Noah wasn't the only one talking toward me—even the other people I'd seen in the office were also with him, and they were all heading toward my direction. I recalled Noah justifying not sexually touching me for years because I was too unladylike and, therefore, undesirable to men. However, right at this moment, Asher was looking at me with such intensity in his eyes that I believed he could only see me and nobody else around us. I teared up and bit Asher lightly on the earlobe. "Asher, I'm just a clumsy oaf who doesn't know how to cook, clean, or care for other people. Why do you still want me?" Asher lowered his head and kissed me, stroking my hair and tucking it behind my ears. He made me feel like a precious jewel he cherished with all his heart. "I can just hire a maid to do all the cooking and cleaning for us. However, you're a woman that I'm in love with, and no money or compensation in the world could ever amount to you. I will go crazy even if I don't see you for just a single day…" We continued making love in the backseat of his car. He teased me so much that I cried out in bliss with tears running down my eyes. "Asher… A-Asher… Ah!" Noah and the others could recognize my voice from a mile away. "Wait, is that Lexy's voice I hear?" "It does sound like her…" Noah's face turned black. He stopped in his tracks for a bit before starting to head toward us.