"But I don’t have any feelings for him. Even though he’s very outstanding, I am not willing to marry a stranger."
"It was his offer to pay for my brother’s surgery in exchange for marrying him that compelled me to agree to get a marriage certificate."
Joanna didn’t want to divulge these things.
However, she didn’t want Lady Octavia to think that she coaxed Ashton into getting a marriage certificate.
The proposal to get a marriage certificate was originally made by Ashton.
At that time, she was unwilling.
Why should she swallow this insult and bear the blame for "deceiving"?
She wanted Lady Octavia to be clear about this.
It wasn’t her coaxing Ashton into marriage, but Ashton using the surgery for Jeremy as a condition, forcing her to have no choice but to agree to marry him.
"What did you say?" Lady Octavia frowned, her eyes filled with surprise as she was evidently astonished by Joanna’s disclosure.
In her heart, her son was the best in the world.
It could only be women clinging to her son, seducing him.
Her son would never go after other women.
She had long determined that the marriage was Joanna tricking her son into getting the certificate.
So, the words Joanna just said genuinely surprised her.
"Mom, I just want to tell you that it was Ashton who first brought up the idea of getting married. I didn’t deceive him, nor did I force him, and I certainly didn’t manipulate him out of fear of your disapproval."
"If it wasn’t for the need for him to perform surgery on my brother, I wouldn’t have had anything to do with him, let alone marry him."
"I know that no matter what I say, it won’t change the impression I have left in your heart. But I still want to explain myself. As for whether you believe me or not, that’s not something I can control."
Lady Octavia stared at her in astonishment and remained silent for quite some time before coldly snorting, "So, you’re saying that it was Ashton who clung to you, insisting on marrying you?"
Joanna hesitated for a moment and then honestly nodded, "Yes, that was indeed the case at that time."
If it wasn’t for Jeremy’s surgery,
She would never have married Ashton.
Even though his conditions were excellent and enticing, he was a complete stranger to her at that time.
No woman would want to marry a stranger.
After all, marriage is such a significant event.
"You..." Lady Octavia didn’t expect Joanna would answer this way, and she was so angry that she couldn’t speak.
How could there be such a shameless woman?
She even admitted it!
What was her face made of, to be so thick-skinned?
What kind of person was her son, that he would pursue a girl like Joanna?
"Mom, when we got married, we both had our own needs. I needed him to help with Jeremy’s surgery, while he was interested in my uniqueness to him. That’s why we hit it off. If you had asked me to divorce him back then, I would have agreed without hesitation."
"But now, I think I quite like him." Joanna seemed oblivious to Lady Octavia’s darkening expression and continued to speak, even smiling, "So, I can’t agree to your request to leave him now."
Lady Octavia thought she had never seen such a shameless woman before.
She was so angry that when she reached for the coffee cup on the table, her fingers were trembling. "I tried to reason with you, but you wouldn’t listen. Must I resort to force? Joanna, I’ll ask you one last time, will you divorce Ashton or not?"