A Divorce She Regrets

CHAPTER 4

Ethan walked through the final checkpoint in silence.

The heavy steel gates groaned as they swung open. The sound echoed across the empty road. For three years, those gates had been a wall between him and the rest of the world. Now they were opening. For him. For good.

He stepped through.

And stopped.

The sight before him was unlike anything he had expected.

A long line of black luxury cars stretched down the road. Twenty. Maybe more. Each one gleaming under the afternoon sun. Tinted windows. Polished chrome. The kind of vehicles that cost more than entire houses.

But it was not the cars that made him stop.

It was the people.

Standing in perfect formation in front of the lead vehicle were more than thirty men and women dressed in black suits. Their posture was military-straight. Their expressions were blank and professional. They stood so still they might have been statues.

And at the very front, directly in line with the prison gates, stood a woman.

She was tall and elegant, dressed in a perfectly tailored black suit. Her dark hair was pulled back in a sleek bun. Her sharp eyes studied him carefully, assessing him in the way a commander might assess a soldier.

The moment Ethan stepped fully through the gate, she moved.

She took three steps forward, stopped, and bowed deeply at the waist.

Behind her, every single bodyguard bowed in unison. The sound of thirty people moving as one was almost musical. Synchronized. Flawless.

"Welcome, Master Cross," the woman said. Her voice was smooth and controlled. Respectful. "My name is Claire Sterling. I am the acting CEO of Sterling Global Corporation. I have been waiting for you."

Ethan nodded. 

This is just the woman the old man said would personally come to pick him up. 

What Ethan hadn’t anticipated was her breathtaking beauty — even Vivian couldn’t hold a candle to her.

"I received word from headquarters this morning," she said, straightening but keeping her gaze respectfully lowered. "They informed me that the new head of Sterling Global would be released today. I came personally to receive you."

She reached into her jacket and pulled out a small black box. She opened it carefully, revealing a sleek black card inside. It gleamed faintly in the light, its surface engraved with intricate gold patterns.

"This is the Supreme Black Card," Claire said, holding the box out toward him with both hands. "It is the ultimate symbol of authority within Sterling Global Corporation. Only the highest leader carries this card. It grants you access to all resources, all accounts, and all personnel under our command. No questions asked. No limits."

Ethan stared at the card.

His mind felt slow. Foggy. 

Three years ago, he had been nobody. Just a man trying to protect the woman he loved. He had taken the blame for her crime and walked into prison willingly, thinking that sacrifice would mean something.

But while he was locked away, an old man had found him.

A man who saw potential in him. A man who had given him knowledge, training, and power beyond anything Ethan had ever imagined.

That old man had been the true owner of Sterling Global Corporation. One of the largest and most powerful organizations in the world. He had built it from nothing, piece by piece, over decades. And when age and exhaustion finally caught up to him, he had chosen to disappear. Not to die. But to step away from the corruption and greed of the world.

He had gone to prison not as a criminal, but as a man seeking peace.

And there, in that unlikely place, he had found Ethan.

The old man had tested him. Trained him. Passed down every secret he knew. And when the time came, he had named Ethan as his successor.

Now, Ethan Cross was no longer a nobody.

He was the head of an empire.

Ethan reached out slowly and took the black card from the box. It was heavier than it looked. 

Claire bowed again. "All of Sterling Global is now under your command, Master Cross. What are your orders?"

Ethan closed his hand around the card. He looked at Claire. Then at the rows of bodyguards. Then at the line of luxury cars waiting silently behind them.

For a moment, he felt nothing.

No pride. No excitement. No sense of victory.

Just emptiness.

Because the one person he had wanted to share this with had just thrown him away like garbage.

Ethan's jaw tightened. He forced the thought aside. There was no time to think about Vivian now. No time to dwell on betrayal or heartbreak.

There was something far more important.

Someone far more important.

His sister.

Lily.

She was the only family he had left. The only person in the world who had ever truly loved him. When their parents died, Ethan had raised her himself. He had worked multiple jobs to keep a roof over their heads. He had stayed up late helping her navigate a world she could not see.

And when he went to prison, he had entrusted her care to Vivian.

He had begged Vivian to take care of Lily. To keep her safe. To make sure she was fed, sheltered, and protected.

Vivian had promised.

But now, after seeing the coldness in Vivian's eyes, after hearing the cruelty in her voice, a dark fear began to crawl through Ethan's chest.

If Vivian could betray him so easily…

What had she done to Lily?

Ethan's hand tightened around the Supreme Black Card until his knuckles turned white.

He looked up at Claire Sterling. His expression was calm, but his eyes were hard. Cold. The kind of coldness that came from a man who had already lost everything once and refused to lose anything ever again.

He spoke only one sentence.

But it carried the weight of three years of silence. Three years of sacrifice and pain.

"Take me home. I need to find my sister.”