My Ex-Fiancé Uncle's Obsession

I’ll See You After the Meeting

The second the meeting ended, the room exploded into noise so suddenly and so violently that it felt as though the walls themselves had been shaken by it.

One moment everyone had been sitting there in stunned silence, staring at Adrian Blackwood like they were not entirely sure what had just happened.

The next, every single person in the room was on their feet.

Chairs scraped harshly across the polished floor. Papers were snatched up in trembling hands. Whispered questions and shocked speculation filled the air until it became impossible to tell where one conversation ended and another began.

People were talking over each other, some in hushed voices, others not even bothering to lower them at all.

“Did you see that?”

“Oh my God, that was insane.”

“Why was he staring at her like that?”

“Do you think she knows him?”

“No. No way.”

I stayed frozen in my chair, unable to move even if I had wanted to.

It felt like my body had stopped listening to me completely.

All I could do was sit there staring blankly at the empty place at the front of the room where Adrian had been standing only moments ago while my mind desperately tried and failed to catch up with what had just happened.

Because there was no way that had just happened.

No way Adrian Blackwood had walked into that room and turned out to be Ethan’s uncle.

No way the stranger from that night had looked at me in front of an entire boardroom like he already knew exactly what I was thinking.

No way he had told me to meet him in his office afterward.

Beside me, Mia leaned closer until her shoulder brushed mine.

When I looked at her, her eyes were wide with a mixture of horror, disbelief, and something that looked suspiciously like fascination.

“Your life is actually insane,” she whispered.

I shut my eyes for a second and pressed two fingers against my temple as if that would somehow make this entire nightmare disappear.

“Please stop talking.”

“You slept with the new CEO.”

I opened my eyes and glared at her. “Shut up, Mia.”

“Who also happens to be your ex-fiancé’s uncle.”

“I am painfully aware of that.”

“And now he wants to see you alone.”

Her voice dropped on the last word, and the way she said it made something low and sick twist in my stomach.

Because she was right. He wanted to see me. After everything. After that night.

After standing in front of an entire boardroom and looking directly at me with those cold, unreadable eyes as though he already knew exactly how badly he had just ruined my life.

I took a slow breath and opened my eyes again, only to immediately regret it.

Because Ethan was already moving toward me through the crowd.

Of course he was.

His expression was dark and furious, the muscle in his jaw tight enough to make it obvious he was barely holding himself together.

There was something in his eyes that made my chest tighten, because I had seen Ethan angry before.

I had seen him frustrated. Defensive. Guilty.

But I had never seen him look like this.

“Ava.”

I stood so quickly that my chair nearly tipped backward.

“Not now.”

“The hell do you mean, not now?” he hissed as he caught up to me just as I turned to walk away.

Before I could move another step, his hand closed around my arm.

The contact sent a violent rush of anger through me so quickly and so powerfully that for a second I could barely breathe around it.

I yanked my arm free immediately. “Don’t touch me.”

The words came out sharper than I intended, but I did not care.

Not after everything. Not after three days ago.

His jaw tightened. “You know him.”

For one horrible second, my pulse stopped.

Then it came back all at once, slamming painfully against my ribs.

“No, Ethan,” I said, forcing my voice to stay calm even though panic was already crawling up my throat. “I know of him. Apparently everyone does.”

“Don’t do that.” I frowned. “Do what?”

“Don’t lie to me.” For a second, I simply stared at him.

Then I laughed.

Not because there was anything remotely funny about this situation, but because the sheer audacity of those words coming from him was so unbelievable that it bordered on ridiculous.

“Lie to you?” I repeated slowly. “That’s rich.”

His expression darkened instantly. “Why was he looking at you like that?”

I folded my arms tightly across my chest, partly because I was angry and partly because suddenly, horribly, I felt exposed.

“Why do you care?”

“Because he never looks at anyone like that.” The answer came too quickly. Too sharply.

And for the first time since he had walked over to me, I heard something in his voice that made me hesitate.

It was not just anger. It was not just jealousy. It was fear.

That frightened me more than anything else.

Before I could answer, another voice cut sharply through the tension.

“Miss Sinclair.” I turned immediately.

One of the executive assistants from upstairs was standing near the doorway, perfectly composed and professional, as though she had not just interrupted what felt seconds away from becoming a disaster.

“Mr. Blackwood is waiting for you.”

The room seemed to go silent.

Not truly silent, because I could still hear voices and movement around us, but silent enough that suddenly I could feel every pair of eyes in the room turning toward me.

People were pretending not to stare. They were failing.

Ethan looked from me to the assistant and then back again, and something ugly flashed across his face so quickly that I almost missed it.

Anger. Possession. Panic. “Ava—”

“I have to go.”

“You don’t have to do anything he says.” That made me stop.

I looked at him again. At the man who had lied to me for months without hesitation. The man I had trusted completely. The man I had planned to marry.

The man I had walked in on three days ago with another woman in our bed.

And somehow, despite all of that, he still looked at me like he thought he had the right to tell me what to do.

“You lost the right to have an opinion about my life three days ago.”

The words landed exactly the way I wanted them to. His face changed instantly. The anger there gave way to something else.

Something raw. Something wounded.

Good.

Then I turned and walked away before he could say another word.

The hallway outside the boardroom felt far too quiet after the chaos I had just left behind.

My heels clicked sharply against the floor as I walked toward the executive offices.

The assistant stopped outside the large corner office at the very end of the hall and turned toward me.

“He’s inside.” She said and walked away.

Great.

I stood there for one second too long, staring at the closed door in front of me as if I could somehow see through it.