Chapter 4

Ethan was stunned.

"Who are you? What gives you the right to make decisions for Jane?"

"I'm her current guardian."

After saying this, the man hung up.

When Ethan called again, he only heard the cold busy tone.

He was so angry he nearly smashed his phone.

A woman who'd been his maid for seven years, a waste who couldn't survive without him, dared not answer his calls? And found some wild man?

He immediately used all his connections to trace that number.

The result made his heart skip a beat.

No information found.

That number was a top-level encrypted line, completely untraceable.

For the first time, an indescribable panic rose in Ethan's chest.

At that moment, in the top-floor VIP hospital room, I slowly opened my eyes.

I saw a pure white ceiling and smelled the sharp scent of disinfectant.

The wound in my stomach still throbbed faintly.

"You're awake?"

A familiar yet strange voice sounded in my ear.

I turned my head and saw the man sitting by the bed.

Adrian.

He wore a perfectly tailored black suit, his manner cool and elegant, though the dark circles under his eyes disrupted that composure.

We hadn't seen each other in eight years.

He looked more mature than in college, and even more unreachable.

"You..." My voice was hoarse. I couldn't form a complete sentence.

"You collapsed on the street. A passerby called emergency services," he explained concisely. "In your phone's contacts, there was only Ethan."

"I called him. He didn't answer."

Adrian's tone was flat, revealing no emotion.

But I heard what he didn't say.

When I needed him most, my husband was with another woman.

"Later, I had my assistant check your medical records." Adrian looked at me, his gaze deep. "Stage four stomach cancer. Jane, why didn't you tell me?"

I avoided his eyes and forced a smile.

"What good would telling you do? We're not connected anymore."

"Not connected?" Adrian repeated the phrase, his tone rising slightly at the end. "Jane, you left with Ethan without a word years ago. You didn't even say goodbye. And now you tell me we're not connected?"

His proximity made me feel suffocated.

What happened back then was my debt to him.

It was my weakness, my betrayal of our promise.

"I'm sorry." I didn't know what else to say besides this.

"I don't need your apology." Adrian stood up, looking down at me from above. "I'm only asking you one thing. Are you divorcing Ethan or not?"

I looked at him and suddenly smiled.

"Yes."

"Not only that, I want him to lose everything."

The next day, Ethan met Adrian's lawyer in his office.

"Mr. Harris, this is the divorce agreement drafted by Ms. Jane." The lawyer pushed a document toward him. "Ms. Jane requests that marital assets be split fifty-fifty. Additionally, the villa you currently reside in is Ms. Jane's premarital property. Please vacate within three days."

Ethan looked at the lawyer like he was looking at a lunatic.

"On what grounds? I built that company from scratch! The villa is in her name, but I paid the down payment and the mortgage!"

"Mr. Harris, your company's startup capital came from the inheritance Ms. Jane received from her parents. As for the villa, we have evidence proving all payments came from Ms. Jane's personal account."

The lawyer produced another document.

"This is evidence of your extramarital affair and your child with a third party. If this goes to court, you may not get a single cent."

Ethan's face turned deathly pale.