On Our Fifth Anniversary My Husband Begged Me Not to Leave Chapter 13

On Our Fifth Anniversary My Husband Begged Me Not to Leave Chapter 13

I shook him off.

“Ethan. Do I look that pathetic to you? You’re running around with your coworker, and I’m supposed to beg you to stay and have your child?”

He didn’t answer.

He couldn’t.

He’d always been arrogant—or maybe my years of love had spoiled him rotten.

Either way, he clearly didn’t believe me.

His glare stayed fixed on Liam.

“First tell me—how long have you known this guy?”

“It doesn’t matter. We’re divorced.”

“Divorce. Divorce. DIVORCE!” His voice cracked.

“I never agreed to a divorce!”

“You signed the papers. Need me to remind you?”

“I didn’t know what I was signing! I never wanted this!”

“It doesn’t matter what you wanted. We are divorced. That’s a fact.”

He reached for me again.

Liam stepped sideways, blocking him.

—

“Stop harassing her. Can’t you see she wants nothing to do with you?”

Ethan’s eyes went cold.

“I’m talking to my wife. Who the hell are you?”

Liam let out a sharp laugh.

“Ex-wife. That’s ex. Not wife. And me? I’m just someone who treats her better than you ever did.”

Ethan grabbed Liam by the collar.

“Five years of marriage—and you think you can just stand there and—”

“Five years?” Liam didn’t even flinch.

“Five years of making her miserable. Me and her? We might have fifty. And I’d never treat her the way you did.”

Ethan’s fist connected.

Liam’s head snapped to the side.

He touched his bleeding lip, laughed—and swung back.

I threw myself between them.

“STOP IT!”

Ethan’s fist froze mid-air.

“Stella—”

“Are you out of your mind? This is a scenic overlook, not a boxing ring! You want to lose control? Do it somewhere else.”

—

His voice cracked.

“You’re defending him.”

“I’m ending this. We’re done. You don’t get to just show up and start swinging at people.”

Ethan stared at me.

And then he said, so quietly I almost didn’t hear it: “You never used to be like this.”

The exhaustion hit me all at once.

“That was the past, Ethan.”

He looked like I’d just driven a knife through his chest.

For a long moment, he didn’t speak.

Then: “I’m not leaving. You used to chase me. Now I’ll chase you. Wherever you go, I’ll go. You don’t have to forgive me. You don’t even have to look at me. I’ll wait. One year. Ten years. Until you’re ready to turn around.”

I shook my head slowly.

“Ethan, do you even hear yourself? You’re not chasing me because you love me. You’re chasing me because you can’t stand losing. You’re chasing me because your ego can’t accept that I walked away. But love? Love would have seen me. Love would have held me when my father died. Love would have noticed I was falling apart. You didn’t love me, Ethan. You loved having me.”

He opened his mouth to argue, but I held up my hand.

“I’m not going to spend the rest of my life being chased by a ghost. I’ve already wasted too many years on you. I’m not giving you another second.”

I turned to Liam. “Let’s go.”

Liam nodded, keeping himself between me and Ethan as we walked away.

Ethan’s voice followed us, raw and breaking.

“Stella. Please. I’ll do anything.”

I kept walking.

And for the first time, I didn’t feel a single pang of guilt.

Behind me, the night swallowed Ethan’s voice whole.