Chapter 4

Everyone turned toward the voice as Rafe walked in with his arm around a woman in a red dress.

He smiled as he looked around the table, but his eyes landed squarely on Odette. "Let me introduce you all. This is my girlfriend, Gina Rowley."

Odette frowned and snapped without thinking. "What are you talking about? Since when do you have a girlfriend?"

Rafe's lips curled into a smirk. "She's new. Is that a problem? Or is it one rule for Dr. Fairbanks and another for everyone else?

"We're divorced, so you don't get a say in who I date. And for the record, I only started seeing her after the divorce, all fair and square."

As he said it, he shot Ezra a pointed look.

Everyone at the table was sharp enough to catch on right away, and the looks they turned on Ezra filled with contempt. A few coworkers who were close with Rafe started whispering among themselves.

"Oh, so he's the one who broke them up. What does Dr. Fairbanks even see in him? He can't hold a candle to Rafe."

They kept their voices low, but Ezra was sure Odette heard them, and yet she said nothing.

It reminded Ezra of the past, when Rafe used the "little brother" excuse to worm his way into Ezra and Odette's life. A close friend of Ezra's had stood up for him and called Rafe out as the other man, sometimes with hints and sometimes outright.

Odette flew into a rage back then. Not only did she defend Rafe openly, but she also had people spread rumors about that friend until he lost his job.

When Ezra found out Odette was behind it, he had a huge fight with her. But Odette just looked at him coldly, as if he were a lunatic throwing a tantrum over nothing.

"Can't you see I'm teaching him a lesson? If he doesn't know what he should and shouldn't say, learning the hard way will set him straight. And stop badmouthing Rafe in front of your loser friends. They don't know the situation between Rafe and me, but you do.

"When are you going to learn to be the bigger person? Stop acting like some useless deadbeat with nothing better to do than obsess over every little thing between a man and a woman."

Her face was full of cold disgust, and for the first time, Ezra regretted ignoring his friend's advice. He had chosen to believe in their so-called sibling bond and insisted on marrying Odette anyway.

"Since we all know each other, you don't mind if we join you, do you, Ezra?"

Rafe's voice pulled Ezra back to the present. Ezra saw the challenge in his eyes and nodded, completely unbothered. "Go ahead."

Rafe froze, and Odette shot Ezra a surprised look too.

In the past, Ezra would have risen to Rafe's bait and fought him for the upper hand, and back then, Odette had found him unreasonable and petty. But now that he'd stopped making scenes and stopped competing, she felt an inexplicable sense of unease.

Maybe it was to make it up to him, but Odette was especially attentive to Ezra throughout the meal. Whenever someone came over to toast him, she took care to fend off the drink for him, and whenever Ezra's eyes lingered on a dish for a second too long, it appeared on his plate a moment later.

But Ezra quietly pushed everything she served him to the side of his plate and didn't take a single bite.

Rafe was livid. He deliberately leaned in close to his girlfriend's ear, getting cozy with her. "This is so boring, babe. Why don't we head back to the hotel early?"

He didn't say it loudly, but it was enough to make the whole table go quiet.

There was a soft click as Odette set her fork down sharply on her plate. She shot to her feet, marched straight over to Rafe, and grabbed his arm. Her voice was frighteningly cold. "Come outside with me."

"What for? Who are you to tell me what to do, Odette?" Rafe made a token effort to pull free.

Odette pressed her lips together and said nothing. She all but dragged Rafe out of the private dining room and shoved him hard against the balcony railing. "How long have you even known her, Rafe? And you're already taking her to a hotel?"

Rafe let out a sudden laugh, as if he'd just heard the funniest joke in the world. "What? Do I need to report to you about what I do with my girlfriend? You're just my ex-wife, Odette. You have no right to interfere in my life!"

"As your ex-wife, maybe not, but as your big sister, I do. I promised your father I'd look after you, and I'm not letting you run wild on my watch."

She took hold of his hand, and her voice softened. "When dinner's over, you're coming home with me."

Rafe shook her hand off. "How long do you think you can keep bossing me around as my big sister, Odette? I'm going to get married sooner or later."

The words "get married" struck a raw nerve in Odette. A surge of possessiveness and resentment, tangled with emotions even she couldn't sort out, swept away every last bit of reason in an instant.

She suddenly rose onto her toes and kissed Rafe hard on the lips.

A flash of triumph crossed Rafe's eyes. Then he wrapped an arm around her waist and bent his head to kiss her back.

Caught up in the kiss, neither of them noticed that the balcony faced the windows of the private dining room. Plenty of the people seated by the windows saw everything, but they all silently agreed to say nothing and just kept sneaking glances at Ezra.

Ezra, however, carried on eating quietly as if none of it had anything to do with him, completely undisturbed.

The whispering around the table started up again.

"Guess the older ones really do know how to keep their cool. No wonder he managed to land her."

"Oh, please. He's acting calm, but he must be dying inside. Dr. Fairbanks clearly isn't over Rafe. Who knows what this old guy did to make her divorce him?"

"Maybe he's just that good in bed. Still, an older guy can't compete with a younger one. Looks like this old man is about to get kicked to the curb."

Once Ezra had eaten his fill, he set down his fork and looked straight at the two people talking. "You don't know the first thing about what happened, but you're spreading rumors anyway, and you don't even realize you're being used. Honestly, your brains are even more pathetic than your manners."

With that, Ezra stood up and left the room.

While he was waiting for a cab on the side of the road, Rafe suddenly came up beside him, sounding smug. "Ezra, even if we did this all over again, you still couldn't beat me. I got Odette to divorce you once, and I can get her to divorce you a second time.

"But this time, I'll make sure she sees exactly what's in her heart, so you can stop dreaming about staying married to her."

"Rafe." Ezra looked up, the corner of his mouth lifting in the faintest smile.

"Don't you think you're pathetic? You're like some poor thing stuck in the past who can only feel relevant by stepping on other people. What you're so desperate to prove is exactly what you've never really had. Otherwise, why would you be so panicked?"