Chapter 7
On the day of Ethan and Lena’s grand wedding, the hot search stayed at the top of the list all day.
Paparazzi then tracked their honeymoon almost entirely–kissing by the Azure Cove, swearing under Heliosia statues, feeding each other on Valentia streets… Every photo made the front page, sparking envy.
Lena snuggled sweetly in Ethan’s arms, looking at her phone and giggling like a bell. “Ethan, look!” She held the screen up to him. “Someone turned our story into a sweet romance novel! It’s so funny, called Deep Love in the Wealthy Family: The CEO’s Adoptive Sister Can’t Escape. And look at the comments! They’re all blessing us!”
Ethan’s gaze landed on the screen at those deliberately sugarcoated love plots, only finding them ridiculous. He half–heartedly twitched the corner of his mouth. “Mmm, nice.”
But another figure involuntarily emerged in his mind. When he married Wendy, she had asked for a simple wedding and skipped the honeymoon..
Even when she’d faced near–death giving birth to their son, and he’d almost cried himself to death from guilt, she’d only said softly, “I love you, so I’m willing.”
Looking back now, those scenes felt distant.
That person who had once relied on and adored him wholeheartedly–what was she doing now?
She must be waiting anxiously for him to return…
At this thought, Ethan suddenly found this honeymoon utterly dull.
“There’s an emergency at the company. Let’s go back early,” Ethan stood up, his tone leaving no room for argument despite ostensibly seeking Lena’s opinion.
Lena was taken aback. Though displeased, she knew he was unyielding in his decisions and could only force a smile and agree.
The moment the plane landed, he had the driver take Lena to the hospital for a prenatal checkup while he drove straight back to the villa.
As soon as the car stopped, he pushed open the door and saw the nanny struggling to stuff a large framed photo into the trash.
In the photo, Wendy’s sweet smile was fractured by cracks in the glass, appearing shattered beyond repair.
He turned around and saw a wedding photo of him and Lena now hanging prominently in the living room.
A surge of rage overwhelmed Ethan. “Who told you to throw that away?” he roared at the nanny.
The nanny jumped in fright and hurriedly pulled the frame back out. “I’m sorry, Mr. Caldwell. I thought… you didn’t want it anymore?”
“Who said I didn’t want it?!” Ethan’s eyes were icy as he scanned the room, but Wendy was nowhere to be seen.
A sudden, inexplicable panic seized him. “Where’s Wendy?” he demanded sharply
The nanny paled at his reaction. “Wendy? After Miss Winslow signed the divorce papers that day, she never came back.
“Gone?!” Ethan’s pupils constricted. He immediately pulled out his phone and dialed Wendy’s number.
“The number you have dialed cannot be reached…”
Refusing to believe it, he kept redialing mechanically.
But no matter how many times he called, the result was the same he had been blocked.
“She dares to block me? She actually dares to block me!” Ethan ran his hands through his neatly styled hair, his eyes burning with obsession and fury. Like a beast out of control, he hurled his phone violently against the wall.
Bang!
As the phone shattered–into pieces, the nanny quickly offered, “Mr. Caldwell, I’ll check the surveillance footage right away to see when Miss Winslow
left!”
In the surveillance room,
Ethan suppressed his rage, his gaze fixed on the screen.
The footage showed Wendy being surrounded by a group of people the moment she stepped outside, subjected to humiliating and brutal treatment.
What tore at his heart the most was Wendy’s desperate cries for help in her moment of utter despair.
And what had he been doing at that tim
Chapter 7
Sharing a passionate kiss with Lena in front of a crowd…
