Ex Wife's Collapse After Divorce novel Chapter 6

“You’re… you’re really divorcing me?”

Her voice cracked on the last word. She searched his face for something — a flinch, a hesitation, anything that said this was a bluff.

Nothing.

Ethan’s eyes were flat. Dead calm.

Vivian’s hands trembled. She stepped back from the desk like the paper might burn her.

“Why?” The word came out strangled. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because I don’t love you anymore.”

The air left her lungs.

“Is this — is this because I asked you to apologize?” She grabbed the edge of the desk to steady herself. “Because of that? You’re throwing away our entire marriage over an apology?”

Ethan tilted his head. “What else would it be?”

“That’s insane!” Vivian’s voice shot up an octave. “That’s absolutely insane, Ethan! Three years! Three years I’ve been with you — three years I’ve given you a home, a life, everything — and you want to throw it all away because I asked you to show some basic decency?!”

“How can you be this petty? How can you be this jealous?”

The word hung in the air.

Ethan laughed.

“Jealous.” He repeated it like it was the punchline of a joke only he understood. “You want to talk about jealousy, Vivian? Let’s talk.”

He took a step forward.

“When Damian showed up, you cancelled our anniversary dinner to have drinks with him. Remember that?”

“When I told you he made me uncomfortable, you said I was being paranoid. When he started showing up at the house uninvited, you told me to be more welcoming.” Another step. “When he kissed you — right in front of me — you told me it meant nothing. And then you asked me to apologize to him.”

“So tell me, Vivian. Where exactly is the jealousy? Because from where I’m standing, all I see is a wife who chose another man over her husband. Every. Single. Time.”

Vivian’s eyes darted to the floor. Her throat bobbed.

“I — I can explain all of that. Every single one. If you’d just let me—”

“I don’t want your explanations.”

The words cut through the air like a blade.

“I think you’re disgusting.”

The word hit Vivian like a physical blow. She stumbled back half a step, her hand flying to her chest.

“Sign it,” Ethan said. He slid the papers toward her.

Vivian stared at the document. Then at him. Then at the document again.

Something shifted behind her eyes. The shock melted. What replaced it was uglier.

“You know what?” She straightened her spine. Her chin lifted. “I really did spoil you. I spoiled you rotten.”

“You’re a live-in husband. A house husband. You cook, you clean, you sit at home while I build an empire. And you have the audacity to talk to ME like this? To call ME dirty?”

The words hung in the air like smoke.

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