Chapter 4

"I'm sleeping, and I don't have time to pick her up. Call Julian. I'm sure he'd be thrilled to do it."

Hearing my response, Chloe snatched the phone from her friend's hand and screamed into the receiver. "Ethan! If you don't show up tonight, don't you ever bother showing your face in front of me again!"

"Works for me," I said flatly, hanging up before rolling over to go back to sleep.

A few minutes later, the phone buzzed again.

Annoyed and nursing a pounding headache, I blocked her number immediately.

The moment she was blocked, absolute peace returned to the room.

I assumed I could finally sleep until morning, but Chloe refused to let it go. Over the next hour, she called me from a dozen different burner and friend numbers.

Pushed to my limit, I finally answered one.

"Ethan! How dare you block my number?"

Chloe sounded both furious and wronged. "You've never treated me like this before! You keep pushing me into Julian's arms. Aren't you terrified that I'll actually choose him and divorce you?"

"You're the one who always said you'd never let me stay out overnight alone! Why won't you come get me?!"

I had said that once. Back then, no matter how late it was or where she was, I would drive across the city to bring her home safely.

But ever since she started taking frequent business trips with Julian, she stopped answering my late-night calls altogether.

Eventually, I stopped asking where she was and why she hadn't come home.

"Your friend is right next to you," I said evenly. "You can take an Uber, or you can sleep on her couch. Why do I have to pick you up?"

"Chloe, I have my own life."

"My entire world doesn't revolve around you anymore."

My words left her stunned. The other end of the line went dead silent for several long seconds.

"Are you still throwing a fit over Julian?"

"Ethan, can you stop acting like a child? I already apologized to you! You know I never lower myself for anyone, yet I swallowed my pride for you. What more could you possibly want?"

"I don't want anything from you."

When all hope is gone, there's no room left for expectations.

"If you hate that I'm close to Julian, I can pull back on talking to him outside of work."

"But we're colleagues! We work together every day! Can't you think about my career for once?"

"Are you done? If you're done, I'm hanging up."

A sudden sob broke out through the phone. "Ethan, are you trying to force me to quit my job so we both starve on the streets?"

"You're a grown man, not a three-year-old toddler!"

Her voice grew sharper and more frantic. After listening to her for this long, I couldn't detect even a hint of real drunkenness in her tone.

"Chloe, I'm saying this for the last time. Do whatever you want from now on. You don't need to report to me, and you don't need to explain anything."

Sick of listening to her tears, I powered off my phone entirely.

The next morning, I arrived at Horizon Group's headquarters just as Vanessa was preparing to inspect a newly acquired subsidiary.

Vanessa and I had grown up together. Over the past five years while I was playing househusband, she had been running my multi-billion-dollar empire as executive vice president.

"Well, well. If it isn't the prodigal CEO finally tearing himself away from his domestic paradise," she teased.

When she picked me up the night before, I had laid out the whole truth.

I knew she had spent years harboring resentment over me abandoning the company for a woman, so I let her tease me without complaint.

"Consider it my way of making amends. I'll accompany you on the inspection today."

"Oh, please. I wouldn't dare order our big boss around."

"Is there anything in this world you don't dare do, Vanessa?"

She gave me a long look, clearly wanting to say something, but ultimately kept quiet and gestured for me to follow her.

It wasn't until we pulled up outside the office building that I realized the company Vanessa was inspecting was the exact firm where Chloe worked.

Just as we reached the lobby, Chloe and Julian walked in together, laughing and chatting intimately.

The moment she spotted me, her smile froze solid.

"Ethan!" She marched toward me, her eyes flashing with rage. Without warning, she grabbed her iced coffee and threw it directly at Vanessa's silk blouse.

"So this is why you've been acting so cold to me? Because of this little homewrecker?"

Before the words could even settle, Vanessa swung her arm and landed a sharp, ringing slap across Chloe's cheek.

"Watch your mouth, sweetheart. I don't know who you are, but you'd better learn some respect."

Ever since Chloe met me, her life and career had been an unbroken streak of good luck.

I smoothed over every obstacle in her path. She had never been publicly humiliated like this in her life.

"Ethan! Are you just going to stand there like a corpse and let someone assault your wife?!"

Julian immediately stepped forward, pulling Chloe behind him protectively. "Ethan, Chloe told me you two fought over me. You can hate me all you want, but you can't stand by and let a stranger bully your own wife!"

"How is Chloe supposed to hold her head up in this company after this?"

Chloe's rage flared even higher, her eyes glaring at me with raw venom.

Seeing that I still had no intention of defending her, she lost her patience completely. Grabbing my wrist, she yanked me aside and hissed, "Ethan, are you sleeping with that woman? You used to drop everything to protect me!"

"No," I replied coldly. "Didn't you complain that I was unemployed?"

Chloe's face turned pale with disgust. "I complained that you didn't have a job, not that you should go become some rich woman's kept boy!"

"Chloe, not everyone is as dirty-minded as you."

Her whole body trembled with fury.

"Did you bring her here on purpose just to humiliate me? Does she work here too?"

"Let me tell you something, Ethan. With one word from me, I can have that woman fired today, and you won't even have a penny left to buy food!"

I let out a cold chuckle.

I had spoiled her far too much over the last five years. I paved her way all the way to Project Director, using my personal connections to give her immense influence inside the company.

It had gotten to the point where she completely forgot who built her ladder. She genuinely believed she owned the place and could fire whoever she pleased.

Just as her words faded, Vanessa walked over, having already changed into a fresh designer blazer.

She clapped her hands together, a brilliant, mocking smile on her lips. "Quite the attitude, Miss Brooks. I'd love to see how you plan on getting me fired with a single word."