Despite being married for three years, they rarely stood this close to each other. The air between them abruptly rose in temperature,
Joanna's face was bright red as she tried her best to regulate her breathing." Yeah, so I hope you can give us your blessing, Mr. Moran. I've given you my blessing after all."
Ace's eyes darkened, huffing coldly. "Who is it? Is it Robert Blackwood's youngest son? If I remember correctly, that guy's three years younger than you. You know that, right?"
His words alone were enough to upset Joanna. 'What? Is he implying that I'm too old? Then why can other men date girls who are decades younger than them, but women can't date someone just a couple of years younger?'
"And what about it? Why does it matter to you? Besides… don't you know that a lot of younger guys prefer mature women now? Oh, how hard it was to resist his adorable efforts when he was pursuing me."
"I don't care if you're dating a younger guy, but Liam Blackwood is off-limits." Ace narrowed his eyes, his tone stern. "Ask around and you'll see how much of a womanizer he is! A modest girl like you won't be able to handle him."
Joanna didn't understand what Ace meant by that. She thought to herself, "We're getting a divorce, so why would he care about who I'm dating?"
'Isn't he the almighty Ace Moran, the cold and distant ice block? When did he become so concerned about his ex-wife's love life?'
"You don't have a say in whether I can handle him or not. So what if I like womanizers? Doesn't that make the relationship all the more exciting?" she exclaimed.
Not wanting to drag this on any longer, Joanna continued urging for his signature. "I know you're a busy man, so just sign the papers! Let's just get this over with!"
"Did you lose it? Doesn't matter, I have the pdf file right here, we can just have it printed right away…" said Joanna as she pulled out her phone. Her impatience to obtain his signature irked Ace.
While their marriage was loveless, one still couldn't deny the fact that they had been legally married for three whole years. To Ace, it felt like someone stole something that belonged to him, and it didn't sit well with him.
'What if I don't sign it?" Ace said as he arrogantly planted his hands into his pockets.
"Seriously?" Joanna scoffed.
'As expected, men suck! It doesn't matter if he's good-looking, it doesn't matter how decent he seems. They're all f*cking pr*cks!'
"If that's how the game you want to play, don't mind if I do!" Joanna gritted her teeth as her fingers danced on her phone screen quickly.
"What are you doing?" Ace asked with furrowed brows.
He was starting to realize this woman wasn't as gentle and obedient as he remembered. There were too many sides of her that he's never seen before.
Moments later, Joanna smirked as she pointed her phone at Ace.
"I'm live streaming," she replied.
"What the hell?" Ace was confused by what the woman was trying to achieve.
On the other side, Joanna started wailing all of a sudden, as if she was being starred in a soap opera.
"Everyone… Please help me out, I… I can't do this anymore!"
"This is my husband, Ace Moran… You may know him as the second son of the Moran family in the City, or the CEO of H Group…"
"I just… I just found out that he cheated on me! He even knocked up his mistress in the process! But he… he won't sign our divorce settlement, saying that he refuses to give me a single penny!"
"Can the rich just do whatever they want now? It's… just so unfair that he's refusing me financial support, even though he's the one at fault here!"
Ace wondered if the woman had gone mad.
'She couldn't possibly think that this little act would fool anyone, right? Is this her feeble attempt at threatening me?'
However, he soon received a panicked call from Jack. 'What's happening, Mr. Moran? Why is Mrs. Moran crying on our company's official account?"
"There are about thirty million viewers by now, and everyone's calling you a cheating bastard in the comments! They're even saying they'd take down every project Moran Group is currently working on!"
"Is this your way of flirting with each other? Just get a room! The stream isn't doing us any good, please just shut it off!"
Ace was still in a state of disbelief. He grabbed his laptop and logged into Moran Group's official Facebook account. 'She really did it! The stream on the account is clearly my office! And it's being streamed on every platform!'
"Please darling, we've been married for three years, you know? Even if you did cheat on me… I forgive you, because… my love for you is true… Please… just don't be so cruel to me…"
"I wasn't asking for much either, I just wanted the least valuable law firm that you own. You can't just divorce me and leave me out on the streets to starve, right? I'll die!"
"I'll give you my blessing… I'll leave quietly for your sake! I won't bother you at all, I just want you to be happy!"
Joanna's acting was immaculate. Tears were flowing down her cheeks and she damsel in distress. Riled up by her performance, the viewers left countless comments as the stream continued.
[What a jerk! Ace Moran really is as cruel as they say! How inhumane can he be?!]
[Men like him should rot in hell! She just wanted a law firm, that's pocket change for him!]
[This bastard and his mistress should burn in hell!] '
[I'm unfollowing them! Men are all the same! What a waste of good looks!]
Ace was visibly enraged at this point. He didn't even have time to figure out how the woman got ahold of the password to their official account, all he wanted was for the stream to end.
"Shut it off!" he ordered harshly.
Naturally, Joanna ignored his instruction. She continued pointing the camera at Ace as she cried. "Darling, I wish you would stop raising your voice at me. Please don't blame me for this. I have no other choice but to negotiate with you in this way!"
"Both my parents have died… I'm alone in this world, and I have no power to go against your family either… the only people I can rely on are my fellow netizens…"
She was implying that she would only stop streaming once he had signed the papers.
"Give me that!" Ace growled angrily. He was frustrated, as it was the first time someone had ever threatened him this way. Not wanting to prolong this, he immediately tried reaching for Joanna's phone.
Joanna, however, was able to dodge his advance swiftly.
"What are you doing, darling? Let's just talk this out, okay? You don't have to be rough with me! And you have to be careful with your image, we're live streaming here!"
"So you think I was being rough?" Ace stepped closer, grabbing both of her wrists with a sly grin. "Let me show you how rough I can get!"
After that, he pulled the woman in, causing their bodies to touch.
The sudden movement caused the phone to slip out of Joanna's hand. With the camera pointing at the ceiling of the office, the viewers were left to their own imagination as to what was occurring between Ace and Joanna.
[What's happening? What are they doing? Where did they go?]
[Are they really divorcing? Why does it feel like they're actually flirting with each other?]
[Are we actually allowed to watch this for free?!]
[Oh my god! They're definitely flirting, aren't they? Lucky us! We get to see this live!]
Joanna did not anticipate Ace to make this move. She could feel her face burning up. As she struggled to escape his embrace, she growled at him,
"What are you doing, Mr. Moran?! You know this is a live stream, right?!"
"It's not like my reputation could get any better at this rate, so I don't mind making it worse!" Ace forcefully kept her in his arms, as he whispered into her ears naughtily.
Although they had been married for so long, this was the first time he realized that his boring wife was actually quite precious…
Her body smelled amazing, and she felt so soft in his embrace. He wasn't prepared to let go anytime soon, given these sensations brought him some sort of reassurance.
On the other hand, Joanna's heart was absolutely calm.
She used to wish for Ace's embrace during their marriage to the point that she'd have dreams about it. Yet now, all she wanted was to escape his arms, because she couldn't allow herself to make the same mistake twice.
"You don't mind it being worse, you say?" The woman asked, then started screaming on the top of her lungs.
"Ah! Darling, please don't hit me! No!"
"Til give up on my demand! I'll listen to you! Just please don't hit me!"
"Help! Someone, anyone! He's going to beat me to death! Please call the police for me!"
Ace froze, all the emotions he felt just now faded away instantly.
'This woman… is ruthless!'
At the same time, a large group of people barged into his office, their expressions vexed…