Back Off, You Cheating Ex Wife!

Chapter 1

"I want a divorce. Please help me draw up the divorce papers."

Ethan sat across from the best divorce attorney in the city, his voice flat and final.

Joshua Whitmore's eyes were filled with shock, as if he couldn't believe the man sitting before him was Ethan Gray and that he was asking for a divorce from Vivian, the CEO of the Ashford Group.

They had been married for five years. Everyone in Portland said he was the luckiest man in the city, having married the CEO of a top-tier corporation and gained her wholehearted love. Five years of marriage that the tabloids called "a modern fairy tale".

Yet now, here this man sat, stating without a shred of hesitation that he wanted a divorce.

"Mr. Gray, drafting a divorce agreement requires valid grounds and supporting evidence." The lawyer weighed his words carefully. “Could you tell me—”

Ethan didn't say a word. He slid a manila envelope across the desk, opened it, and spread its contents out one by one.

Photographs. One, two, five of them. Vivian and Jack Black walking side by side into a hotel elevator. Their fingers intertwined in a private dining booth. Their bodies were even intertwined in the backseat of a car.

The final segment showed Vivian and Jack at a banquet, intimately sharing a linked-arm toast, while Ethan lay alone in a hospital bed, shattered and in agony from his severe injuries.

The attorney stared silently at the footage of Ethan signing the surgical consent form alone.

"...I will take the case." The lawyer's voice dropped a fraction. "I'll move forward with this as quickly as possible."

Ethan gave a single nod, clutching his abdomen where a stab wound still seared with pain.

"As quickly as you can, please," he said, tugging the corner of his mouth into a bitter smile.

Three days ago, on their fifth wedding anniversary, Vivian had spent a fortune to book the most exclusive private club in the Pearl District. The whole city had been buzzing about Madam Ashford's romantic gesture.

Then, the gangsters had broken in.

Ethan had immediately shielded Vivian with his own body. Once she had made it to safety, he had charged right back into the chaos to fight the assailants. He had refused to let them destroy such a special moment between him and Vivian.

He had managed to hold out until the police arrived, only for the kidnappers, in a fit of blind fury, to drive a blade straight through his abdomen.

If he hadn't once been a doctor, if he hadn't known how to save his own life, he would already be dead.

When Ethan had finally woken up weakly in his hospital bed, his only thought was to share the sheer joy of cheating death with Vivian, who sat beside him.

Then her phone rang.

"Are you insane?" The voice on the other end of the line had been sharp and piercing. "Why would you send people to sabotage your own anniver—"

Ethan had gone still.

"Switch to German!" Vivian had snapped in that language, her voice sharp and taut with tension. She had sprung to her feet immediately to put distance between herself and Ethan, her expression darkening into one of wary suspicion. "Ethan is right here."

Ethan had frozen. He had stayed motionless, his breath held.

Three months ago, he had secretly mastered the language for her sake. He wanted to step just a little closer to her world.

Now, he understood every single word.

The voice had come back in German. "Did you really send people to ruin your own wedding anniversary? Why on earth would you do that?"

Vivian had lowered her voice, her tone cold and resolute. "I'm not insane. Jack is back. I couldn't actually celebrate this anniversary with Ethan—Jack, he would get jealous."

She had hired the kidnappers to break up their anniversary.

The realization had pierced his skull like a steel needle. His entire body had gone rigid, staring motionlessly up at the ceiling.

So, what had he been fighting so desperately for back then?

"Jack abandoned you five years ago! Ran off with another woman! Ethan gave up his medical career for you. He's taken care of you every single day. And now Jack shows up and suddenly—"

"There's no 'suddenly.'" Vivian had cut her off. "I married Ethan because I saw a faint shadow of Jack in him. That's all it ever was. Ethan can't compare to Jack. There's nothing to be biased about because there was never a competition."

"Are you serious?" the voice on the phone had asked in utter disbelief.

"I am," Vivian had stated crisply.

Silence on the line. Then: "So the man who loves you—his rewards are knife wounds."

Vivian had paused. For the first time, something had flickered across her face. "That...wasn't planned. I didn't expect him to fight them. He was supposed to panic and let them take the valuables. It got out of control."

"I won't do anything that risky again," Vivian had continued. "Besides, it's not like I'm completely heartless. I'll still keep Ethan as my husband, and that should be more than enough for him. If Jack ever leaves again, I'll go back to treating Ethan just like before."

The call had ended.

Ethan had laid perfectly still, every muscle locked. The ceiling above him had blurred and sharpened.

Five years. For five whole years, he had turned down offers from top hospitals, abandoned his own life, and surrendered any sense of identity outside of Vivian Ashford, all because he had believed he had finally found true love, convinced that Vivian would love him back with the same intensity.

Now, within the span of a three-minute conversation in German, it had all turned into an absolute joke!

All the love and affection he had gotten were mere illusions. He had just been a substitute—living in the shadow of another man!

It was only then that he finally snapped wide awake to the truth.

"Mr. Grey."  

Whitmore's voice pulled him back. The attorney held out a crisp document. "The agreement is ready."

Ethan took the papers. His hand was steady. He folded them once, slid them into his jacket pocket, and stood.

"I'll have her sign today."

……

He opened the front door of their apartment and stopped dead.

The living room was full of luggage. Expensive luggage. Men's luggage. Jack Black stood in the center of it all, and Vivian knelt beside an open suitcase, sorting his clothes.

"Make yourself at home." She was smiling. "This is your place too."

Ethan’s grip tightened around the doorknob. "What is going on here?"

Vivian looked up. A fleeting look of surprise crossed her face before settling back into a calm mask. "Jack just returned from abroad. The place he rented has some structural issues, so he'll be staying with us for a while."

Her tone was entirely casual, as if bringing another man into their home was the most natural thing in the world.

Jack stood up from the sofa, wearing a perfectly measured look of apology. "I'm sorry, it was all so sudden; there wasn't time to let you know. If this makes you uncomfortable, I can find somewhere else."

Ethan stared at him—the man's luggage was already sprawling across half the living room, while Ethan’s own belongings had been shoved carelessly to the side.

A sickening wave of disgust surged up from deep within him.

"Save the act. You've already moved in. It's not like my opinion matters anyway. Since this place is yours now, why not treat my wife as your wife too?"

The room fell silent for a moment.

Jack immediately turned to Vivian, his expression shifting to one of troubled consideration. "Vivian, I should just go. I don't want to drive a wedge between you two."

"Don't go," Vivian said, steadying Jack by the arm. She then turned to Ethan, her brows drawing together as her voice abruptly pitched up in anger. "Ethan, what is wrong with you? Jack and I are just friends! We're just helping each other out. What on earth are you being so insanely jealous for?"

Jealous. Friends.

The rage climbed Ethan's throat like bile. His jaw clenched. His fist tightened around the envelope in his hand. He felt as if he were about to explode at any second.

Then something inside him shifted.  

Regardless, he was utterly disillusioned with them. He had come here for one purpose: to get a divorce and leave them behind once and for all. Any further conflict was unnecessary. They simply weren't worth it.

"I was joking." A calm smile settled onto Ethan's face. "I don't mind Jack staying here at all. I won't get in the way of his move."

He stepped forward and held out the envelope. "I just came to have you sign something."