He Brought His Mistress, I Brought My Lawyers Chapter 18

He Brought His Mistress, I Brought My Lawyers Chapter 18

The Porsche screamed to a halt at the end of Newbury Street like a furious beast. Ethan tossed the keys to the valet and rushed toward L’Espalier’s heavy oak doors.

The rage in his chest was burning his reason to ash. Every step carried a destructive force.

The restaurant manager recognized him and hurried over with a professional smile.

“Mr. Ward, good evening. Do you have a res—”

Ethan saw her at once.

Sloane sat at a prime window table with a friend. She wore a tailored white dress and exquisite makeup, lazily stirring her dessert with a silver spoon. A smug smile she couldn’t hide played at the corner of her mouth.

Ethan didn’t walk over.

He stopped and stepped into the shadow of a decorative screen, which swallowed him completely. Their conversation slid into his ears like a venomous snake.

“Honestly, Sloane, I still can’t believe it,” her friend whispered, full of envy. “Ethan Ward… he just abandoned Avery and took you to Saint Barthélemy? That was supposed to be their pre-wedding honeymoon!”

Sloane laughed lightly, a favored woman’s fearless confidence in her voice. “So what if it was? I just said Boston was too cold, and he immediately booked the private jet.” She set down her spoon and leaned back, enjoying her friend’s admiration. “Avery? She’s probably still at home picking out wedding napkin colors by herself.”

“But the Caldwell heiress can’t be that easy to deal with, can she?” her friend asked curiously. “I heard she’s quite strong. How did you get her out of the picture?”

At the mention of Avery, disgust crossed Sloane’s face, as if she were discussing some tiresome old thing.

“Strong? It’s all an act.” She picked up her champagne glass. “She was difficult. I had to put in some work.”

Ethan’s breathing stopped. He stood in the shadows like a statue on the verge of cracking.

“At first, she even dared to warn me, almost tried to hit me.” Sloane lowered her voice, but it was full of smug pleasure. “So I just picked up the fruit knife on the table and gave myself a little cut.”

Her friend gasped.

“When Ethan arrived, all he saw was me bleeding and Avery’s stunned face.” A victorious smile touched Sloane’s lips. “He was so worried he nearly lost his mind. Do you think he would listen to Avery’s pathetic explanation? He would only think she was vicious.”

“And then? I heard Avery was locked up?”

“Oh, that was my idea, too,” Sloane said lightly, as if discussing the weather. “I told Ethan Avery was too unstable and needed to ‘calm down’ by herself. Lock her up for a few days and make her reflect.”

Behind the screen, Ethan felt a bone-deep chill. He had personally locked Avery in that storage room, and the decision had come from one of Sloane’s “suggestions.”

“But… wasn’t that too much?” For the first time, hesitation entered her friend’s voice.

Sloane scoffed, as if mocking her innocence. She leaned forward, her voice dropping to a whisper, but it carried a malicious excitement.

“You thought I only wanted her to reflect?”

She paused, enjoying the shock on her friend’s face before slowly revealing the secret.

“I knew long ago that Avery is claustrophobic.”

The sentence struck Ethan’s eardrums like a bullet, shattering the last of his delusions.

“Ethan told me himself, by accident, a long time ago.” Sloane’s voice was filled with the thrill of a successful scheme. “So I specifically had him lock her in that windowless storage room.”

“My God…”

“That was the most brilliant part, wasn’t it?” Sloane’s eyes shone under the crystal lights. “Let her stay inside her deepest fear, believing the man she loved most had pushed her into it with his own hands. Let her think it was Ethan’s idea to use her fear to torture her.”

She lifted her glass and toasted her friend, her face a mask of pure victory.

“That way, she would completely give up, wouldn’t she?”

Behind the screen, Ethan stood unmoving. All his anger, all his violence, solidified in that moment. He heard the sound of his own bones breaking. He heard everything he had defended, everything he had hurt Avery for, turn into a cold, absurd joke.

The sharpest knife had been the one he handed over himself.