2026-09-14 20:11:24
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Chapter 10Whatever Kyle expected to hear from the other end of that phone call, it was not what came next.Sophia's voice cut through the speaker sharp and clear enough that Ethan could hear every single word standing three feet away, and Kyle's face began changing in real time, the charming mask crumbling like wet paper in the rain."Let me be very clear with you," Sophia said, her tone flat and final as a closing door. "I don't know what makes you think you're qualified to work at my company. You have no degree worth mentioning, no work experience that amounts to anything real, and the fact that you called my personal number directly instead of going through proper channels tells me everything I'll ever need to know about your sense of professionalism. You have the manners of a stray cat walking into someone's kitchen and expecting to be fed."Kyle's mouth opened but nothing came out. His hand tightened around the phone until his knuckles turned bone white."And let me add somethin
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Chapter 9"No," Ethan said.The single word dropped into the dining room like a stone thrown into still water. Gerald's fork froze halfway to his mouth. The aunt's carefully painted smile cracked at the edges. Even Kyle looked up from his phone screen, surprised enough to stop scrolling for the first time all evening."What did you just say to me?" Gerald's voice went low and dangerous, the same tone he had used when Ethan was a boy and had broken something expensive."I said no," Ethan repeated, calm and steady as a man who had already survived the worst this family could do to him once before. "I'm not calling Sophia tonight to beg for investment money on your behalf. I'm not using my marriage as your personal bank account anymore."Gerald's fist hit the table hard enough to rattle every glass on the surface. "You ungrateful little animal," he snarled, his face flushing dark red. "I raised you, I fed you, I put clothes on your back when you had nothing, and this is how you repay me?
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Chapter 8Ethan didn't wait to hear what Nicole would say next. The moment the elevator reached the ground floor he was through the doors and across the lobby before she could call after him. Outside, he swung his leg over his motorcycle, the one he had bought with his own savings long before Sophia's money ever touched his life, and pulled out of the parking lot without looking back.His phone buzzed halfway across the bridge. Gerald Cole's name on the screen."Your aunt's here for dinner," his father said, voice flat and clipped as always. "I expect you at the table by seven.""Fine," Ethan said, and hung up before his father could tack on conditions.He didn't go home right away. Instead he drove east until the streets turned quiet and tree lined, all the way to the cemetery on the outskirts of the city where his mother lay buried under a simple gray stone. He knelt in the grass and pulled a few weeds from around the base of it, smoothing the dirt carefully with his hands."You tol
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Chapter 7Sophia's grip tightened on Ethan's arm as the lobby hummed with quiet office traffic around them, every passing employee slowing their steps to glance at the confrontation unfolding beside the elevator."Let go of my arm, Sophia," Ethan said, voice low but firm enough that it carried."Not until you stop this ridiculous performance," she said, jaw locked tight. "I know exactly what this is about. You want money. So let's stop the little act and talk numbers like adults.""I already told you I don't want a single dollar from you.""Right," Sophia let out a short laugh, sharp and ugly as breaking glass. "The devoted little househusband who cooked my meals and folded my laundry for two straight years suddenly wants to walk away with nothing at all? Nobody is that noble, Ethan. You're playing hard to get so I'll double whatever you think I owe you."Ethan pulled his arm free and stepped back, putting the full width of the hallway between them. The humiliation sat hot and heavy i
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Chapter 6Sophia had always run herself ragged at the office, skipping meals, drinking coffee instead of water, and her stomach had paid the price for years because of it. Ethan remembered how his cooking used to settle her ulcers back when he still bothered trying to help her. He doubted that mattered anymore. She had someone else now to bring her soup when her stomach turned sour, someone with a far prettier face than his own.Ryan left early that morning for an unexpected work call, apologizing twice before he rushed out the door, leaving Ethan alone to get ready for the interview by himself. He studied his reflection in the mirror for a moment, adjusting his collar carefully. Not the ethereal, magazine cover look of Sophia's precious doctor, but a solid, handsome face all the same, one that had simply been buried under years of exhaustion and neglect.The address Ryan sent him led to a glass skyscraper downtown, and something about the lobby tugged at Ethan's memory the moment he
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They sat in Ryan's living room that evening, two beers sweating on the coffee table between them, and Ryan kept circling back to the same question like a dog worrying at an old bone."I still don't get it," Ryan said, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. "You loved her, man. Really loved her. I watched you turn yourself inside out for that woman for two straight years. What changed?""She was in love with someone else before we even married," Ethan said. "Some doctor her family never approved of. I finally understood that, really understood it deep down, and something in me just stopped caring what happens to her.""That's disgusting," Ryan said, jaw tight with real anger on his behalf. "She let you build a whole life around her while carrying someone else in her heart the entire time. That's not a marriage, that's a leash with a wedding ring attached to it.""Maybe," Ethan said, staring at the beer in his hands. "I loved her once. I won't pretend I didn't. But I'm done pouri
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