All Chapters of Saintess’s Worthless Husband Turned Dragon Commander: Chapter 391
- Chapter 400
434 chapters
CHAPTER 212 PART 1
The front door opened and Nadine Ridge's voice arrived before the rest of her did.It was the particular voice of a woman who had spent decades organizing her world into categories of things that served her and things that inconvenienced her, and who considered the boundary between those categories to be everyone else's problem."Something smells edible for once," Nadine announced, stepping into the hallway with Glenn Hartford trailing behind her.She was carrying a mahjong case under one arm and a purse large enough to contain the expectations of an entire extended family."It's been takeout and cold leftovers since your husband disappeared. Quinn, I hope you finally hired someone who can actually cook."Glenn moved past her without speaking, the posture of a man who had learned years ago that participating in Nadine's commentary was less productive than simply being present near it.They had made themselves comfortable during Marcus's absence.Glenn had moved into the largest guest
CHAPTER 212 PART 2
She pointed at Marcus without looking at him. "He touched you and the good in you went bad. My grandmother had a saying about people who handle pitch. You can't touch it without getting dirty. That's what happened to you, Quinn. You married a man who tracks dirt into every room he enters and now you're tracking it alongside him."Quinn placed food in Marcus's bowl without responding to Nadine. Her movements were precise, unhurried, the movements of someone conducting their own business inside a storm without acknowledging the storm's existence."I'm planning to travel with Marcus going forward," Quinn said. Her voice carried no particular emphasis, no argumentative positioning. Just information.Nadine's eyes narrowed. The casual statement landed in her processing as something significantly more threatening than its tone suggested, because Nadine understood at an instinctive level that Quinn traveling with Marcus meant Quinn becoming less accessible, and Quinn becoming less accessible
CHAPTER 213 PART 1
Nadine Ridge's chopsticks hung in the air between her hand and the dish, frozen in the precise position they had been in when Marcus's voice had stopped them. Her face showed the specific confusion of someone whose body had obeyed a command before her mind had finished processing who had issued it.In her memory, Marcus Steel had always been the household's most reliable furniture. Something you walked past without noticing. Something you scolded when the mood required it because scolding was what you did with things that occupied space without contributing value.Even with the recent changes, even with the strange people who had started appearing around him, Nadine had never genuinely questioned her authority over him inside her daughter's home."What did you just say to me?" Nadine's voice found itself. Her chopsticks lowered slowly, not because she had decided to put them down but because the situation had shifted into territory that required both hands free."I asked who gave you
CHAPTER 213 PART 2
The movement was simple. He pushed his chair back and rose to his full height with the unhurried composure of someone who has been sitting through a performance and has decided to contribute.He pointed at the floor where the vegetables and seafood had scattered from Glenn's overturned dish."Fine," Marcus said. His voice was perfectly calm. "If we're settling things today, let's settle accounts first. Those raw materials cost two hundred thousand. Pay up."Nadine laughed. The sound was genuine, surprised out of her by the absurdity of the claim."Two hundred thousand for a plate of food? You're even more delusional than I thought. Don't make a spectacle of yourself on your way out of this house, Marcus. Whatever dignity you have left won't survive it."Marcus walked to the balcony.On the balcony sat Nadine's prize flower pot. It was a rare cultivar, gifted to her by a former classmate who had connections to botanical circles that most people couldn't access.Nadine had tended it wit
CHAPTER 214 PART 1
Nadine Ridge went still for exactly three seconds. Her mind processed the question Marcus had just asked, measured it against the research she had conducted and the lawyer she had consulted, and decided the question was performance rather than substance."Bluster," Nadine's voice recovered its authority. "That's all this is. I know your financial history, Marcus. I know what you had when you walked into this family, which was nothing. I know what you earned during the marriage, which was whatever Quinn gave you.""I'm not frightened by theatrics," she continued. "You can throw flower pots and make dramatic statements about property ownership. But the law doesn't care about theatrics. The law cares about documentation."She picked up the marriage certificate from the table and held it in front of her like evidence being presented to a court."For the last time," Nadine's voice was absolute. "Do you want a divorce? Yes or no? The Civil Affairs Bureau closes in two hours. We're going rig
CHAPTER 214 PART 2
"We give them what they want to see," Marcus replied. His expression was clear and unhurried, the expression of a man who had managed empires across lifetimes and was not going to be undone by a mother-in-law with a lawyer and a mahjong addiction.Quinn's face changed before he finished speaking. Something behind her eyes shifted, a movement that happened below the level of conscious control.The word divorce, even spoken in the context of strategy, even framed as a tool rather than a destination, landed somewhere specific in her chest.Her Saintess intuition, which had never once been wrong about Marcus Steel, which had kept her anchored to this marriage through three years of confusion and silence and the slow accumulation of questions she couldn't answer, ran directly into that word and produced something she didn't want to examine too closely."If you want to divorce," Quinn said. Her voice was steady. The shimmer behind her eyes was not. "Let's divorce."Marcus looked at her. He
CHAPTER 215 PART 1
Quinn waited until Glenn's sedan was moving before she spoke. Her voice came from the backseat with the even, measured quality of someone delivering information rather than starting a conversation."The money you borrowed over the past three weeks," Quinn said. "The transfers to Aunt Margaret. The fifteen thousand to cousin Brenda. The various amounts to everyone else you directed my way. That money came from Marcus's contacts."Nadine turned in the passenger seat. "What do you mean, his contacts?""I mean the funds weren't from Hartford Group accounts," Quinn replied. Her voice was flat, indifferent, presenting facts without emotional coloring. "They were arranged through Marcus's financial network. Since we're now divorced and no longer related by marriage, it's time to arrange repayment."Nadine made a dismissive sound, the kind of sound that communicated an entire philosophy of financial ethics in a single exhalation."The money is spent," Nadine's voice carried the absolute certa
CHAPTER 215 PART 2
Nadine stood on the sidewalk surrounded by her belongings with the expression of someone whose victory celebration had been interrupted by the discovery that the trophy was hollow.Glenn loaded what he could into the sedan. The trunk took two suitcases. The back seat took three bags. Everything else remained on the sidewalk for a second trip that neither of them discussed scheduling.They drove to Glenn's old apartment in silence. The apartment occupied the third floor of a building that had been adequate before the villa and now felt like a punishment designed by someone with a specific sense of humor.The rooms were small. The kitchen was functional but ungenerous. The bathroom had a window that didn't close completely.Nadine sat on the sofa and pulled out her phone before Glenn had finished bringing in the first suitcase."Quinn," Nadine's voice carried the particular tone of someone who has recalculated their position and identified the next available resource. "I need money for
CHAPTER 216 PART 1
Marcus stood at the third-floor window of the villa, watching the street below where Nadine's belongings had been cleared away an hour ago. The sidewalk was clean now. The evidence of the evening's confrontation had been removed with the same efficiency it had been created with.He turned to Cosmo, who stood near the door with the professional readiness of someone waiting for the next instruction."Nadine's contact list," Marcus said. His voice was conversational. "Reach every relative in it. Use her name. Invite them to a celebratory dinner at her new house. Tell them she's been promoted. Tell them the family is thriving. Tell them travel expenses will be reimbursed."Cosmo's expression didn't change. "All of them?""Every single one," Marcus confirmed. "The cousins. The aunts. The old school friends and their children. Anyone who has ever received a message from Nadine Ridge bragging about her daughter's villa or her family's success. Invite them all.""Timeline?" Cosmo asked."Imme
CHAPTER 216 PART 2
Glenn picked up the keys without comment and went downstairs. The door closed behind him with the quiet sound of a man who had learned decades ago that questioning Nadine's instructions required more energy than executing them.Nadine paced the small apartment. The calls were still coming. Relatives were confirming attendance at a dinner she hadn't planned in a house she no longer occupied with reimbursements she couldn't afford.She was trapped. Denying the dinner meant explaining why. Explaining why meant admitting the divorce, the eviction, the suitcases on the sidewalk. Admitting any of it meant losing face in front of every relative she had spent months cultivating with stories about Quinn's company and the villa and the life she had built on her daughter's success.She called Quinn."I need the six hundred thousand," Nadine's voice had lost its earlier triumph and found something closer to desperate practicality. "As a loan. I'll repay it. But I need it now. Relatives are coming