After I Stopped Loving Him (Isabella and Ethan) novel Chapter 285

It just wasn’t fair. Wives gave up so much for their families, raising kids, running the house, doing everything, and in the end, their own children might have to split the inheritance with some mistress’s kid. Worse still, what if the husband played favorites and gave most of it away? That would be enough to drive anyone mad. What did marriage ever really give a woman?

Cynthia’s face was streaked with tears. “How could Jackson do this to me?” she cried, her voice breaking. “How could he?”

“Mom, please, don’t cry yet,” Isabella said, wrapping an arm around her. “Maybe those photos aren’t real. We should wait until Jackson comes home and talk to him first. He’s getting older, but he’s still in great shape, and he’s the head of The Lane Group. There are probably plenty of women out there who want him. Someone could have faked those photos just to mess with you.”

Isabella kept murmuring gentle words, trying to calm Cynthia down. Meanwhile, Ethan quietly snapped photos of the evidence and sent them to Jordan, asking him to bring it up with Jackson at the office.

Natalie, though, didn’t buy any of it. She shook her head. “Isabella, those photos are definitely real. They don’t look fake at all. Dad’s cheating, I’m sure of it. Look at them together, him, that woman, and the kid. They look like a real family. Dad’s gone too far. How could he do that to Cynthia? She’s done so much for him, for this family. Even if she doesn’t get credit for it, she’s always been there.”

Normally, Natalie found Cynthia hard to get along with. But now that Jackson’s affair had come out, she was completely on Cynthia’s side. Cynthia and Jackson didn’t have kids together, so Cynthia wouldn’t get much of the inheritance anyway. Most of the Lane fortune would go to Jordan, and that meant it would eventually be hers too. But if Jackson had a son with another woman, and it was a boy, that kid would definitely be getting a piece of everything. Who knew how much Jackson had already given to that woman? It made her sick just thinking about it.

Isabella leaned in close, whispering a few words to comfort her, and gently squeezed Cynthia’s hand, a secret little signal not to take it too far. Cynthia patted her back in return, letting her know she was okay.

Cynthia’s heartbreak was real. She’d been married to Jackson for twenty years, and even if their family was blended, she’d given so much of herself. Jackson’s betrayal wasn’t just a performance. It hurt, and it showed.