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Home / Romance / The Billionaire Ex-Wife's Return / Chapter 251 - Chapter 260

All Chapters of The Billionaire Ex-Wife's Return: Chapter 251 - Chapter 260

320 Chapters

#251

Chapter 251 Cynthia's POVI was livid.Beyond furious.The fear was still there, making my heart race and my hands shake — but it was being rapidly overtaken by pure, white-hot rage."What's the point of this?" I demanded, my voice echoing through the warehouse. "Why did you have to kidnap us? What do you possibly hope to gain from this?"Grace turned her attention to me, her smile widening."Oh, Cynthia," she said, her tone patronizing. "Always so dramatic. So emotional.""Answer the question," I shot back.Grace's expression shifted into something darker."I did what I had to do," she said simply. "Twenty years ago, things didn't work out the way they were supposed to. Jerome's plan failed. He died. And I was left with nothing."She leaned forward slightly, with her bandaged head from that fall at the verandah. The gauze was slightly stained at the temple — yellowish at the edges, like the wound beneath it wasn't quite done bleeding.It made her look more frightening, not less."B

#252

Chapter 252 Ethan's POVI barely had time to register Pascal moving toward me before his fist connected with my face.Hard.The impact was brutal, explosive, sending my head snapping to the side, pain radiating through my jaw and cheekbone.I tasted blood immediately."Don't you ever talk to my mother like that again," Pascal snarled, his face inches from mine, his eyes burning with rage.I spat blood onto the concrete floor and turned my head slowly back to look at him.And I laughed.It was a harsh, bitter sound, but I couldn't help it.Because this was pathetic."You're a coward," I said, my voice rough but steady. "You've been hiding for years like a scared little rat. And now you're trying to steal what someone else built."Pascal's expression darkened."Steal?" he repeated, his voice dangerously low. "Walker Industries belongs to me. I'm Grace's son. Her real son. Not some bastard child of a maid."I grinned, even though it made my split lip throb.He wanted a reaction. Wanted

#253

Chapter 253Cynthia's POVThis was it.The moment I'd been dreading for three years.The moment Ethan would finally learn the truth.Not gently, not on my terms, not in a quiet conversation where I could explain everything carefully, piece by piece.But here.In a freezing warehouse.Tied to chairs.Bleeding and terrified.With Grace Walker gleefully revealing secrets that weren't hers to tell.I kept my eyes fixed on the concrete floor, unable to look at Ethan, unable to face whatever expression was on his face right now.Confusion, probably.Betrayal, certainly.Because I'd lied to him or rather, I withheld the truth from him.Grace's laughter echoed through the warehouse, sharp and delighted."You know," she said conversationally, "twenty years ago, I actually considered sending Cynthia back to her family when Jerome kidnapped her along with Ethan."My chest tightened."It would have been the smart thing to do," Grace continued. "The safe thing. But then Jerome got greedy. He start

#254

Chapter 254 Cynthia's POVWhen Grace finally finished her twisted monologue, Ethan's eyes searched my face, looking for shock, for denial, for some sign that Grace's story was a complete fabrication.But I couldn't give him that.Because I wasn't entirely clueless.I'd known pieces of this for three years now.Not all of it — Grace had filled in gaps I'd never known existed, had connected dots I'd never even seen — but enough.Enough to know that my life had been built on lies.I met Ethan's gaze, and the devastation I saw there made my chest ache.His face was covered in blood — from his nose, his split lip, the gash above his eyebrow where Pascal's fist had connected particularly brutally. Dried streaks of it had tracked down his jaw and onto the collar of his shirt, darkening the fabric. He'd stopped trying to blink away the blood pooling near his eye. He'd just… stopped. Like his body had quietly accepted that this was what things were now, and fighting it was a luxury he couldn'

#255

Chapter 255Ethan's POVPain radiated through every inch of my body.My ribs throbbed with each breath. My face felt like it had been used as a punching bag—which, technically, it had. The metallic taste of blood still coated my tongue, and I was pretty sure at least one of my teeth was loose.But none of that—none of it—hurt as much as the realization that I'd been a complete and utter fool.For years.For my entire goddamn life.Grace had lied to me about who my mother was.Anna had manipulated me.Pascal had been working to destroy me from the shadows.And Cynthia — the woman I'd married, the woman I'd shared a home with for eight years, the woman I'd pushed away and hurt and blamed for everything wrong in my life—was a Laurent.The daughter of one of the most powerful families in Missford and by extension Paris.Kevin's sister.Victoria's daughter.The kidnapped child they thought was dead.How had I been so blind?How had I missed all of it?I stared at Cynthia, my mind still str

#256

Chapter 256Third Person POVThe news spread like wildfire.By noon on Christmas Day, every major news outlet in Missford was running the story."MICHELIN CHEF KIDNAPPED ON CHRISTMAS DAY""CYNTHIA LAURENT AND EX-HUSBAND ETHAN WALKER MISSING""POLICE SEARCH FOR MISSING RESTAURANT OWNER AND BUSINESS TYCOON"The headlines screamed across television screens, social media feeds, and news websites.And the city responded with shock, horror, and an outpouring of concern that neither Cynthia nor Ethan could have anticipated.Maison Cynclair, ParisThe restaurant was closed, indefinitely.The staff had gathered in the dining room—chefs, sous chefs, servers, sommeliers—all of them staring at the news playing on the small television mounted in the corner.Felicia, one of Cynthia's longest-serving sous chefs, had tears streaming down her face."I can't believe this is happening," she whispered. "Not to Ms. Cynclair. Not to her."Manager Pierre sat with his head in his hands."She was supposed to

#257

Chapter 257Cynthia's POVI was exhausted.Bone-deep, soul-crushing exhausted in a way I'd never experienced before.My wrists ached from the ropes cutting into them. My shoulders screamed from being held in the same position for hours. My head throbbed where I'd been hit, the pain pulsing in time with my heartbeat.And I was so, so cold.The warehouse offered no protection from the winter chill. The concrete floor had long since leached all the warmth from my body, and my thin clothes—the ones I'd thrown on that morning when I thought I was just dropping Amber off at home—did nothing to keep me warm.But the physical discomfort was nothing compared to the exhaustion in my mind.The fear.The uncertainty.The constant, gnawing terror of not knowing what would happen to us.Light was beginning to filter through the high windows of the warehouse now—pale, gray dawn light that told me we'd been here all night.An entire night.Tied to chairs.In the middle of nowhere.With no idea if any

#258

Chapter 258 Ethan's POVI broke.Completely, utterly broke.The tears came before I could stop them — hot and uncontrollable, streaming down my battered face, stinging the cuts and bruises, mixing with the dried blood.My entire body shook with sobs I'd been holding back for hours, maybe years.Because Cynthia had just told me she loved me.Not past tense.Not conditional.Loved.Present tense.Despite everything I'd done to her.Despite how I'd treated her, neglected her, pushed her away.Despite the fact that we were tied up in a freezing warehouse, beaten and terrified, possibly hours away from death.She still loved me.And God help me, I loved her too."I love you too," I said, my voice breaking completely. "Cynthia, I love you too."She stared at me, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks."I never stopped," I continued, the words tumbling out now, desperate and raw. "Not since that warehouse twenty years ago when you tried to save me. Not when we got married. Not when I was too

#259

Chapter 259 Cynthia's POVBut it wasn't Grace and Pascal.It was just Anna.She walked through the gates alone, her footsteps echoing in the vast emptiness of the warehouse, her arms wrapped tightly around herself like she was trying to hold herself together.Her face was pale — even paler than yesterday — and her eyes were red and swollen, like she'd been crying for hours.She stopped a few feet away from us, just standing there, staring.I stared back, my heart pounding, my mind racing through possibilities.Was this another game?Another manipulation?Was Grace somewhere behind her, watching, waiting to see how we'd react?Ethan was rigid beside me, every muscle in his body tense, his breathing shallow. I could feel the suspicion radiating off him like heat. After everything — after years of Anna's calculated cruelty, her lies, her performances — trust wasn't something either of us had left to give her. And yet something about the way she was standing there, unguarded, her arms fo

#260

Chapter 260Cynthia's POVAnna had finished untying me.My wrists were free, the ropes falling away, blood rushing back into my hands with painful pins and needles.I could hear the car engine getting closer, the footsteps approaching, and I saw the exact moment Anna's resolve started to crumble.Her eyes went wide with fear, her hands dropping away from me, her entire body tensing like she was about to run."Anna…" I started.But I didn't have time to finish.Because I wasn't about to stay in this warehouse for one second longer than I had to.I scrambled out of the chair, my legs nearly giving out beneath me after being in the same position for so long, and lunged toward Ethan."Cynthia, what are you…" Ethan started."Shut up," I said, my fingers already working at the ropes binding his wrists. "I'm getting you out of here.""You need to run," Ethan said urgently. "Right now. While you still can.""Not without you," I shot back, pulling at the knots.They were tight—so tight—and my

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