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Chapter 40: Hugh’s POV - The Fire Five Years Ago
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Ex-Husband's Relentless Desire Chapter 41: Shelia's POV - An Apology Five Years Late
If there's anything in my life I truly regret, it's agreeing to that bonfire party proposal five years ago.Esther's contemptuous gaze felt like a thousand needles piercing my skin. Hugh didn't scold me, but his silence made me feel even more ashamed.Back then, to protect us from online harassment, the media didn't reveal our real names or photos in any of the news reports. The boy who started the fire was sentenced to one year in prison for arson. The other six of us and I were punished with three months of community service. After the fire, even though we attended the same school, we became strangers, never contacting each other again, all of us too ashamed to recall the incident.After leaving the hospital and returning to the office, I was distracted all afternoon.I searched online for the name of the firefighter called "Jackson". I found some old photos of him. He wasn't particularly tall, but he looked spirited, with a strong square jaw, and when he smiled, he showed eight
Ex-Husband's Relentless Desire Chapter 42: Esther's POV - Cat and Mouse Game
After learning about Hugh's car accident, I rushed to the hospital. But when I opened the door and saw Hugh and Shelia chatting intimately, anger welled up inside me.They didn't look like they'd just gotten divorced at all!I struggled to control my emotions, not wanting to lose composure in front of Hugh. Since Travis questioned Hugh and me again last week, Hugh's suspicions of me have deepened. I thought what happened in Dekka would stay buried there forever. But those people aren't planning to let me off the hook.These past few days, I've been trying to fix my relationship with Hugh - having lunch with him, listening to his work problems, actively participating in medical events.Just when things were finally improving between Hugh and me, Shelia shows up to stir up trouble. She's like a queen bee, shaking her butt at a swarm of men, but she's still not satisfied! She has to come and seduce Hugh too!Fine! I've prepared a knife that can wound you as well.I learned about the
Ex-Husband's Relentless Desire Chapter 43: Hugh's POV - Mango Street
I spent the day alone in the hospital. But solitude didn't bring peace to my mind.I asked Henry and Esther to keep the cause of the accident secret. I didn't want my grandmother to worry, nor did I want David and Susan involved. If David knew his son or future daughter-in-law was being followed or targeted for assassination, he'd turn the whole city upside down. That would alert the culprit behind this.Around 3 PM, Henry had found a lead on the black Volvo."The license plate is fake, sold by a gang member who specializes in forged documents. I'm heading there now to question him," Henry said over the phone."What's the exact address?""12 Mango Street.""Come to the hospital to see me first."I didn't want Henry to go alone because that street was notorious for gang activity. Henry was just an office secretary, not skilled in dealing with such people."Didn't the doctor say you need to stay for observation?" Henry hesitated when he arrived and learned I wanted to go with him
Ex-Husband's Relentless Desire Chapter 44: Hugh's POV - Is She a Painter?
The next morning, after a head examination confirmed I was fine, I was discharged from the hospital.Henry and Esther came to pick me up together."It's Grandma's birthday today. Have you prepared a gift?" Esther reminded me in the car."Grandma likes painting. I bought a watercolor by the artist Lian Yang."I remembered Grandma saying at an exhibition that she liked this artist's work, praising her bold use of color that gave watercolors an intensity rivaling oil paintings.Upon returning home, I realized Grandma's birthday celebration was more grand than I'd imagined. The servants had already set up a flower-adorned corridor on the lawn outside the mansion and arranged a nearly ten-meter-long white dining table.I had thought it would just be a family dinner, but some group shareholders and company partners had also come. This was probably David's arrangement, hoping to use this opportunity to improve business relationships.Shelia's entrance caught everyone's attention at the
Ex-Husband's Relentless Desire Chapter 45: Hugh's POV - The Most Familiar Stranger
As Shelia finished speaking, I gradually loosened my grip on her hand.Her expression was serious, which scared me. I feared she had truly let go, that she genuinely didn't care anymore.The party's noise irritated me. I went alone to my study and took out the sketchbook from the drawer. I counted 72 drawings inside. Yes, she had been drawing all along, but I never cared to notice.During those two years of marriage, I seemed to know nothing about what she did every day. I even secretly compared her to Esther in my mind, looking down on her value because she didn't work after marriage. I often felt annoyed by her excessive care.But was it true, as Shelia just said, that I didn't like her?No, she was wrong. I did like her. The ease she gave me was something I rarely felt from others in my 27 years of life.But I did undervalue her. Perhaps because I got used to her admiration and generosity from the start. Things too easily obtained often seem weightless.Flipping through the s
Ex-Husband's Relentless Desire Chapter 46: Hugh’s POV - Let's Cancel the Engagement Ceremony
Back at the birthday party, Grandma asked the photographer to take a family photo."Shelia, come join us for the photo," Grandma waved to Shelia."That's not appropriate given my current status," Shelia politely declined.I suddenly realized that in our three years of marriage, Shelia and I never had a single photo together. I gripped the sketchbook tighter. Besides these drawings, nothing remained of our marriage, as if it had flowed into the river of time.That night, I drank a lot. It was the second time I broke my three-year sobriety.The next morning, I woke up with a splitting headache. David and Susan had already gone to play tennis, and Carol rarely stayed home on weekends, always off to endless parties. The estate was unusually quiet.I opened my phone to see Henry had sent me several surveillance videos from Mango Street. The woman in the video wore a baseball cap and mask, but the pixel quality was too low to make out her real appearance. I sent the videos to Travis; t
Ex-Husband's Relentless Desire Chapter 47: Esther’s POV - Making a Deal
”What?" I could hardly believe my ears."Let's cancel the engagement ceremony. I don't think it's appropriate right now. We need some time to reconsider.""So, is it because of Shelia? You've fallen in love with her, haven't you? At Grandma's birthday party yesterday, your eyes never left her. I saw it all."I looked at Hugh. He gripped the steering wheel tightly, sighed, then said to me, "Esther, what's between us isn't Shelia, it's your lies. You're the one pushing me away.""I don't know what you're talking about. The one who lied to you was Shelia, not me." I tried desperately to defend myself."Do you realize you're in a very dangerous situation right now? I took the hit for you in the car accident two days ago. But whoever's hiding in the shadows will surely come after you again. Next time, you might not be so lucky. Please trust me. No matter what you've done in the past, I'll try to understand and forgive you. But if you won't tell me anything, I really can't help you."H
Ex-Husband's Relentless Desire Chapter 48: Hugh's POV - Unable to Cancel
My relationship with Esther hadn't improved.She was trying hard. She came to see me immediately after my accident, accompanied me for lunch while I worked, and today she even took me to that restaurant full of our memories... For any normal man, she would be the perfect wife candidate.But I just couldn't bring myself to give in.It was like the protagonist in "The Matrix" being asked to choose between the "red pill" and the "blue pill". The red pill represents the harsh truth, leading to an uncertain future. The blue pill represents turning a blind eye and continuing to live in a beautiful illusion.I chose red.If a person is filled with lies from childhood, the first thing they do when they grow up is to vomit, expelling all those lies and starting anew.I hate lies. As a child, when my classmates called me a bastard from Mango Street, a fatherless child, I would always clench my fists and argue back, "I'm not. My father is a hero." Because that's what my mother told me:"Yo
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