Chapter 5 — Divorce During Pregnancy

I said: "Currently he says he has difficulty with capital and wants to extend." Luc Hanh Chu took off his glasses and wiped them. "Chu Thi Real Estate last quarter just won plot number three in the east of the city, the bidding price was one billion two hundred million. Did he tell you that he had difficulty with capital?" I was silent for a moment. This lawyer has done his homework. Or to be more precise, To Tieu told him the situation in advance. He put his glasses back on: "You have two options. First, wait, give him a week to see if he pays or not. Second, send a lawyer letter right now, letting him know the consequences of the violation." I said: “Send a letter.” He looked at me. I said: "I don't want to give him any space to delay. Today it will be a week, next month it will be a month, then he will dare to refuse to pay." Luc Hanh Chu nodded, picked up a pen and wrote a few words in the corner of the document. "Okay, the letter will be sent this afternoon." He paused for a moment and then asked: "How is your current economic situation? Is the first deposit in your account enough?" "Enough." I said. He didn't ask any more. After signing the authorization contract, I stood up and prepared to leave. At the door, he called me back. "Miss Giang." I turned my head. He leaned back in his chair, turning the pen in his hand: "To Tieu told me your situation. If in the future he not only delays but also wants to reverse the situation - for example, claiming that the agreement was signed under duress, or claiming that the amount of money was unreasonable - you need to prepare some evidence in advance." "What evidence?" "Prove what you spent during the marriage and evidence of his fault. Messages, transfer history, evidence related to the second person." Three, keep whatever you can." I thought: "I have the messages. I can look up the bank transfer history. As for the third person..." I stopped. "Qui Nhu has never deleted the pictures related to him on his personal page. I have saved a part of the photos of the two of them together." He said: "That's enough. Go back and reorganize." I nodded. "Thank you, lawyer Luc." He waved his hand, bowed his head and opened the next document, no longer looking at me. Leaving the law office, it started to rain lightly outside. I stood under the awning and waited for a while, watching the strands of rain tilt down onto the street. Phone vibrates. It was a message from Chu Han Vu. "Nien An, lawyer Tran told you, right? It's really not that I intentionally made things difficult for you, the company really can't turn around. At most within a week, the money will definitely come."I looked at the message and didn't reply. I understand Chu Han Vu very well. He said he was testing my limits for a week. If I agree to one week, the next time it will be two weeks, one month. In the end, the remaining sixty million will turn into a blank check that cannot be cashed forever. I don't answer. Let the lawyer speak for me. At four o'clock in the afternoon, To Tieu called. "I heard you went to see Luc Hanh Chu? How's it going?" I said: "Very professional." She chuckled twice: "You're also handsome, right?" I said: "To Tieu, I just got divorced, I still have two children in my belly." She said: “Just looking at it is not illegal.” I hung up on her. In the evening, I sat in the living room organizing photo albums on my phone. Flip to chat history with Chu Han Vu. Two and a half years of conversations, scrolling upwards one screen at a time. Mostly I talk more. Good morning, good night, what to eat today, when will you come back? His answers are always short. "Yes." "Okay." "Busy." "Not coming back." Occasionally there are longer messages. For example, tell me to go to the dry cleaners to get a suit for him. For example, remind me that the lawn in the garden needs cutting. For example, ask how many bottles of red wine are left in the house and he wants to give them away to customers. None of the news is of interest to me. No news.

I turned to last winter's history. That day I had a fever of thirty-nine degrees. I texted him saying I wasn't feeling well and wanted him to go home. He replied: "Drink some medicine, I can't leave your side." The next message was at seven o'clock the next morning, he sent: "Last night worked overtime at the company, just got home, are you feeling better?" I believed then. Now that I think about it, he was probably at Quy Nhu's place that night. I took screenshots, saved all of these messages, and exported them to the cloud drive. Then open Quy Nhu's personal page. She didn't block me. Perhaps it was intentional. Her personal page is full of exquisite life photos. We ate together with Chu Han Vu, saw the exhibition together, and flew to Sanya together. Below each post is Chu Han Vu's like. As for my personal page, he never looks at it, never likes it. I saved these screenshots as well. By the time we finished it was already eleven o'clock at night. I turned off the light and lay down. Suddenly there was a stir in my stomach. Very light, like a passing air bubble. My whole body stiffened. Then move again. Fetus at sixteenth week. The doctor said that at this stage, you can feel very slight movements, like the beating of butterfly wings. I placed my palm on my lower abdomen, holding my breath. Moving again. This is the first time they greeted me. My eye sockets suddenly became hot. Not because of heartache.