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“You heard wrong. My team is doing wonderfully,” Ethan fired back. “And don’t worry, they’re in excellent hands with me and I have no intention of giving them up anytime soon.”
Edmund huffed, and the woman kept flashing me scathing looks while somehow holding onto that too-sweet smile of hers.
“Would’ve been too ironic,” Edmund said. “Having the team you stole from me get stolen from you.”
“I bought the Hurricanes fairly,” Ethan said. “Your father was more than happy to hand them over to me for the price I offered. Nothing was stolen.”
“Well, not nothing,” Edmund said, glancing down at the woman. He slid his free hand over her arm that was still looped through his. “I did manage to take Aubrey from you. Was that five years ago now? Where does the time go?”
My heart dropped into my stomach, all the pieces falling into place. This was the ex who betrayed Ethan, his once-upon-a-time-fiancée who left him for…this guy? God, she’d taken a major step down and broken Ethan’s heart in the process.
“You’ve looked better, Ethan,” Aubrey said, giving him a pitying once over. “I saw the video,” she continued. “Punching out a fan. You’re the same hot-head you’ve always been, eager to react with fists instead of using your mind. One of the many reasons I had to escape you. Probably the same reasons I haven’t seen your name in the marriage announcements in Forbes. Who could love someone so violent? You haven’t seemed to have grown at all over the years, so sad.”
The building anxiety and anger inside me burst out in a too-loud laugh that made the pair jump.
“Sorry,” I said, reeling in my laughter. “I just realized who you were.”
“And there’s something funny about that?” Aubrey asked.
“Oh yes,” I said, my voice calm and even, and I made sure to keep it that way. I wouldn’t cause a scene. “I always find backstabbing bitches quite amusing.”
Ethan covered a surprised laugh with a cough.
“Excuse me?” Aubrey gaped at me, that fake-as-hell smile slipping right off her lips.
“Yes,” I said. “You’re definitely excused.” I shook my head. “It’s sad. I’m normally very team-women-supporting-women, whether you’re an ex or not. But from the vitriol that just came out of your mouth, there isn’t one redeeming quality in your body, is there?”
She floundered, her lips parting and shutting a few times.
“You both could’ve come over here and acted like adults, greeting someone from your past with a respect and dignity that proved an emotional growth over the last few years, but no, you two sauntered over here like you owned the place and for what? To poke Ethan about a silly little video and bring up the past? God, are you two really that miserable together that you need to stir up old shit just to feel alive? Ethan isn’t anything like what you said. He’s brilliant, funny, and more composed than either of you ever will be.” I sucked my teeth. “So sad,” I said, mocking Aubrey’s prior tone before turning to look up at Ethan. “There’s a penthouse calling our name, darling,” I said. “Shall we?”
“Indeed,” Ethan said, amusement shaping his tone as he nodded to the stunned pair and we headed out of the event and toward the elevators that would take us back to our room.
The second the elevator doors closed, all my bravado slipped away. Ethan inserted the key card that would take us to the penthouse, pocketing it with eyes that were distant, withdrawn. Aubrey’s cruel words no doubt spilling through his mind in a spiral that dug up every other vile thing she said to him in their past.
The doors opened, and I followed him into our room, silent and observing as he loosened his tie and tugged it over his head, tossing it over the back of the couch in the living area before he sank down on it. He dropped his head in his hands, his elbows braced on his knees, and I watched as he focused on his breathing, his back rising and falling with each exhale and inhale.
My heart felt like it might break watching him hold himself together, watching him use every technique I’d taught him.
“Thank you,” he muttered, not bothering to look up at me. “You didn’t have to say those things about me. Didn’t have to defend me like that.”
The defeat in his voice broke something in me, some wall I’d built to protect my heart from all things him.
“Ethan,” I said, moving around the couch and dropping to my knees before him. I tugged on one of his hands so I could look him in the eyes. Eyes that were begging for an acceptance he didn’t even need to ask for. “I see you,” I continued. “You are nothing like what she said. She’s the one with the issues, clearly.”
