Ex Wife's Collapse After Divorce novel Chapter 20

Chapter 20

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Time slipped hard and fast.

By five-thirty, most of Stellaris had already emptied out. The business department was nearly silent, just the low hum of computers and the occasional click of a keyboard.

Ethan sat with a client file open in front of him, eyes moving line by line.

Across from him, Aurora propped her chin in both hands and stared at him with open annoyance.

“Are you seriously doing this right now?” she muttered. “It’s after work. That file will still exist tomorrow.”

Ethan didn’t look up.

“You don’t have to wait for me. I’ll leave after I finish this.”

That only made her roll her eyes.

“As if I’m waiting because I enjoy it. I want the dinner you promised me.”

A faint smile tugged at the corner of Ethan’s mouth.

Yesterday, she had still been testing him. Today, she had gotten bolder.

Probably because she had realized he wasn’t going to snap at her for every little thing.

He closed the folder.

Aurora lifted a brow. “What, giving up already?”

“You said you wanted me to cook.” He stood, stacked the documents neatly, and shut down his computer. “If we leave any later, the grocery store will be closed.”

She grabbed her bag at once and followed him out.

They walked side by side toward the elevators.

Aurora tilted her head and looked at him with that infuriatingly amused expression.

“You know, Ethan, you’re dangerous.”

He glanced at her. “How?”

“You’re patient, you cook, and you take care of people without making a big deal out of it.” Her smile deepened. A man like that is way too easy to want.”

Ethan’s jaw tightened.

“Don’t flirt with me.”

She laughed, bright and shameless.

He heard it and kept walking, but heat crawled up the back of his neck anyway.

Damn it.

She noticed.

Of course she noticed.

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Her eyes lit up like she’d found fresh ammunition, but before she could say a word, his phone rang.

Ethan pulled it out and answered without checking.

“Hello. Who is this?”

A sharp breath came through the speaker.

“Who is this? Ethan Carter, did you delete my number?”

Vivian.

His face cooled instantly.

“Sorry, Ms. Lockwood. We’ve already signed the divorce agreement. What I do is no longer your concern.”

“Ethan!”

Her voice cracked through the line so loudly that Aurora turned to look at him.

Ethan said nothing.

He could already feel the old irritation pressing behind his eyes. Not pain. Not hesitation. Just irritation.

A few seconds later, Vivian inhaled hard, forcing herself down.

“It’s Friday,” she said, her tone much softer now. “Don’t forget dinner at my parents’ house.”

“No.” Ethan stepped into the empty hallway outside the elevator bank and stopped. “I’m not free tonight. And I don’t think that dinner matters anymore.”

“It matters.”

Her voice sharpened again.

“We signed the agreement, but we haven’t filed yet. Legally, we’re still married. Since we’re still married, you need to come.”

Ethan almost laughed.

So now she wanted to talk about legal status.

When she shoved the papers in front of him, she couldn’t wait to be rid of him. Now suddenly the certificate mattered.

“I already made plans,” he said flatly. “I’m cooking for a friend tonight.”

Silence.

Then Vivian asked, too fast, “A friend? What friend? A man or a woman? Do I know her?”

Ethan turned his head and looked at Aurora.

She stood beside him, watching him, one brow arched.

“Woman,” he said. “A friend. Whether you know her or not isn’t my problem.”

Vivian’s tone changed again, trying for concern and missing by a mile.

“Ethan, women out there aren’t as simple as you think. Don’t let yourself get played.”

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His grip tightened around the phone.

That did it.

For three years, she had never once stood between him and her family’s contempt. But now she had opinions about who he spent time with?

“This is my business,” he said, each word clipped. “You should worry about yourself.”

“If there’s nothing else, I’m hanging up.”

He was pulling the phone from his ear when Aurora moved.

She leaned in close, too close and pitched her voice into something syrupy and soft, loud enough for the microphone to catch every syllable:

“Babe, who are you talking to?”

Ethan froze.

He turned to stare at her.

Aurora’s lips curved. She winked.

“ETHAN-CARTER!”

The shriek ripped through the speaker so loud it might as well have been on speakerphone. Both of them heard every decibel.

Ethan hung up.

No goodbye. No explanation. Just — click.

Aurora braced herself. A tongue-lashing at minimum. Maybe actual anger.

Instead, Ethan just looked at her. One long, unreadable glance.

“Don’t do that again.”

He walked into the elevator.

‘That’s it? Seriously?’

Aurora muttered under her breath, then hurried in after him.

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The doors closed,

Ethan stared at the descending numbers above the door, jaw set, saying nothing.

Every Friday for three years. That had been the routine.

Vivian would pick him up after work. They’d drive to the Lockwood house. Sit at the dining table. And Reginald Lockwood would spend the next ninety minutes making Ethan wish he’d skipped the meal entirely.

You’re a leech, Carter. Living off my daughter.

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