The Billionaire Ex-Wife's Return (Cynthia and Ethan) novel Chapter 171

Chapter 171

Ethan’s POV

Grace is not my mother.

The words echoed in my head over and over again, like a broken record I couldn’t shut off no matter how hard I tried. They didn’t make sense. They couldn’t make sense. My brain kept rejecting them, pushing them away, trying to replace them with memories that suddenly felt unreliable, distorted.

Grace Walker was my mother.

She had always been my mother.

She was the woman who scolded me when I scraped my knees as a child, who stood stiffly at my school events, who praised my achievements in public and punished my failures in private. She was the woman who stood beside my father at every formal dinner, every corporate gala, every board meeting photo op. She was the woman who raised me, controlled me, shaped me.

And now I was being told she wasn’t my mother.

I stared down at the test results again, as if the letters might rearrange themselves if I looked long enough, if I stared hard enough. But they didn’t. They remained cruelly, mercilessly clear.

No biological match.

Not even close.

My fingers tightened around the paper until it crumpled slightly at the edges. I was thirty-five years old. A grown man. A CEO. A father. Someone who had survived corporate wars, personal betrayals, near-death moments. And yet, in that instant, I felt like a child again—lost, disoriented, stripped of the one truth I had never questioned.

“What…” My voice sounded strange to my own ears. . “What the hell?”

Cynthia stood in front of me, her face pale, her eyes wide with the same shock that churned violently in my chest. She hadn’t spoken yet, but I could see the questions burning behind her eyes, the fear, the dawning realization of how deeply this revelation cut.

Bryan approached us and it looked like he realised what had happened. He was frozen where he stood, his usual composure completely gone. His mouth was slightly open, his brows furrowed, like he was trying to solve a puzzle that suddenly had too many missing pieces.

“Grace…” I swallowed hard. “Grace is not my mother?”

The question hung in the air, heavy and suffocating.

Neither of them answered immediately, because there was nothing left to explain. The paper in my hand had already done the talking.

My heart started pounding harder, faster, as another, far more terrifying question forced its way to the surface.

“Then who is my mother?”

The words came out sharp, desperate, almost angry. I looked from Cynthia to Bryan, searching their faces for something that could ground me, that could make this feel less unreal.

Cynthia’s lips parted, but she didn’t speak.

Bryan was the one who finally broke the silence.

“There’s only one way to find out,” he said quietly.

I turned to him, my gaze blazing. “And that is?”

“When Grace wakes up,” he replied. “She’ll have the answers.”

So I was going to have to wait for that woman?

The woman lying unconscious in a hospital bed. The woman whose blood didn’t match mine. The woman who had manipulated my life from the shadows, who had laughed while my world burned, who had a secret son hidden away somewhere in the dark.

The woman who did not even have the right to be called my mother.

Bryan’s jaw tightened. “Cynthia…”

“Bryan,” she interrupted gently but firmly. “Please. Go home.”

For a moment, I thought he might argue again. I could see the conflict on his face, the frustration, the helplessness. But finally, he exhaled sharply and took a step back.

“Okay,” he said, his voice tight.

I didn’t wait for anything else.

Cynthia slipped her arm around me, supporting me as we started toward the exit. My legs felt heavy, like they were made of lead, every step a reminder of how exhausted I truly was.

Just before we reached the doors, I glanced back.

Bryan was still standing there, watching us. Watching her help me. Watching her choose me.

I met his gaze and, without thinking, gave him a slow, deliberate wink.

Petty? Yes.

Satisfying? Absolutely.

His expression darkened instantly, anger flashing in his eyes.

And as Cynthia guided me out of the hospital, I knew one thing for certain.

Bryan was enraged.