MY EX'S NEW BOSS

CHAPTER 6: THE WEDDING DAY BETRAYAL

Lindiwe fainted with blood on her mouth.

"Call an ambulance! NOW!" I screamed.

Paramedics rushed in — Ethan had already called them before I even screamed. That's who he is. Always three steps ahead.

They took Lindiwe away on a stretcher. Baby Hope went with her, because social workers said the baby must stay with the mother.

Peter ran after the stretcher. "Lindiwe! Hope! Wait!"

And then we were alone. Me and Ethan. And the senior partner still locked in the boardroom.

Ethan fixed his tie. "Grace, the police. We have 30 minutes before they issue a warrant. My lawyer is downstairs. If we file our marriage certificate now, the fraud case dies tonight. I will make it die."

My hands were shaking. "Lindiwe said... she said you knew Peter three years ago. Is it true?"

Ethan's face didn't change. That's what scared me. He didn't even blink.

"Yes," he said. "It's true."

The floor disappeared under me.

"What?"

He walked to his desk, opened a safe I never knew existed, and took out a file. Old. Dusty. Dated *2022.*

He threw it at me.

Inside were photos. Peter. In university. Shaking hands with Ethan. At a charity event.

And an email printed out:

_To: Ethan Mthembu_

_From: Peter Khumalo_

_Subject: Request for Funding — Township Project_

_Date: 15 Nov 2022_

_"Sir, I have a girlfriend, Grace Mokoena, she has a brilliant thesis. If you fund me, I can get it from her and bring it to you. She trusts me."_

I couldn't breathe.

Peter tried to SELL my work to Ethan THREE YEARS AGO? Before he even dumped me?

"Peter came to me in 2022," Ethan said, his voice low. "He wanted money. He said you were too emotional, too churchy, but your brain was gold. He wanted to sell your research for R50,000."

"And you... you bought it?" I whispered.

"No," Ethan said. "I refused. I told him a man who sells his woman's dream will sell his own soul. I kicked him out of my office. That's why I remembered you. Grace Mokoena. The woman with Psalm 46:5. The woman whose boyfriend tried to sell her."

I sank to the floor. My whole love story was a lie from the beginning. Peter didn't just leave me because I was broke. He had ALREADY tried to sell me while we were still kissing in the church hall.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I cried.

"Because you loved him," Ethan said simply. "And because I wanted you to come to me on your own. Not because I pitied you. But yesterday, when I saw you hold that baby, I knew I couldn't wait anymore."

He knelt in front of me. The billionaire CEO on his knees for the jobless girl he refused to buy three years ago.

"So yes, I knew Peter. But I never touched your work. Lindiwe and Smith Attorneys did. Now, Grace — the police are coming up the elevator. I can hear them. My lawyer is here. Say yes, and you become my wife in 10 minutes. Say no, and you become a criminal with no baby, no job, and no name."

The elevator dinged.

Two police officers walked out. With handcuffs.

"Grace Mokoena?" one said. "You are under arrest for fraud and theft of intellectual property."

Peter came running back from the ambulance bay, out of breath. "GRACE! DON'T!"

He had something in his hand. A USB.

"Ethan is lying!" Peter shouted at the police. "I didn't sell it! HE offered ME money! He wanted Grace's research because he was obsessed with her since university! He saw her speech! He told me to dump her so she would have nowhere to go but to HIM! Lindiwe told me everything before she fainted! It's a setup!"

Ethan's eyes turned black.

"Mr. Khumalo, you are homeless and jobless. Who will believe you?" Ethan said coldly.

Peter shoved the USB into my hands. "It has voice notes! Lindiwe recorded Ethan! He paid her R100,000 to steal your thesis and to leave me! So you would hate me and run to him! Check it!"

The police looked confused. "Miss, we need you to come with us—"

I looked at the USB in my hand. At Ethan, the man offering me marriage, safety, a baby. At Peter, the man who destroyed me, now trying to save me.

Who was the villain? Who was the saviour?

I plugged the USB into Ethan's laptop.

A voice note played. Loud. For everyone to hear.

It was Lindiwe's voice, weak and crying:

_"Grace, if you hear this, Ethan Mthembu paid me to take your thesis and to seduce Peter away from you. He said you were too good for Peter, that you deserved a CEO. He said if I do it, he will give me a job. I did it. And now I have cancer. Forgive me. He is not who you think he is. He has been watching you since graduation..."_

The laptop went silent.

Ethan looked at me. No longer the saviour. But a man obsessed.

"Grace," he whispered, "I did it because I loved you. I couldn't forget you since the day I saw you in that church hall. Three years ago. I was there. You didn't see me. But I saw you. And I knew you would be mine."

Peter grabbed my arm. "Grace, come with me! Let's take Hope and run! I was wrong, but he is worse!"

The police officer grabbed my other arm. "Miss, you need to come to the station NOW."

And Baby Hope, from the stretcher in the elevator, started screaming my name — or what sounded like my name — "Mama!"

Three men pulling me. One baby crying for me. And I had to choose in 10 seconds.