He Called Me Disgusting, Now He's Begging on His Knees

Chapter 2

Ethan stormed in, and his opening shot was laced with venom. "Not dead yet? Switching tactics to push for divorce now?"

The barb hit home because he was not wrong.

Back then, I had only become his wife to salvage our families' crumbling alliance. The Hayes Group had been teetering on the edge with their fortunes evaporating overnight. My marriage was just fresh blood to pump into their rotting veins.

Every time I threatened to leave, he would yield. Back then, I had mistaken those concessions for love, the scraps of affection he threw my way.

Now I saw the truth. It was not love but cold calculus. Every compromise was another chess move for the Hayes Group.

I drew a steadying breath just as Chloe materialized behind him.

She was two years younger than me and had been plucked from an orphanage by the Hayes family. She and Ethan had been inseparable since childhood, as thick as thieves and partners in every mischief.

What a joke it was to think I could ever break that bond. I was like some delusional heroine who believed destiny would favor the latecomer.

Except I was not destiny's darling. I was just "that possessive Nora" in Ethan's eyes.

I thrust the divorce papers at him. "Sign."

He snorted and shredded the documents without a single glance. "Chloe is moving in. You will surrender the master suite. No complaints, I assume?"

Complaints? As if I would survive voicing one.

The last time played out the same way. She had demanded our bridal suite. When I refused, she "settled" for the guest room and then took a dramatic dive through the floor-to-ceiling window.

It was an "accident," naturally. Apparently the bed was too close to the glass.

Right, because sane people obviously slept with panoramic windows gaping wide open.

Naturally, Ethan pinned the blame on me. To teach me a lesson, he locked me in a dark room without food or water. By the time he remembered me, I was hanging on by a thread.

My best friend could not stand it. "Divorce him, Nora. If you keep this up, that trash bag Ethan will be the death of you."

But back then, I was delusional enough to snap back. "Why is it only me he treats this way? Why not other girls?

"Why would he only want my life and no one else's? It is because he loves me. He loves me like I am his lifeline."

After hearing that nonsense, my friends slowly distanced themselves and cut ties with me. Looking back now, I was a total dumbass.

But fine. If Chloe was so desperate to snatch my spot, she could have the whole damn nest.

"Alright," I agreed with a bright smile.

Surprise flickered in Chloe's eyes, and her usual scheming suddenly looked useless. She kept shooting me suspicious glances before tugging at Ethan's sleeve.

"Ethan, about that thing," she said while pretending to hesitate.

Ethan adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses with that same smarmy charm I once swooned over. Hell, I would have fallen for a dog if it acted like that. Pathetic.

"Chloe's health is shaky," he said smoothly, "and she is trying to conceive. You will tend to her for these next two weeks. Weren't you trained in nursing?"

Oh, I was trained. For him.

Back when the Hayes family was collapsing, he drank himself sick while scrambling for deals. He wrecked his stomach until he was bedridden for weeks. Too broke to hire a nurse, I crammed like mad overnight and waited on him hand and foot.

I hardly blinked as I handed him water before his fingers could even twitch, and I massaged him at every turn.

I was a damn devoted servant, if you asked me.

I had thought he would remember my kindness. It turned out, all he saw was a free live-in maid.

Still, I agreed with that same bright smile. But I was not about to leave without taking back what was rightfully mine.

"Hand over the three company stamps of the Wells I gave you, Ethan, and I will agree."

Those three company stamps were the miracle workers that pulled the Hayes Group back from the edge of collapse.

Looking back, marrying Ethan meant leaving everything I knew behind. My family was from Silverwick, and my parents had fought tooth and nail to stop me.

They had handed me those stamps with a warning that any business in Brackenford would bend over backward to work with the Hayes family, so long as they carried the Wells family's mark.

They had sworn to me that if I took those stamps back, even if they were on the other side of the world, they would take me home.

When I gave the stamps to Ethan, I made him promise to keep them on him at all times for climbing the ladder.

In my past life, I had demanded them back once. He had laughed in my face.

"Nora, who the hell do you Wells family think you are?" he had said. "These stamps are worthless. The Hayes family does not need your family's charity to rise again."

That was when I learned that you cannot feed a snake and expect it not to bite. You could cradle a stone in your arms for years, and it would still be cold. Even a dog would wag its tail for kindness, but not him.

Ethan yanked one stamp from his pocket and flung it at me like he was tossing scraps to a beggar. "You will get the others, one every week."

I knew the game. I had to kiss up to Chloe for two weeks, and then I could crawl away.

Fine. Two more weeks of this farce. The divorce would be handled by my parents.

Every scrap of love I had ever wasted on him had turned to ash. Now I was dying to see the mighty Ethan grovel in the dirt while drowning in debt. Would his precious Chloe still lick his boots then?