The Billionaire Ex-Wife's Return (Cynthia and Ethan) novel Chapter 115

Chapter 115

Ethan’s POV

I was enraged.

Absolutely, completely enraged in a way I hadn’t felt in years. My blood was boiling, my vision narrowing to a pinpoint focus on the phone in my hand and the woman standing in front of me.

How could Bryan, not waste an ounce of time before hitting on Cynthia? It had been what, two days since he’d sat in my study and told me he had feelings for her? Two days since he’d asked for my blessing?

And now he was already making plans with her. Already establishing this comfortable, casual rapport. Already inserting himself into her life like he belonged there.

And Cynthia had agreed to meet him. Just like that. Without hesitation. Without even mentioning it to me.

Not that she owed me an explanation, apparently.

I gripped the phone tightly, my knuckles white, my gaze fixed on Cynthia. She was looking at me with that expression I’d come to recognize over the past few weeks, the one that said she didn’t owe me an explanation. The one that said I was just some stranger interfering in her business rather than her husband.

Her husband who still loved her. Who was trying desperately to fix things. Who would do anything to win her back.

But she didn’t care. She didn’t see my desperation or my pain or my love. All she saw was the man who’d hurt her for eight years.

She reached out and jacked the phone from my hand with a sharp, aggressive movement that spoke volumes about her feelings toward me.

I could no longer hold it in.

The rage, the frustration, the helplessness of watching her slip further and further away from me while men like Bryan and Nikolai and that damned F1 racer circled around her like sharks smelling blood – it all exploded inside me like a bomb detonating

I turned and kicked the row of chairs in the classroom with all the force I could muster.

The metal legs scraped loudly against the floor, the sound piercing and harsh in the quiet space. The chairs toppled over with a crash that echoed off the walls, one after another like dominoes falling.

Pain shot through my foot but I didn’t care. Didn’t even register it beyond a distant throb.

“Ethan!” Cynthia’s voice cut through my rage. She was looking at me like I’d gone completely mad. “What is wrong with you?” “What’s wrong with me?” I repeated, my voice too loud in the empty classroom, echoing off the walls. “What’s wrong with me is that my wife is running off to have lunch with my best friend while pretending I don’t exist!”

The words came out harsher than I’d intended, rawer, exposing too much of the pain I’d been trying to hide.

“It’s a business meeting,” she said through gritted teeth, her eyes flashing with anger. “And I have to go because that meeting is important. My restaurant is important.”

She strode toward the exit, her back straight and proud and I stood there among the overturned chairs, breathing hard, my mind racing.

A business meeting?

Well, I had one way to find out.

1/2

#115

+25 Bonus

I’d follow her.

I needed to know what was happening between her and Bryan. Needed to see if my best friend was really making a move on my

wife.

I followed at a distance, staying far enough back that she wouldn’t notice me but close enough to keep her in sight.

When I got outside, I noticed Cynthia’s security details–two men in dark suits who fell into step behind her at a professional distance, scanning the area constantly.

I couldn’t help but wonder why on earth she kept them. I didn’t have security. Most people didn’t. What was she so afraid of?

Cynthia walked toward the parking lot, and I hung back near the building entrance, watching as she headed to her car.

That’s when I noticed a man standing in the distance, partially hidden by a tree, watching Cynthia intently.

He looked very suspicious. Too focused and still. Not like a casual observer or another professor, but like someone on a mission.

And familiar.

I knew I’d seen that man before, but where?

I searched my memory, trying to place that face…

Then it dinged.

It was the man from Anna’s apartment.

I’d seen him exiting the entrance the day I went to pick up Amber from Anna’s place, weeks ago. The man had been leaving just as I was arriving, and he’d glared at me like I’d stolen something from him.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify