After I Stopped Loving Him (Isabella and Ethan) novel Chapter 289

Jordan didn’t wait for Jackson to say a word. He just told Ethan to make the call.

“What call?” Jackson snapped, eyes blazing. “Did you all just ignore everything I said? Am I invisible to you now? I told you, this is between me and my wife. Why do any of you need to get involved?”

“It’s not just about you and Cynthia, Dad,” Jordan shot back, refusing to back down. “I’m not leaving until you explain everything.”

Jackson was seething, hate boiling inside him for whoever had taken those photos and sent them to Cynthia. The room felt frozen, tension thick, until Jackson finally realized he couldn’t deny it anymore.

He looked over at Cynthia, who was still crying softly, and his voice dropped, heavy with regret. “I’m sorry. I really let you down.”

He took a shaky breath. “It just happened. She was young, gorgeous, had this incredible energy. There was this one night, a business dinner, I had too much to drink, and we ended up together. After that, I felt responsible, so I bought her an apartment. When she got pregnant, I fired her publicly from The Lane Group, but really, it was just so she could have the baby quietly.”

Cynthia’s voice was barely above a whisper, thick with tears. “Was it a secretary? Someone who worked for you?”

Jackson’s eyes narrowed. “Do you really not remember why Cynthia had to do that? It was all because of you. If your uncle hadn’t pushed us so hard, if he hadn’t made such insane demands, Cynthia wouldn’t have had to go through that.”

Back when Jackson decided to marry Cynthia, he thought she was the perfect choice, especially for Jordan. She was gentle, had no backing, easy to control. But he hadn’t expected Cynthia’s brother to be so difficult. At one point, the uncle even suggested Jackson should get a vasectomy. Jackson’s parents, alive at the time, were furious and put their foot down. In the end, Cynthia’s family settled for her getting sterilized, just to make sure she’d never have another child who could challenge Jordan’s place.

With Cynthia unable to have more kids, and Isabella not being a biological daughter, Jordan’s spot as heir was safe. But ten years ago, when Kevin was born, Jordan was already twenty. He was still in college but interning at the company, and Jackson started to see that maybe Jordan wasn’t the leader he’d hoped for. That’s when he began wishing for another son. When Deborah got pregnant, Jackson let her keep the baby and quietly set her up with a home of her own.