Ex Wife's Collapse After Divorce novel Chapter 50

Chapter 50

The villa lights were dim. Aurora paced.

Three messages. Ethan had sent her three messages since she’d ignored his first one. Each notification had lit up her phone like a small victory.

‘Not answering yet?’

‘Is something wrong?’

‘I’ll be back before midnight.’

She read them again. A tiny, fierce smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

She’d done it. Sophie had been hovering around him like a vulture all week, and all Aurora had needed

was a little silence-a strategic withdrawal-to pull his attention back where it belonged. Back on her.

The smile faded as quickly as it came. He was still Ethan Carter. Still her

young master.

When he walked through that door, she’d need to read him perfectly-calibrate her response down to the exact degree. Play hurt, but not too hurt. Push back against Sophie, but not so hard he felt cornered.

She rehearsed it in her head. A cool greeting. A deliberate pause before meeting his eyes. Let him explain himself first, then-

The front door swung open.

Aurora’s breath caught. All her careful plans evaporated in an instant.

Ethan stood in the doorway, and he looked… wrecked. The smell of whiskey hit her, and his eyes are

hollow. Exhausted.

“What happened?” The words left her mouth.

Ethan didn’t answer right away. Just stood there, swaying slightly. “Bad night,” he said finally. “Aurora… do you have anything to drink?”

She studied him for a beat. “Yes. But are you sure you want to drink? I think you’ve been drinking.”

“I need more.”

His voice was flat. Defeated. Aurora’s heart clenched.

“Then I’ll drink with you. Young master.”

They drank in silence for a while. Throughout the process, Aurora nervously kept a quiet eye on Ethan.

She had completely put the matter of questioning him out of her mind, as his unhappiness was clearly far more important.

Then Ethan set his glass down and stared at it. “Can I tell you a story?”

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“Of course.” Aurora looked at him with deep concern.

He didn’t look at her. His eyes went somewhere past the kitchen window, past the dark garden outside.

“There was a kid once,” he said. “Around seventeen. Thought he could just walk away from everything. His family, their rules, all of it. So one night he packed a bag and left.”

Aurora said nothing. She kept still.

“He ended up in a small city. The kind of place nobody thinks to look for someone. He was there maybe three days when some men started following him.” A pause. “He didn’t even realize it at first.”

He turned his glass slowly in his hands.

“The night they finally made their move, a girl showed up. She couldn’t have been more than thirteen, fourteen. But she had people with her. And she just-stepped in.” He stopped. “He never expected that. Not from a stranger. Not from a kid half his size.”

His jaw moved once, like he was swallowing something down.

“He remembered her after that. Couldn’t forget her if he tried. So when he was old enough, he came to the city where she lived. Enrolled there. Eventually…” A short, humorless breath. “Eventually he married

her.”

The room went quiet.

“She never knew,” he said. “About that night. About why he came. She never knew any of it.”

Aurora’s glass was still in her hand. She hadn’t touched it in several minutes.

“Do you think,” Ethan said, “that a story like that-” He stopped. Tried again. “The boy and the girl. Do you think they’d stay together?”

Every instinct screamed at her to soften the answer. To say something warm, something safe. But he wasn’t asking for lies.

“No,” she whispered. “People change. Time changes everything.”

Ethan stared at her. Then he smiled, bitter and broken, and nodded. “Yeah. People change.”

The defeat in his voice made something in her chest twist painfully. Aurora could no longer tolerate her young master being so disoriented.

“Hey.” She reached out, touching his wrist. “Let me show you something. The plans against Hale Realty and Lockwood Industries-I finished them. Everything’s laid out. Take a look.”

She reached for her tablet, pulling up the documents, the charts, the carefully constructed strategy she’d spent days perfecting.

“Ethan?”

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He didn’t respond.

She looked over.

He was asleep. His head had fallen back against the couch cushions, his breathing slow and even. The tension had finally drained from his face, leaving him looking younger. Softer.

Aurora stared at Ethan’s face for a while, then set the tablet aside.

“Alright,” she murmured. “The plans can wait.”

She stood, retrieving a blanket from the armchair, and draped it over him carefully. Tucked the edges

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