Chapter 16 - NO MORE COUNTDOWNS
Greer and Rafe sat at opposite tables in a quiet courtroom.
The conspiracy was exposed. That did not answer whether their marriage should continue.
Rafe’s attorney asked for dismissal of the divorce. Greer looked at him in surprise.
Rafe shook his head. “Not unless she asks for it too.”
The judge allowed them to confer privately.
In a small room behind the courtroom, Rafe placed the original agreement on the table. His wedding ring lay in an evidence bag because investigators had photographed the office scene.
Greer asked what he would have done if she had signed that afternoon.
“I would have said you proved me right,” he answered. “Then I would have spent years pretending that made me less responsible for forcing the proof.”
“And if I stayed?”
“I would have demanded gratitude for letting the lab die.”
The honesty was ugly and necessary. There had been no winning answer because Rafe designed the test to produce resentment whichever path she chose.
“I weaponized divorce,” he said. “I made staying sound like love and leaving sound like betrayal. I will not ask the court to erase that because Nolan exploited the moment.”
Greer touched her own ring. “I told you I chose you, then reached for the lab before the sentence finished.”
“There was sabotage.”
“Yes. And before that, there were hundreds of ordinary moments when no emergency existed. I still reached away.”
They requested a ninety-day continuance and formal separation. Neither would access the other’s accounts, devices, work, or home without permission. Counseling would continue. At the end, either could complete the divorce without opposition.
The judge approved.
Outside, reporters asked Greer what she chose in the office.
“I chose under coercion,” she said. “That is not the same as choosing.”
Rafe released a separate statement accepting responsibility for the ultimatum. He did not mention loving her since eighteen. Duration was not a claim of ownership.
Celeste and Nolan were charged with fraud, data theft, evidence tampering, extortion, and conspiracy. Their attorneys began blaming each other immediately.
The patent court froze all commercial rights. The orchid moved to a university conservatory governed jointly by independent scientists and the source community.
Greer was permitted to visit only as an observer during her suspension.
May you like
The first time she saw A17 through the greenhouse glass, a new bud had formed.
She cried—not because the research was saved, but because something she loved continued without requiring her control.
