The Billionaire Ex-Wife's Return (Cynthia and Ethan) novel Chapter 27

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#27

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#27

Chapter 27

Ethan’s POV

At first, I thought I was imagining it and my mind was playing tricks on me again.

Guilt has a way of playing tricks on your mind, especially when you’ve spent three years drowning in it, but when our eyes met across the room, I knew she was real.

Everything around me fell away. My heart pounded like it was trying to claw its way out of my chest, and I couldn’t understand why – because I didn’t think I had any deep feelings for her. Maybe I just missed her presence.

I’d just spent years replaying the sound of her voice because I actually missed her, the way she used to say my name when she was tired or just barely holding it together.

I miss her coffee, I miss her massage, I miss how she took care of Amber, so it is just missing her duties, not actually her person, right?

She looked very beautiful and attractive in that dress, and I hated that she was beside Kevin Laurent. When would she come to her senses and come back home?

Did she really lose her memory? Perhaps she didn’t recognize me, and she also didn’t recognize Amber when Amber saw her… that could be the case.

Her eyes brushed past me once, then settled just for a second. There it was, she recognized me, but then she looked away, cool and composed, as if I were no one. As if I hadn’t once held her and slept in the same bed with her. Kissed her, made love to her, especially during the time she had conceived Amber.

Well, it makes sense if she hates me, I am no saint, but I am still her husband, I was forced to marry her, but she is still my wife. How dare she ignore me this way?

The audacity of her silence and nonchalance made something inside me twist.

I’d mourned her through tossing and turning in that empty bed. I’d grieved her like a man losing a limb, secretly though because I didn’t want Devian nor Marcus to think of me as a weakling.

I’d hated myself for every word I didn’t say, for every fight I didn’t stop, for not being there when she was sick. And now she stood just a few feet away, laughing softly at something that the damned F1 racer said, like none of it had ever happened.

My chest felt tight, a mix of awe, shame, and longing. For three years, I’d lived with the ache of her absence, the guilt of not being there when she needed me, the torment of wondering if she’d died believing I didn’t care and now she was here, alive, radiant, talking to someone else like I was a ghost.

I couldn’t stand it.

My hand twitched at my side, the urge to reach out unbearable. To touch her shoulder, make her look at me again and say her name out loud, to hear her say mine even if it was laced with hate. Anything but this hollow distance

I started to move toward her, I didn’t know what I’d say, I just knew I couldn’t stay still.

“Ethan.”

Anna’s voice sliced through my thoughts, her hand closing around my arm like a leash. “Where are you going

I didn’t take my eyes off Cynthia. “That’s…”

“I know who that is,” Anna interrupted, her voice cool, almost anused “Can’t you see she’s with someone? Do you want to embarrass yourself in front of the entire guests?”

#27

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I followed her gaze at the F1 racer standing close beside Cynthia, his hand at the small of her back, smiling like he owned her.

Anna’s lips curved. “It’s been three years, Ethan. She’s moved on, clearly.”

That hit harder than it should have. “I haven’t seen her in three years, Anna. I thought she was dead.” My voice dropped. “What was I supposed to move on from… grief or guilt?”

She didn’t answer. She just smiled that knowing smile that had started to feel like pity.

In that instant, a man in a tuxedo, an investor that I didn’t care about trying to recognize, all smiles and handshakes. “Mr. Walker! So good to see you again. We must talk about the new expansion plan…”

I nodded automatically, my mouth forming polite responses while my eyes stayed locked on Cynthia. She was still laughing at the jokes Kevin said, the kind of laugh I hadn’t heard in years. The kind that used to fill our bedroom when Amber told one of his silly jokes.

I couldn’t focus on anything. The man in front of me was talking about projections, percentages, partnerships, but all I could see was her. The way she moved, the way she avoided looking my way, as if she knew I was watching but refused to acknowledge me.

When the investor finally left, I turned to find Anna and tell her that I was going to confront Cynthia, but she was gone.

Cynthia wasn’t with Kevin anymore either. She was walking toward the hallway that led to the restrooms.

My pulse quickened. This was my chance, I couldn’t just let her walk away again without saying something. At least now that Kevin isn’t with her at the moment, so I would avoid that embarrassment that Anna was so scared of

I started toward her…and then came the cameras.

“Mr. Walker!”

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