The Billionaire Ex-Wife's Return (Cynthia and Ethan) novel Chapter 14

Amber had been different lately. Quieter and withdrawn. Less like the bright, talkative boy I remembered and more like a shadow of himself, present but somehow absent.

I’d noticed it months ago but told myself I was imagining things. That it was just a phase. That kids went through moods.

But the way he’d been clinging to Anna, insisting on staying at her apartment after school instead of coming home after initially avoiding Anna for a while few months ago…that worried me. When I’d asked why he didn’t want to be home alone with his grandmother, he’d just shrugged and changed the subject.

So I decided to pick him up early today. Surprise him and spend some quality time together before dinner.

As I was approaching the building, I saw a man leaving through the main entrance, someone I didn’t recognize but somehow felt I should. He had the kind of face you don’t forget: hard, calculating, with eyes that held no warmth. When our gazes connected for just a moment, he looked at me with an expression that could only be described as deadly. Like I’d stolen something precious from him.

Like I owed him a debt I didn’t know I’d incurred.

I wanted to ask who he was, but he was already gone, disappearing into the parking garage before I could move.

It felt very unsettling.

Inside the apartment, I found Anna in the kitchen, and Amber standing in the middle of the living room like he has waiting for

rescue.

“Ethan! You’re back early to pick up Amber!” Anna’s voice was bright, artificially so. Like someone had flipped a switch the moment I walked in.

“Yeah, thought I should spend more time with him,” I said, already studying my son’s face. “We haven’t had much time together lately.”

Anna pulled me into a hug and cupped my face with her hands, “I also haven’t spent time with you in a while too, Ethan”

“I’m sorry, Anna… you know how busy work can be” I said adjusting myself in her touch just so I could see Amber.

Amber looked at me and it felt like he was silently screaming for help.

“Can we plan for dinner during the weekend then?”

“Hm” I said taking her hands off me, “Why are you looking that way, Amber?” I asked, moving toward him.

He practically threw himself at me, his small arms wrapping around my waist, his voice muffled against my chest. “I want to go home. Please, Dad. I want to go home.”

The desperation in those words, the way he clung to me like I was the only safe thing in his world set off every alarm bell I had.

“Okay,” I said, keeping my voice steady even as my mind raced. “Let’s go home, buddly.”

“Take care” Anna sang

“I’ll call you later”

I just grabbed Amber’s backpack and walked out, my son pressed against my side.

***

W14

+25 Bonus

“How was school, buddy?” I asked, glancing at him in the rearview mirror. “Anything fun happen?”

“Fine,” he mumbled, his eyes fixed on the window, watching the city blur past. (1)

I swallowed the frustration rising in my throat. “What about your friends? You still hanging out with that kid… what’s his name, Jake?”

“Yeah,” he said, monotone, disconnected, his voice barely audible over the hum of the engine.

I tried again, my voice softer, almost pleading. “You seemed in a hurry to leave Anna’s place. Everything okay there?”

He shrugged, his small shoulders hunching further into his jacket. “S’okay.”

“Amber, I need to ask you something, and I need you to answer me honestly,” I said, turning to face him. “Has Anna been treating you differently lately? Do you feel safe around her?”

His silence was answer enough.

“Amber.”

“Sometimes she’s mean,” he said quietly. “When you’re not there. She says things. About me, about… about Mom.”

The anger that flooded through me was immediate and visceral. 1

“What kinds of things?”

“That Mom didn’t love me. That Mom abandoned me because I wasn’t good enough. Sometimes she even say that it’s my fault

she left.”

I closed my eyes and counted to ten, trying to contain the rage threatening to spill out.

I had given Anna far too much influence over my son.

I opened my mouth to press further, but the words died on my tongue.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify