The Billionaire Ex-Wife's Return (Cynthia and Ethan) novel Chapter 79

Cynthia’s POV

The restaurant Nathaniel had chosen was upscale but family–friendly, it was the kind of place where businessmen could have serious conversations while their children played with organic finger foods.

When I arrived, I spotted them immediately.

Nathaniel sat at a corner booth, little Lily perched on his lap. He was carefully spooning some kind of puréed vegetable into her mouth, making airplane noises that were completely at odds with his usual stern demeanor.

It was adorable.

“There’s Auntie Cici,” he said to Lily as I approached. “Say hi to Auntie Cici.”

Lily gurgled and waved a chubby fist in my direction.

I slid into the booth across from them and immediately reached out. “Give her to me. You look ridiculous.”

Nathaniel handed her over with exaggerated relief. “Thank God. My arm was falling asleep.”

I settled Lily onto my lap and continued feeding her, wiping a smear of orange from her chin. She was such a beautiful child with Helen’s delicate features mixed with Nathaniel’s sharp intelligence already visible in her curious eyes.

“Helen is bent on making me look like a single father,” Nathaniel said, a wry grin tugging at his lips. “Her excuse is that I haven’t been around much lately, so she needed her day off.”

I laughed. “Yeah, she needs a break. Kids can be a handful.”

Lily chose that moment to grab the spoon from my hand and fling purée across the table, as if to prove my point.

Nathaniel sighed and dabbed at his tie with a napkin.

Once we’d gotten Lily settled with some soft bread to gnaw on, Nathaniel’s expression shifted. The doting father disappeared, replaced by the sharp businessman I knew him to be.

“Cynthia,” he said, his voice dropping into a more serious register. “We need to talk about next steps.”

“I figured.”

“With the influence Ethan has, considering he’s been established in Missford for this long, I’m afraid that if we sue him directly, it might turn out in his favor.” Nathaniel’s jaw tightened. “Ethan isn’t as small as I initially thought. I did some research. He has a number of very diligent lawyers on his payroll. The best that money can buy.”

“We have evidence, Nathaniel.” I kept my voice firm, even as Lily squirmed in my lap. “It doesn’t matter if he has Jesus Christ himself as his lawyer. He’s going down with those evidences.”

“I can tell you for free, Cynthia, he won’t go down that easily.” Nathaniel leaned forward, his elbows on the table. “He may either make Anna take the entire fall and then find a way to get her released later. Or he may find ways to make our evidence look fabricated. Planted. Unreliable.”

Frustration bubbled up in my chest. “So what do you want us to do? Just let them get away with it?”

“No.” Nathaniel’s eyes glinted with something dangerous. “I’m saying we need to be smarter. My legal team and I are doing our research, getting to the root of everything. We know Ethan and Anna are the culprits. Now we’re gathering enough evidence that they won’t know where to run.”

He paused, letting that sink in.

or just eating Ethan,” he contined “We’re ing Walker industries. Killing tas bands with one stone

1 for mud–it of my salad

“?er

Walker Industrie?”

The implications

day. If we went after the company – if we brought it down, that would affect Amber. Fis

heritance. His future. His reputation as the heir to a respected corporation

“Nathaniel, 1 c’t.”

“Don’t worry about Amber, I have told you already” he interrupted, reading my concern. “When the company crumbles, we‘ buy the remains and merge them into Laurent Group Amber will still have a share. He’ll still have a legacy.” He reached across the table, his hand covering mine briefly. “Besides, Cynthia, you are an heir to Laurent Group now. Amber has more than enough secured for his future. He doesn’t need Walker Industries.”

I sat with that for a moment, letting the logic settle over my emotions.

He was right. Amber would be fine. More than fine. As a Laurent heir, he would have opportunities most children could only

dream of

But still…

“This feels extreme,” I admitted. “Taking down an entire company because of what Ethan and Anna did. People will lose their Job

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