My Possesive Ex-Husband

Chapter 5

Evelyn woke with a sensation like her skull was splitting wide open. The morning sun cutting through the gaps in her apartment curtains pierced directly into her eyes like shards of glass. She clutched her forehead, trying to piece together the fractured memories of what had transpired last night after the reunion.

"Damn it, I drank too much," she muttered, her voice a dry, breathless rasp.

Dragging her feet, she stumbled toward the kitchen in desperate search of water. But her steps ground to an abrupt halt the moment her eyes fell upon the dining table. A luxury paper shopping bag and a thermal coffee tumbler sat neatly on the surface. Right beside them lay a blister pack of painkillers.

Evelyn frowned, her brow furrowing in confusion. Had Jovan set this up last night? No, that was impossible; Jovan didn't even know the passcode to her apartment door.

With a slight tremor in her hand, she picked up a small slip of paper tucked beneath the tumbler.

"Take the medicine, Evelyn. You spent the entire night slurring my name in front of that man. Do not provoke my fury any further by allowing yourself to be handled by him while intoxicated. I despise seeing what belongs to me looking disheveled because of alcohol."

— Alex

The glass of water Evelyn was holding nearly slipped from her fingers. A chilling numbness crept from the soles of her feet straight to the nape of her neck. How had Alex gotten in? How did he know what she had been babbling about last night?

Suddenly, her phone buzzed against the counter. A text message arrived from a new, unblocked number.

Alex: Your favorite chicken porridge is inside the bag. Eat it before you leave for your boutique. And don’t you ever dare set foot in that bar again without me, or I will ensure the place is shuttered permanently.

Evelyn threw the phone onto the sofa. The smug satisfaction she had relished last night from successfully provoking Alex evaporated, replaced by a suffocating dread. She had convinced herself that she was the one playing a dangerous game with him, but the harrowing reality was that Alex had already caged her inside a much larger maze.

"You’re insane, Alex... you’ve truly lost your mind," Evelyn whispered to the empty, quiet room.

Before she could even gather her wits, the apartment doorbell rang with frantic, demanding persistence. She walked to the door and peered through the intercom monitor. Outside stood Madam Viola, her face contorted with unbridled fury, flanked by two towering, broad-shouldered men.

Evelyn’s petty calculated move from the night before had inadvertently summoned a monster far vaster than she could ever hope to face alone.

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SLAP!

The violent force of the strike whipped Evelyn’s face to the side, a blinding heat and stinging pain erupting across her cheek instantly. She caught her breath sharply, her eyes flashing with a wild, defiant glare as she stared down her former mother-in-law, who had barged into her sanctuary at dawn, radiating pure malice. Without a single heartbeat of hesitation, Evelyn swung her arm and returned the strike with a crushing force of her own.

SLAP!

Madam Viola gasped, her eyes bulging as she clutched her burning cheek. She stood paralyzed in absolute shock, unable to comprehend that the woman who had spent years bowing submissively before her now possessed the audacity to strike her back.

"You shameless, wretched girl! You are an outcast! My son threw you out, and yet you still have the nerve to claw your way back to him?!" Madam Viola shrieked, her voice scraping against the walls.

Evelyn merely let out a cold, cynical chuckle. She brushed her long hair back with an elegant, dismissive sweep of her hand, looking down at the older woman with unadulterated contempt.

"Why don't you ask your precious son who is hounding whom? Me?" Evelyn pointed aggressively at her own chest.

"I threw him out of my life long ago. But your darling boy... he is so pathologically obsessed that he cannot endure seeing me within an inch of another man."

"INSOLENT WOMAN! Who do you think you are, huh?! Growing so arrogant just because my son harbors a pathetic weakness for you?!" Madam Viola shook with rage. "Admit it, you used some filthy, underhanded trick to ensnare my son! You trapped him!"

Evelyn burst into a mocking laugh at the sheer absurdity of the accusation.

"Oh, please, Mother... look at the calendar. What year do you think it is to still believe in such fairy tales?"

Blinded by humiliation, Madam Viola raised her hand to strike again, but with a lightning-fast reflex, Evelyn caught her wrist mid-air. Evelyn gripped the older woman’s arm with a crushing hold, before violently throwing it back, causing Madam Viola to stumble backward.

Evelyn let out a sharp, disgusted scoff. "You and your son... stop encroaching on my life. I packed up, left, and I was building my new life in absolute peace. Yet neither of you can stop hounding me!"

Evelyn pointed forcefully toward the open exit. "Get out!"

Madam Viola trembled violently, her chest heaving as the humiliation mounted. She leveled a shaking finger at Evelyn’s face, her eyes wild with venom.

"Just you wait. I will never allow you to disrupt my son’s peace, let alone my future daughter-in-law's! You are nothing but garbage that should have vanished the moment the judge slammed the gavel down!" Madam Viola screamed, her voice echoing down the corridors outside, where curious neighbors were already beginning to gather.

Evelyn did not flinch. Instead, she crossed her arms over her chest, standing tall with her chin defiantly tilted—silently declaring that she was no longer a servant under the heels of the Archer family.

"Go scream that at your son, not me. Do you understand?" Evelyn retorted, her tone terrifyingly calm yet razor-sharp.

"Your son is the one who trespassed into my apartment. Your son is the one who dragged me through a hotel hallway. And your son is the one who sent things to my home this morning. So, hoard your pathetic threats for him, Madam Viola. Because frankly, looking at either of your faces makes me physically ill."

Madam Viola recoiled, the revelation that Alex was still actively pursuing Evelyn striking her like a physical blow. "You... you are a bold-faced liar!"

"Go ask your beloved boy yourself. Now, remove yourself from my apartment before I have building security drag you out like the trespassing intruder you are."

Left with no leverage and her pride thoroughly shattered, Madam Viola had no choice but to turn and retreat, though the venom in her parting glance promised a catastrophic war ahead.

The moment the door slammed shut, Evelyn’s rigid composure cracked. She let out a ragged sigh, pressing her palm against her throbbing, swollen cheek.

She had no idea that in the shadowed corner of the ceiling, a tiny, concealed surveillance lens—installed clandestinely by Alex’s men—had caught every single second of the confrontation.

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Across the city in his high-rise corporate office, Alex stared at the monitor with a dark, bottomless gaze. He traced the angry red mark on Evelyn’s cheek, and he witnessed her fierce bravery. His hands clenched into tight fists until his knuckles cracked like gunfire.

"I explicitly told you not to touch her, Mother," Alex hissed into the empty room. His eyes remained glued to the display, watching Evelyn cradle her injured face.

His rage had mutated past mere jealousy; it was a dark, possessive fury directed at anyone who dared to damage his most prized asset. He retrieved his phone and dialed his head henchman, his voice dropping into a chillingly flat cadence.

"Send a private physician to Evelyn’s boutique immediately. Ensure that mark leaves absolutely no trace. I will not tolerate a single blemish on her face when I see her tonight."

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In less than thirty minutes, a sleek black sedan pulled up directly in front of Evelyn’s boutique. A middle-aged man carrying a medical bag stepped out, flanked by the two heavily built guards who had been secretly monitoring the shop for weeks.

Evelyn, who was inside attempting to steady her nerves with a glass of water, jolted as the front door was thrown open roughly.

"Who are you?! How dare you just barge into my place!" she demanded, instantly on the defensive.

"Miss Evelyn, Mr. Archer has commanded me to treat the trauma on your face," the doctor spoke with clinical politeness but unwavering authority.

Evelyn’s eyes widened. The physical sting on her cheek was instantly overshadowed by a wave of pure revulsion rising in her throat.

"Get out! I don't need a physician sent by that psychopath! Leave my shop!"

Then, a darker realization dawned on her, making her blood run cold. "And another thing—how does he even know I'm hurt?! He isn't... he isn't watching me, is he?!"

The two burly guards stepped forward, blocking the only available exit. "Mr. Archer requested that you remain cooperative, Miss. He takes it very poorly when his directives are

ignored."

Evelyn let out a bitter, hollow laugh, tears of sheer frustration threatening to spill over her lashes. "Who does he think he is?! He divorced me! He discarded me! And now he acts as though he owns the very air I breathe?!"

Snatching her phone, she brought up the number Alex had used to harass her that morning. She placed the call, her fingers shaking violently against the screen.

"Call off your dogs, Alex! You are sick! You are completely out of your mind!" Evelyn shouted into the receiver the exact second the call connected.

On the other end of the line, there was only the sound of Alex’s smooth, terrifyingly measured breathing. "Let them treat your cheek, Evelyn. I loathe seeing you damaged. If you refuse the physician, I will drive over there myself and force you... and you know very well that I never make idle threats, don't you?"

"You think I’m afraid of you?! Come then! I will slap you with a stalking charge so fast your head will spin!"

"Go ahead and file it, darling," Alex murmured, his voice laced with a lethal tenderness. "But long before the police even arrive, you will already be locked tightly in my embrace. So, choose your path wisely. The doctor... or me?"

Evelyn fell completely silent. She knew Alex wasn't bluffing. The man had unraveled entirely, shedding every shred of his sanity the moment their divorce paper was signed.