Semua Bab The Billionaire Ex-Wife's Return: Bab 221 - Bab 230

Chapter 221Bryan's POVI was exhausted.Bone-deep, soul-crushing exhausted.The kind of tired that made every movement feel like wading through thick mud, every thought sluggish and half-formed.All I wanted was to collapse into bed and let unconsciousness take me—preferably for the next twelve hours straight.I pushed open my bedroom door and headed straight for the dresser, already tugging at my tie, my fingers clumsy with fatigue.I glanced up at the mirror while I worked the knot loose.And nearly had a heart attack.My mother was sitting on the lounge chair in the corner of my room.Just… sitting there.Calmly.Like she hadn't just scared ten years off my life.I let out a sound that was embarrassingly close to a scream—high-pitched, startled, completely undignified."Jesus Christ!" I yelped, spinning around to face her properly, my hand pressed over my racing heart.My mother laughed."Did I startle you?" she asked, her tone light, amused."Startle me?" I repeated, still trying

Chapter 223 Cynthia's POV My mother wasn't done.She turned back from the door, her expression shifting into something more animated, almost excited. Whatever careful composure she'd worn moments ago had melted away, replaced by something that looked disturbingly like enthusiasm."I've been overhearing conversations around the house," she said, moving back toward the bed. "About where you've been, who you've been seeing. The Cross Energy end-of-year party, for instance."My stomach dropped."Mom…""And I have to say," Victoria continued, sitting back down beside me, "Nikolai Cross is quite the catch. Young, successful, recently inaugurated as chairman of one of the most powerful energy companies in the world."I stared at her, unable to form words.Was this really happening?Was my mother seriously…"You need to move on, Cynthia," Victoria said firmly. "You need to stop wasting your best years on a man who doesn't deserve you. And you need to think practically.""Practically?" I rep

Chapter 225 Ethan's POV The hospital corridor felt colder than usual as I walked toward Grace's room.Each step echoed too loudly against the sterile floors, the sound reverberating in my skull like a countdown to something inevitable. The harsh fluorescent lighting overhead made everything look bleached and overexposed, like a world stripped of warmth.I'd rehearsed this conversation in my head a thousand times since getting the DNA results.Asked the questions. Demanded the truth. Imagined her explanations, her justifications, her excuses.But nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to hear.I pushed open the door.Grace was lying in the hospital bed, her eyes closed, her face pale against the white pillows. For a moment, she looked almost fragile. Almost human. Almost like the woman I'd spent thirty-five years believing was my mother.Then her eyes opened.And she smiled.Not a warm smile. Not a relieved smile.An evil smile.The kind that made my blood run cold."You

Chapter 227 Ethan's POV The police station felt like a bureaucratic labyrinth designed specifically to drive me insane.I'd been shunted from one desk to another for the past hour, each officer giving me the same rehearsed explanation, the same apologetic shrug, the same infuriating answer. Each one delivered with the practiced detachment of someone who had long ago stopped being surprised by the failures of the system they served.Lack of substantial evidence.Bail was posted.Our hands were tied.I stood in front of Detective Morrison's desk now, my hands gripping the edge so tightly my knuckles had gone white. The fluorescent lights above hummed with a low, persistent buzz that was doing nothing for the tension already coiled behind my eyes."Let me get this straight," I said, my voice dangerously low. "Anna sabotaged a restaurant. She embezzled money from my company. She's been charged with child endangerment. And she walked free because of lack of substantial evidence?"Morriso

Chapter 229Cynthia's POV“We were young. It was complicated." Victoria continued, her voice steadier now, like the worst of the confession was over. The tension that had coiled around her shoulders when she first began speaking had loosened, just slightly, as though the act of finally saying the words aloud had relieved her of some invisible weight she'd been carrying for years."Your father eventually married me," she said, her hands folded neatly on the table. "And that decision caused a permanent rift. Grace stopped speaking to me. Stopped speaking to Eleanor. She cut us off completely."Eleanor nodded slowly, her expression weighed down with decades of guilt. She looked older in that moment—not in the physical sense, but in the way people look when they've been carrying something too heavy for too long. Like the memory itself had aged her."After that," Victoria continued, "I deliberately chose not to follow Grace's life. I moved on. Built my family. Built my business. Grace beca