He Made Me Schedule Meetings, Then Failed to Book Me Chapter 07

He Made Me Schedule Meetings, Then Failed to Book Me Chapter 07

After I fed Mom breakfast, she fell asleep again.

That surgery had taken a lot out of her.

Thankfully, it had gone well. The doctor said she would be fine if she rested afterward.

At exactly nine, the home health aide arrived to relieve me.

I went over the timing for every medication Mom needed before I left.

Just outside the hospital wing, a familiar figure stopped me.

“Claire…”

I stopped and tried to walk around him.

Ethan followed close behind and spread his arms.

He held a large bouquet of carnations in his left hand and several bags of health supplements in his right.

I’d gotten so used to his detached calm that seeing him like this felt strange.

“How is your mom? Can I go upstairs and see her?”

I looked at him. “Are you trying to upset her again?”

“At least let me leave these at the door.”

“We don’t need your charity.”

Ethan sighed.

“Claire, I was wrong.”

“After that call, I was worried and came straight back.”

“By the time I reached the hospital, you were already gone.”

I let out a cold laugh.

“By the time you got there, my mom could have died eight hundred times over.”

“Move. Keep following me and I’ll call security.”

Ethan lowered his arms.

He looked down into my eyes.

“I found out you took out a medical loan.”

“The interest was outrageous, so I paid it off early for you.”

I met his eyes without looking away.

“Once we have the final divorce decree, half the marital assets are mine anyway.”

Ethan set down the supplements and reached for my sleeve.

“I never wanted to divorce you.”

“I fired Chloe. From now on, you won’t need to book time to reach me.”

“If you need me, everything else can wait.”

I interrupted him in a flat voice. “I don’t need you anymore.”

He panicked. “What about Mason…”

“I didn’t raise him right. He’s only four.”

“For our son’s sake, can you give me one more chance?”

Sunlight behind him stabbed at my eyes.

Suddenly, I remembered the airport five years earlier. The light reflected from the floor-to-ceiling windows

had been just as bright, so bright I could barely keep my eyes open.

“I already gave you one chance.”

“I didn’t want to compromise my life twice for the sake of a child.”

At last, I walked around him and left his shadow behind.

Ethan called after me:

“Claire Morgan, have you really thought this through?”

“The share of the assets you’ll get won’t be enough to support you for the rest of your life.”

He didn’t know me at all.

“I’ll find a job.”

“You’re thirty-two. You’ve been out of the workforce for five years. What company would hire you?”

I had reached the end of my patience.

“Ethan, not everyone is as blind to my value as you are.”

“Don’t come looking for me again.”

I didn’t look back. I walked away in disgust.

His footsteps followed me for a while, then stopped when I left the hospital.

After a long day, I went back that evening to relieve the aide.

She pulled me aside and lowered her voice:

“There was a man lingering by the entrance all day.”

“I asked who he was looking for, but he wouldn’t say.”

“He left an hour before you came back. He also left several huge bags of supplements and a large bouquet of carnations. They looked expensive.”

My brow twitched.

“You didn’t bring any of it inside, did you?”

The aide patted my hand.

“Of course not. Who knows where it came from? What if it was poisoned?”

“I had housekeeping throw everything away and disinfect the hallway.”

“I also told security to watch for him and keep him from coming back upstairs.”

The next day, sure enough, Ethan was nowhere to be seen.

Two weeks later, I received the final divorce decree.

The delivery driver said I had another package.

When I opened it, I found the bank card that had been frozen.

A note was stuck to it: “I agreed to the divorce so I could pursue you all over again.”