The Billionaire Ex-Wife's Return (Cynthia and Ethan) novel Chapter 266

Chapter 266

Cynthia's POV

~ Twenty years ago ~

The church was magnificent.

White flowers everywhere—cascading down the aisle, wrapped around every pillar, filling the air with their sweet, almost overwhelming fragrance.

Harold Walker had spared no expense.

"My son deserves the best," he'd declared when the wedding planner had presented the budget. "And so does his bride."

I stood at the back of the church in my wedding dress staring down the long aisle toward the altar where Ethan waited.

He looked handsome in his tuxedo, his dark hair perfectly styled, his posture straight and formal.

But he didn't look happy.

Not the way grooms were supposed to look on their wedding day.

Beside me, Anna adjusted my veil with a bright, practiced smile.

"You look beautiful, Cynthia," she said, her voice dripping with false warmth. "Ethan is so lucky."

I knew she didn't mean it.

I knew that beneath that smile, Anna was dying inside.

She has always been jealous and a mouthbreather.

Ever since that warehouse eight years ago, when we'd all been rescued together, when the trauma had bound us in ways that felt permanent and unbreakable.

Anna had somehow convinced herself that she deserved him more than I did.

That her parents had died saving us, so Ethan owed her something.

A life. A marriage. A future.

But Harold had made his choice.

He'd insisted that Ethan marry me.

The first two years of our marriage had been… blissful.

At least compared to what came later.

Ethan had been gentle with me.

Especially that first night.

I could still remember it so clearly — the way his hands had trembled as he undressed me, the way he'd whispered my name, the way he'd looked into my eyes and asked if I was sure, if I was ready, if I wanted this.

And when I'd said yes, he'd been so careful.

So tender.

Taking his time, making sure I wasn't in pain, holding me afterward and telling me he loved me.

"I love you," he'd whispered against my hair as he reached his climax. "God, Cynthia, I love you so much."

I'd cried afterward because Ethan Walker loved me.

And he'd finally said it out loud.

Things had been good then.

Ethan had bought us the beach house when I got pregnant with Amber.

"I want our family to have a place that's just ours," he'd said, wrapping his arms around me from behind, his hands resting on my growing belly. "Somewhere we can escape to. Somewhere peaceful."

Even with Anna constantly interfering — showing up unannounced, inserting herself into every conversation, slowly poisoning Ethan against me with her subtle manipulations—Ethan had still tried.

He'd still played the role of husband.

Still kissed me goodbye in the mornings.

Still held me at night.

Still made love to me like he meant it.

Until he stopped.

The intensity of it.

The clarity.

It hadn't felt like a normal dream.

It had felt like a memory being pulled to the surface for a reason.

Like my subconscious was trying to tell me something.

What if something's wrong?

What if Ethan was hurt?

"No," I whispered, panic rising in my chest. "No, no, no—"

"¿Qué pasa?" Carmen asked, alarm creeping into her voice now. "What's wrong?"

"Something's wrong with Ethan," I said, my voice breaking. "I can feel it. Something's wrong."

Carmen gripped my shoulders gently but firmly.

"Escucha," she said. "Listen. You're scared. You're tired. Your mind is playing tricks on you."

"No," I insisted, shaking my head frantically. "This is different. I can feel it. Something happened to him."

Carmen looked at me with sympathy but also with the practical skepticism of someone who'd lived a long, hard life.

"No puedes saber eso," she said gently. "You can't know that."

But I did know.

In the way my chest felt hollow and terrified.

Something had happened to Ethan.

Carmen wrapped her arms around me and held me while I cried, murmuring soothing words in Spanish I didn't fully understand but appreciated anyway.

And as I sat there in that tent, in the darkness, surrounded by strangers in a place I didn't know, one thought repeated over and over in my mind.

Please be okay, Ethan.