He Exiled Me for Five Years to Make Room for His Mistress Chapter 08

He Exiled Me for Five Years to Make Room for His Mistress Chapter 08

The day I flew back out to Nevada, Ethan rushed to the airport.

He had lost a lot of weight. His eyes were bloodshot, and his shirt was wrinkled as if he hadn’t changed in days.

“Claire, I know I was wrong. I really know I was wrong.”

He tried to grab my hand, but I shook him off.

“You destroyed five years of my life, destroyed my family, and caused my father’s death. Do you think saying you know you were wrong is enough?”

He froze.

Ethan said he had already divorced Emily.

She had cleaned him out of most of his assets and sold company secrets to Derek.

Shaw Group was on the verge of bankruptcy, and his father had suffered a stroke and was still lying in the hospital.

“I lost everything, just like you did back then.”

He started crying as he spoke.

I only found it ridiculous.

I told him what he had been doing on the day my father died.

He fell silent.

“You were choosing wedding rings with Emily.”

Then I told him what he had been doing when I broke my leg at the high-desert job site in twenty-below weather.

He fell silent again.

“You were at Emily’s prenatal appointment.”

“Ethan, every happy moment you had was built on my bones.”

He dropped to his knees in the middle of the airport, while countless people stopped to stare and record him.

“Give me one chance. Let me make it up to you.”

I crouched down and looked into his eyes.

“Do you know what regret is? Regret is losing the chance to make things right forever. My father is dead. My youth is gone. My body is ruined. What exactly do you have that can make up for that?”

He broke down sobbing.

I turned and walked toward my gate without looking back.

When the plane took off, I received a text from Ethan.

Ethan: [I’m sorry. I love you.]

I looked at the message and thought of his cold, indifferent face when he told me he had deliberately sent me away.

Then I deleted his contact.

Love?

Did he even deserve to say that word?