LOGINChapter 176 Nikolai's POV Matilda was gone. The thought brought a satisfaction I hadn't expected to feel so deeply. The chairman had handled it swiftly, decisively — exactly as I'd anticipated. By now, Matilda Hansel had been stripped of her position, her reputation in tatters, her medical license under review. She wouldn't be bothering Cynthia again. She wouldn't be bothering anyone. Good. I leaned back in my swivel chair and stared out the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Cross Energy executive office in Missford. The Missford skyline stretched before me, gleaming under the late afternoon sun, a monument to power, ambition, and legacy. My legacy now. The weight of it should have felt heavier. Instead, all I could think about was her. Cynthia. I hadn't seen her in days and the absence gnawed at me in ways I wasn't accustomed to. I was Nikolai Cross. I didn't pine. I didn't wait by phones hoping for calls that never came. And yet, here I was. I picked up my phone again,
Chapter 175Ethan’s POVThe only thing on my mind right now was Cynthia.Just to make love to Cynthia.Every hurt, every betrayal — the sting of Grace’s lies, the venom of Anna’s schemes, drowned beneath the tidal wave of desire crashing through me. I needed her. Needed to lose myself in her, to feel her body against mine, to remind us both that something between us was still real, still ours.I guided her into the bathroom, the steam curling around us like a veil. She stood before me in just her bra and panties, eyes wide, breath coming in shallow pulls. I couldn’t wait any longer.My fingers found the clasp of her bra, unhooking it with a flick. The lace fell away, and her breasts were just as full, firm and perfect as it has always been. It spilled free, nipples already tight and begging for my mouth. They were as incredible as I remembered, untouched by time, as though the years and Amber’s birth had only made her more beautiful. I cupped them, thumbs brushing the peaks, and she
Chapter 174 Cynthia’s POV “Aren’t you going to bathe too?” The question was simple, almost casual, yet it landed in my chest like a spark thrown onto dry tinder. Ethan’s voice was low, tired, but there was something else threaded through it — need, raw and unguarded. My heart fluttered violently, betraying me before my mind could catch up. “I…” I started, then stopped, because I honestly didn’t know what I was supposed to say. So much had happened in less than twenty-four hours. Grace wasn’t his mother. Pascal existed. Anna was in jail.. We’d slept on hospital chairs like strangers pretending not to notice how close our bodies were. Now we were back here, in this room that held the echoes of a marriage that had once nearly destroyed me. And yet, here he was, looking at me like I was the only thing anchoring him to the ground. Ethan didn’t wait for my answer. He stood, slow and deliberate, and wrapped his hands around my waist. The contact made my breath hitch instantly. His pa
Chapter 173 Bryan’s POV Anger sat heavy in my chest, thick and suffocating, refusing to loosen its grip no matter how many times I inhaled and exhaled. Cynthia went home with Ethan. The thought replayed in my head like a cruel refrain, each repetition sharper than the last. I stared through the windshield of my parked car, the hospital lights still glowing behind me, sterile and unforgiving. My hands tightened around the steering wheel until my knuckles went white. If it were up to me, I would have followed her. I would have made sure Ethan doesn’t try anything stupid with her like taking advantage of her. But she’d stopped me. Go back and rest, Bryan. I’ll take care of Ethan. Like she was still his wife. Like she still recognized him as her husband. The words burned. It wasn’t fair. None of this was fair. Ethan didn’t deserve her care. He didn’t deserve her concern, her patience, her softness. Not after everything he’d done. Not after the humiliation, the neglect, the emo
Chapter 172Cynthia’s POVThe drive back to the Walker mansion was quiet in a way that felt heavy rather than peaceful. The city lights blurred past my windshield, reflections stretching and breaking across the glass like fractured thoughts — much like the ones swirling endlessly in my mind.Ethan sat beside me, unusually silent.Not the brooding silence I had grown used to during our marriage, not the cold, dismissive quiet that used to fill the space between us like a wall. This was different. This was exhaustion. Shock. A man who had just learned that the foundation of his entire life had been built on a lie.I glanced at him briefly, careful not to stare. His head was leaned back against the seat, eyes closed, jaw clenched. He looked pale, drained, like someone who had been hollowed out from the inside.“Ethan,” I said softly, breaking the silence. “What happened to Anna?”His eyes opened slowly, and for a moment I thought he might not answer. Then he exhaled.“She’s in jail,” he
Chapter 171 Ethan’s POV Grace is not my mother. The words echoed in my head over and over again, like a broken record I couldn’t shut off no matter how hard I tried. They didn’t make sense. They couldn’t make sense. My brain kept rejecting them, pushing them away, trying to replace them with memories that suddenly felt unreliable, distorted. Grace Walker was my mother. She had always been my mother. She was the woman who scolded me when I scraped my knees as a child, who stood stiffly at my school events, who praised my achievements in public and punished my failures in private. She was the woman who stood beside my father at every formal dinner, every corporate gala, every board meeting photo op. She was the woman who raised me, controlled me, shaped me. And now I was being told she wasn’t my mother. I stared down at the test results again, as if the letters might rearrange themselves if I looked long enough, if I stared hard enough. But they didn’t. They remained crue







