After I Stopped Loving Him (Isabella and Ethan) novel Chapter 230

A real man doesn’t argue with a woman. Ethan kept repeating that to himself in his head.

His glare slowly faded as he looked at Isabella. He turned away and started walking, his steps quick and purposeful. After a few paces, he glanced back. “Are you just going to stand there? Come on.”

Isabella stayed silent and followed him quietly.

For a second, she’d honestly thought he might hit her. Thankfully, he didn’t.

They got into the car and the driver pulled away, merging smoothly into traffic. Ethan sat upright, his posture stiff and formal. His good looks were hidden behind a cold, tight-lipped expression. The air around him practically crackled with tension.

Isabella sat next to him, sneaking a look at his profile.

If it hurt him so much, why did he even go? Seeing Natalie and Jordan together, all happy and in love, wasn’t that just twisting the knife? This was his own doing anyway. He’d never confessed to Natalie. Even after Jordan made his move, Ethan could have said something, tried to win her over, competed fair and square.

But he didn’t.

Brotherhood was more important to him. He was too scared to go after Natalie from the start, too loyal to Jordan. But since he’d already stepped back and given up, shouldn’t he have let it go? If he’d really moved on, she wouldn’t have gotten hurt in the process.

In her last life, not once did he tell Natalie he loved her. Not even when she was dying.

“Isabella, I’m sorry.” His voice was low and rough, his eyes fixed straight ahead. He didn’t look at her.

“I shouldn’t have threatened you earlier.”

“You like threatening people weaker than you,” Isabella shot back. “It’s just part of who you are. You were born lucky, with everything handed to you, things other people could never even dream of.”

“You’re the one making the rules, and people like me just have to follow them. All it takes is for you to get upset, and you can turn our lives upside-down, force us to do things we hate just because you can.”

“I’m not coming with you on your business trip this afternoon. You’ve got your work, and I have mine.”

For a while, Ethan said nothing. Then, in a quiet voice, he asked, “Are you working so hard to start your own business, to get your own money, just so you can leave me once you’re free?”

He knew about her financial situation.

“I just don’t want to be someone who lives off other people.” Isabella wouldn’t admit the real reason, that she was getting ready to leave him for good. If she did, he might ask for the ten million he’d given her for her business. She didn’t see that money as something she owed him. She’d earned it. It was her compensation.

He’d wasted her youth, stomped all over her feelings.

So what if she wanted a little interest, a little payback?

After coming back to life, she’d set her own goals. Use his name and his money to build something for herself. Once she was strong enough, once she had her own freedom and didn’t have to live by anyone else’s rules, she’d finally break out of this invisible cage.