Chapter 6 Dinner at Woods Manor

Ava stared at Nancy Woods as if she’d just stepped into an alternate reality.

Grandma’s eyes weren’t cloudy with confusion or softened by age the way people often assumed. They were sharp, piercing, intelligent, and full of emotion. The kind of gaze that could see right through the lies people thought they were hiding.

Does Grandma really know? Ava wondered, her throat tightening.

Nancy reached out without hesitation, grabbed Ava’s hand, and pulled her down to sit beside her on the couch. Her grip was warm, firm in the way only someone who truly cared could be.

“Don’t worry,” Nancy said solemnly, patting Ava’s hand as if sealing a promise. “If that brat doesn’t go home at night again, I’ll punish him for you.”

Ava blinked.

Nancy leaned closer, her voice dropping with dramatic intensity. “I’ll break his legs.”

Ava’s eyelashes trembled.

So… Grandma knew Ava had been suffering. Grandma knew Ethan had been neglecting her. Grandma knew he’d been running to the hospital and disappearing from home like a man with no wife at all.

But there was one thing Grandma didn’t know.

She doesn’t know about the divorce yet, Ava realized, a complicated ache forming behind her ribs.

If Nancy knew the truth, she wouldn’t be talking about punishing Ethan for not coming home.

She’d be demanding explanations.

She’d be devastated.

Ava swallowed the lump in her throat and kept her expression neutral.

Across the room, Ethan stood stiffly, his face dark, his jaw clenched so tight the muscle in it jumped. He looked like a man who’d been dragged into a courtroom without warning.

Nancy's sharp gaze snapped toward him.

“What is that expression?” she demanded. “Why? Are you angry because I told you to bring your wife here to have dinner?”

Ethan’s expression flickered. He forced it into something controlled.

“I wouldn’t dare,” he said.

Nancy scoffed loudly. “Hmph! Is there anything you don’t dare to do?”

She pushed herself up slightly, and Ava instinctively leaned forward, supporting her elbow gently. Nancy waved her off as if she were made of steel, not bones and age.

“You’re not that young anymore,” Nancy snapped, pointing at Ethan like he was still a child who hadn’t learned manners. “When are you going to give me a grandchild? Don’t you know it’s your duty to pass down the family line?”

Ava’s hand tightened around Nancy's.

A faint flush climbed her cheeks not from embarrassment, but from bitter irony.

Grandchild? she thought. If Grandma knew the truth.

Ethan didn’t respond. His face remained stiff, but his eyes flickered briefly, subtly toward Ava.

Ava didn’t look at him.

Servants moved quickly once they noticed Ethan had returned. The long dining table was soon filled with dishes: steaming soups, braised meats, delicate vegetables, and Nancy's favorite desserts arranged like a feast meant for royalty.

Nancy hooked her arm through Ava’s and pulled her toward the dining room.

“Come,” Nancy said decisively. “Let’s eat. And if he doesn’t like the food here, he can scram and never come back.”

Ethan’s expression darkened further, but he didn’t argue. He simply took his seat at the end of the table like a man accepting punishment.

Nancy sat Ava beside her close, protective, and intentional.

Once the servants stepped back, Nancy began piling food onto Ava’s plate like she was feeding a precious child who’d been neglected.

“Eat,” Nancy ordered, placing a generous portion of Ava’s favorite dish in front of her. “Look at you. Too thin. That brat doesn’t even know how to take care of a wife.”

Ava forced a small smile. “Grandma, I’m fine.”

“Nonsense,” Nancy snapped. “A wife is not a decoration. She’s family.”

Ethan’s fork paused.

Ava noticed but she didn’t react.

Nancy treated Ava like a biological granddaughter and Ethan like an outsider who’d somehow wandered into the wrong home.

And for the first time in a long time, Ava found herself eating without forcing it down.

She ate freely, chatted softly with Nancy, and answered her questions about her day. She even laughed once, quietly, politely when Nancy complained about how “men become useless the moment they feel guilty.”

Ethan sat alone at his end of the table.

Abandoned.

Invisible.

The longer the meal went on, the more uneasy he seemed, as if he hadn’t expected the roles to reverse this way.

At last, he set his fork down and looked toward Nancy voice controlled but cautious.

“Grandma,” he asked, “why did you suddenly ask us to come here for dinner?”

Nancy's eyes flared.

“You have the nerve to ask me that?” she snapped, slamming her chopsticks down with a sharp clack.

Ava stiffened slightly.

Nancy glared at Ethan as if he’d insulted her.

“Do you know how long it’s been since you visited me?” she demanded. “Is it so difficult to spend time with me? Your grandfather is always traveling for business and leaves me here alone. And you my grandson come less and less.”

Ethan’s lips pressed together.

He had no answer.

Nancy's voice turned even sharper. “How can you ask such a question?”

Ethan lowered his gaze and resumed eating, silent.

But Nancy wasn’t done.

She pointed her chopsticks at him again like a weapon. “No matter what, Ava is your wife. You should cherish her. Why do you keep going to the hospital to spend time with that cunning woman? Have you not embarrassed the Woods family enough?”

Ethan’s jaw tightened.

His eyes flashed. “Grandma, Emily saved my life.”

Nancy's laugh was harsh and full of disdain.

“She saved your life?” Nancy repeated, as if he’d told her the sky was green. “Anyone with eyes can see she’s deceiving you!”

Ethan’s gaze snapped toward Ava, sharp, accusing.

Ava met his eyes for half a second and smiled.

Not sweetly.

Mockingly.

She knew exactly what he was thinking.

He thinks I tattled.

In the past, Ava would’ve panicked.

She would’ve rushed to explain, desperate not to be misunderstood.

Now?

She felt nothing.

Let him misunderstand, she thought coldly. What do I lose?

Nancy noticed Ethan glaring and slammed her palm onto the table again, making the dishes tremble.

“Stop looking at her like that!” Nancy barked. “Ava didn’t say anything to me.”

Ethan’s eyebrows furrowed.

Nancy's eyes narrowed. “Do you think I don’t notice? You went to the hospital every day. You didn’t bother coming home. You don’t even try to hide it anymore!”

Ethan’s lips parted slightly then shut.

He remained silent.

The rest of dinner continued with Nancy scolding Ethan with no mercy.

She called him stubborn. Foolish. Blind.

She complained that he didn’t know how to distinguish kindness from manipulation, and warned him that men who failed to value their wives “ended up kneeling in regret.”

Ava sat quietly, eating and listening.

A strange satisfaction curled in her chest.

It felt… avenging.

As if, for once, someone had spoken all the words Ava had swallowed for years.

When dinner ended, Nancy kept Ava beside her on the couch for a while longer, holding her hand, asking gentle questions.

Ethan stood a few feet away, stiff and silent, like a man waiting for a verdict.

At last, Nancy sighed and patted Ava’s hand. “Alright. Go home and rest.”

Ava nodded. “Goodnight, Grandma.”

Nancy waved her hand dismissively. “Go. And if he dares upset you again, tell me.”

Ava stood.

So did Ethan.

And that’s when Ava felt the dilemma return like a weight in her stomach.

Nany didn’t know they were divorced.

Not officially, anyway.

To Nancy, they were still husband and wife.

Still a couple.

Still people who belonged in the same car.

Ava didn’t want anything to do with Ethan anymore. She had been seething with frustration even on the ride to the manor, and now the thought of sitting in the same enclosed space with him again made her skin crawl.

Ethan walked toward the door with a sour expression, hands in his pockets as if he couldn’t be bothered with appearances.

Nancy's sharp voice cut through the air like a whip.

“Why aren’t you opening the door for your wife?” she scolded. “Brat, where are your gentlemanly manners?”

Ethan halted.

His jaw tightened.

Ava’s steps paused too.

For a moment, the world seemed to hold its breath.

Ethan turned slightly, his eyes flicking to Ava, cold, unreadable, and dangerously annoyed.

But with Nancy watching, he had no choice.

He moved toward the door.

And Ava realized something then, something sharp and unpleasant.

Ethan wasn’t doing this because he cared.

He was doing it because Grandma demanded it.

He reached for the handle.

The door opened.

Ava stared at the doorway like it was the entrance to a cage.

Then she stepped through, expression calm, heart hard.

Because no matter how polite he acted tonight

It couldn’t erase what he had done.

And it wouldn’t stop what she was about to do next.