The Billionaire Ex-Wife's Return (Cynthia and Ethan) novel Chapter 137

Chapter 137

Cynthia’s POV

I took the call and placed it on loudspeaker.

Kevin was more curious than I was to hear from Matilda. I guess love really is hard to die.

Matilda sounded very cryptic, couldn’t even read any emotions to her request.

“Hi, Cynthia. Can we meet?”

I didn’t know what to respond, I was mute for a while, because I knew Matilda has something going on up her sleeves that I was yet to figure out and now, she is asking for a meeting?

“It’s urgent. I promise not to take your time. I will send you the address, thank you”

She dropped the call almost immediately not even waiting to hear a response from me. I looked at Kevin who looked away immediately, he looked disappointed at himself.

Shortly, the address came in and I just knew I had to grace this meeting to know what is going on on Matilda’s mind.

...

Matilda had insisted on somewhere “neutral,” which in her vocabulary apparently meant a discreet private lounge tucked inside one of those elite members-only cafés that pretended not to exist. The kind of place where waiters didn’t ask questions and privacy was a luxury you paid for upfront.

I arrived early.

The scandal was still unfolding online in real time—my phone had been vibrating nonstop since morning with updates about Ethan, Anna, Walker Industries, opinions split violently down the middle. Sympathy. Condemnation. Conspiracy theories. Hashtags multiplying like parasites.

I muted everything.

Matilda walked in ten minutes late, of course.

Tall and impeccably dressed. Effortlessly polished. Her lipstick was a sharp wine red today, deliberate, like armor. She smiled when she saw me, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

“Cynthia,” she said warmly, as if we were old friends meeting for brunch. “Thank you for coming.”

I didn’t stand. Didn’t smile back.

“You said it was important,” I said calmly.

Her lips twitched, amused. She slid into the chair opposite me and crossed her legs with practiced elegance.

She tilted her head, studying me like a chessboard. “I wanted to see you without your… entourage.”

Ah.

“There it is,” I said coolly. “What do you want, Matilda. We’re both adults. Just get to the point. I noticed you have something you have been dying to tell me. Spill it and stop trying to intimidate me. I can’t be intimidated.”

“Oh, Cynthia,” she interrupted lightly. “This isn’t intimidation. This is clarity.”

She leaned forward, lowering her voice.

“You and I are standing at the intersection of two men’s lives right now. One you’re disentangling yourself from. One you’re pretending not to notice you’ve already tangled yourself with.”

My spine stiffened.

“Nikolai,” I said flatly.

Her smile widened.

“So you do know.”

I held her gaze. “I know enough.”

“Do you?” she asked. “Because from where I’m sitting, you know him as the brilliant billionaire and a wounded romantic who looks at you like you’re oxygen.”

Her fingers tapped once against the table.

“I know him as mine.”

“I never claimed him as mine...” I said carefully.

Matilda laughed softly. “No, you didn’t. He did.”

That caught my attention.

She reached into her bag and pulled out her phone, sliding it across the table.

On the screen were messages.

Nikolai’s name at the top.

I didn’t touch the phone.

“I don’t need to read that,” I said.

“Oh, but you should,” she insisted. “Context matters.”

Matilda leaned back, folding her arms.

“I was patient,” she continued. “I stood by while he chased a woman who was still legally married, still emotionally tethered to another man.”

She scoffed softly. “Humiliating, really. For someone like me.”

“Then why stay?” I asked.

Her eyes sharpened. “Because Nikolai is worth it.”

I exhaled slowly. “This is between you and him.”

“No,” she said calmly. “It became about you the moment he started looking at you like a future.”

“You don’t own him, Matilda. You can’t force yourself on him.” I said quietly.

“I don’t have to,” Matilda replied. “I just have to protect what’s mine.”

The waiter arrived, placed water on the table, then disappeared without a word.

Matilda waited until we were alone again.

“You’re insane,” I said quietly.

She laughed. “Perhaps. But insanity gets things done.”

I studied her now—not as a rival, not as a threat, but as something far more unsettling.

A woman who believed control equaled love.

“You’re blaming the wrong person,” I said. “If Nikolai chose to distance himself from you, that’s his decision. Not mine.”

Matilda’s smile vanished.

“You really think you’re innocent in this?”

“I think,” I said evenly, “that you’re projecting your fear onto me.”

Her eyes flashed.

“You walked back into his life like a storm,” she snapped. “You didn’t even try to hide it.”

“I didn’t invite him to feel anything.”

“Doesn’t matter,” she said. “You inspire it.”

That wasn’t a compliment.

“I’m not stepping away from my life because you’re insecure,” I said firmly.

Her gaze hardened completely now.

“Then you leave me no choice.”

I stood.

“So be it.”

She rose too, smoothing her dress, regaining her composure with frightening speed.

“I warned you,” she said lightly. “Stay away from Nikolai, Cynthia. Or I promise you—this will get ugly.”

I met her eyes, unflinching.

“Threaten me again,” I said softly, “and you’ll learn exactly who you’re dealing with.”

Something flickered across her face.

Surprise.

Then amusement.

She picked up her bag. “We’ll see. I’m going to tell the world you are a Laurent.”

She walked away without another word.