Buying My Forever Wife novel Chapter 438

Besides, didn't she realize when they tied the knot that it was his first marriage? Where did she even get the idea of an ex-wife?

As if a man of his caliber would ever settle for a woman like that.

A wave of intense, suffocating frustration crashed over Alaric.

But then a dark, testing thought crossed his mind. He pinned Ivy down with a scrutinizing stare, probing carefully,

"So you really don't mind her presence here at all?"

Ivy instantly felt she needed to project an aura of effortless magnanimity.

Since the woman was merely an ex-wife, Mr. Foster obviously harbored zero romantic interest in her anymore.

Couple that with the undeniable fact that the woman was Stella's biological mother.

If she dared to confess she was bothered by it, wouldn't she just look like a petty, irrational brat?

Expertly masking the acidic bite of jealousy gnawing at her chest, Ivy offered a breezy, shallow smile.

"Of course I don't mind. Why on earth would I care?"

Hearing this, a blistering rage ignited in Alaric's chest, his stoic expression dropping into a visibly chilling, murderous glare.

Pressing his lips into a harsh line, he forced out the question one more time. "You honestly don't care that my so-called ex-wife is here looking for me?"

Ivy aggressively maintained her mask of cool indifference. "Not at all. Besides, she obviously came here to see Stella, not you."

Alaric was rendered utterly speechless.

Having brutally confirmed exactly where Ivy stood, it felt as though a suffocating boulder had been slammed onto his chest, making it physically painful to breathe.

So even operating under the delusion that the woman was his ex-wife, this girl genuinely couldn't care less?

Did that mean she had never truly cared for him, entirely apathetic to whatever women flocked around him?

Suddenly, his mind snapped back to the horrific incident with Dr. Elena Sinclair.

This foolish girl had stood there and watched Elena forcefully kissing him while he was completely delirious from being drugged.

And instead of fighting for him, she had pretended she hadn't seen a thing and simply walked away.

She had been perfectly content to let another woman take advantage of him without lifting a finger.

How could a wife who remained so agonizingly indifferent to other women throwing themselves at her husband possess a single ounce of genuine love for him?

He had always known that Ivy was obsessed with money and had only married him for his ridiculous wealth.

But none of that stopped his pathetic, intoxicating addiction to her, constantly driving him to spoil her, shower her with absurd gifts, and throw endless cash her way.

He had deluded himself into believing that if he just bought her the world, she would eventually treat him with genuine devotion, fall madly in love with him, and become entirely dependent on him.

But what was the reality?

She literally did not care if he surrounded himself with a harem of other women.

Perhaps her true desires lay entirely with younger, fresher faces—pathetic fools like Patrick Sterling, Ethan Foster, or Tristan Rhodes.

Alaric realized that if he spent one more second picturing Ivy entangled with any of those men, he was going to snap.

The more the intrusive thoughts swirled in his mind, the more the murderous rage threatened to consume him completely.

In the end, he forcefully swallowed the suffocating bile, marched down to the dining room, and dropped into the seat directly across from Ivy.

Noticing that Sylvia was nowhere to be seen, Alaric kept his blazing eyes locked dead on Ivy as he threw out a sharp command to Mrs. Gable, who was clearing the table.

"The next time Stella's mother shows up, set her up in the guest room. From now on, she will be entirely responsible for Stella's meals and daily routine."