The Billionaire Ex-Wife's Return (Cynthia and Ethan) novel Chapter 75

Cynthia’s POV

“I want a divorce, Ethan”

Ethan’s face went pale.

The look of shock that crossed his features when I slid the divorce papers across the table was so raw, so genuine, that it baffled

1. me.

Why was he shocked? Wasn’t he expecting this? Did he really think I would continue being his doormat forever? The audacity of

this man.

He was speechless.

I pushed the brown envelope closer to him. He looked down at it but didn’t open it. His fingers hovered over the seal, then retreated. He just stared at it like it was a bomb that might detonate at any moment.

Then he let out a deep sigh.

“I am not going to sign this,” he said quietly, sliding the envelope back toward me.

“What?” I stared at him in disbelief. “Why? Isn’t this what you

want?”

“How can you think that is what I want, Cynthia?” His voice cracked. “I love you.”

Beat.

The words hung in the air between us.

It was like hearing the devil tell me he loved me. Impossible. Absurd. A cruel joke.

He sighed again and shook his head, running a hand through his hair in a gesture of frustration I’d seen a thousand times during our marriage.

I

“I…” He paused, struggling with the words. “Amber needs you as much as I need you. I don’t know what that Kevin Laurent must have said to you. I don’t know how your three years away from home was. And I know” His voice tightened. “I know I messed up big time during our marriage.”

He looked up at me, and I saw something in his eyes that looked almost like desperation.

“But Cynthia, I am… I am ready to work things out. You can’t divorce me.” He swallowed hard. “Please.”

My heart was heavy.

He sounded genuine. Really, truly genuine. And it made my chest constrict in ways I hadn’t expected.

I had been caught off guard. Completely blindsided. I’d walked into this restaurant expecting a fight, expecting coldness, expecting him to sign the papers with relief and walk away.

I hadn’t expected him to beg me to stay.

But I needed to get a hold of myself.

I couldn’t trust him. He’d been keeping Anna around all this time—had a child with her, for God’s sake. Which meant he still loved her. So what was he trying to do? What was going on in his head? Why couldn’t he just be straightforward for once in his life?

His gaze was fixed on me, pathetic and pleading, waiting for my response.

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Before I could say anything to break the tension, my phone rang.

I glanced down at the screen.

Nathaniel.

I looked back at Ethan, unsure if I should take the call. Part of me wanted to stay and understand what game he was playing.

But a larger part of me needed to escape. Needed air. Needed distance from those eyes that were looking at me like I was the only thing that mattered.

“Excuse me,” I said, standing up from the chair. “I need to take this call. I’ll be back.”

Of course I wasn’t really planning to go back to listen to more of his confusing declarations and to let him twist my emotions

into knots.

I was only going back out of courtesy. To retrieve the envelope. To end this properly.

I left the divorce papers on the table and walked toward the exit, my phone in one hand, my bag clutched tightly in the other.

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