Ex Wife's Collapse After Divorce novel Chapter 12

Chapter 12

“No, we are NOT done!” The mask shattered. Vivian’s voice erupted through the phone, raw and furious. “I know you’re angry! Fine! Be angry! But why do you have to be so-so goddamn unreasonable about this? Why do you insist on burning every bridge between us?”

She was breathing hard now. He could hear it – the ragged pull of air between sentences.

“Think about this clearly, Ethan. You’re a househusband. That’s what you’ve been for five years. A househusband. You walk away from me – then what? What’s your plan? Go back to driving Uber? Picking up drunk college kids at two in the morning for fifteen dollars a ride?”

Her voice cracked with something between rage and desperation.

“Why can’t you just come home? Come back and be my husband. Take care of me. Isn’t this better than being an Uber driver?? ”

The words echoed in both offices – hers and his.

Ethan was quiet.

Then he laughed.

“Even driving Uber,” Ethan said, his voice low and utterly steady, “would be better than being your husband.”

Vivian stopped breathing.

“Those three years were the darkest period of my life. Every single day in that house — every meal I cooked, every insult I swallowed, every time your father looked through me like I was furniture – that was my rock bottom.”

He paused. When he spoke again, his voice was calm. Almost gentle. The way someone speaks about a wound that’s already scarred over.

“I’m doing well now, Vivian. For the first time in three years, I’m doing something that actually matters to me. I’m building something real. And I will never – never – go back to being what I was in your house.”

He let the words land.

“We’re done. Don’t call this number again.”

The gentleness vanished.

Vivian’s hand was shaking. The phone rattled against her ear.

“You’ve lost your mind.” Her voice came out in a whisper first – then swelled into something ragged and furious. “You’ve actually gone insane. Do you have any idea what I can do to you? One word from me, Ethan. One phone call. I can make you go bankrupt. I can make sure you can’t do business anywhere in this city. Do you understand that?”

Across the office, Damian’s eyes lit up.

This is even better than he planned.

Ethan’s response was immediate. No hesitation. No tremor.

“Then do it.”

“What?”

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“You heard me.” His tone was the verbal equivalent of a shrug. “Go ahead and try.”

The line crackled.

–

Vivian let out a laugh — sharp, ugly, incredulous. The kind of laugh that comes right before someone does something they can’t take back.

“Fine. Fine. You want to play it that way? Let’s play.”

She hung up.

The phone hit the desk with a crack.

The office fell silent. Vivian stood behind her desk, chest heaving, her reflection in the dark window looking like someone she barely recognized.

Damian rose from the couch, his expression arranged into perfect concern. Furrowed brow. Slightly parted lips. Just the right amount of worry.

“Viv, hey take it easy.” He walked over slowly, palms raised. “Maybe don’t escalate things with Ethan right now. Emotions are running high. You might regret—”

“No.”

The word came out like a hammer strike.

Vivian turned to face him. Her eyes were dry. Burning.

“He thinks he can talk to me like that? He thinks he can block my number, mock my offer, and walk away clean?” She shook her head once. Hard. “I’m going to show him exactly what happens when you cross Vivian Lockwood.”

She snatched her phone off the desk and began scrolling through her contacts.

Rachel Nguyen. Head of Business Development.

Rachel had the connections. The leverage. The resources to quietly squeeze any small operation in this city until it choked. A few calls to the right suppliers, a word to the right banks – Ethan’s little world, whatever it was, would collapse before he even knew what hit him.

Vivian’s thumb hovered over the call button.

Then the office door flew open.

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