Chapter 8
Once the baby was confirmed healthy, Ethan immediately told his lawyer to withdraw the divorce application.
His rushed to tell Vivian the news. But when he dialed her number, it rang out into a dead void. A moment later, his text message bounced back with the dreaded notification: Message Failed to Deliver.
He automatically walked towards the master bedroom. “Vivian, why are you…”
He stopped. This room hadn’t been hers for a long time.
He turned to the housekeeper. “Hasn’t Mrs. Voss been back to visit her mother’s grave?”
“Mr… Mr. Voss,” she stammered. “After Miss Quinn moved in, Mrs. Voss came back once. And then… never again.”
“Once?” He remembered Vivian supposedly pushing Skylar and the baby.
He’d thought Vivian was being petty.
The child bore the Voss name, and Vivian was the only Mrs. Voss. Why did she get angry with Skylar?
He muttered. “She can’t forget her mother just because she’s throwing a tantrum.”
He went to the hidden room, planning to pay respects on Vivian’s behalf.
But the urn was missing.
“When did Vivian take the urn?”
The housekeeper looked confused. “Mr. Voss, don’t you remember? The day Mrs. Voss came back… Miss Quinn knocked over the urn.”
“What? I thought that was baby formula…”
121
His voice choked off.
The memory slammed into him with terrifying clarity.
The gray powder all over the floor, Vivian’s trembling hands as she knelt…
His knees went weak. He had to grab the wall to keep from collapsing.
“Mr. Voss?” The housekeeper asked. “Are you alright?”
He didn’t hear her. All he could remember was Vivian’s devastated eyes, her voice breaking as she cried out, “Mom…”
He remembered how calm she was when she asked for a divorce.
It wasn’t a tantrum. It was the death of hope.
“The… the ashes…” He stuttered. “What… what happened…?”
The housekeeper said, “Mrs. Voss went to find a new urn. When she returned, Miss Quinn had already told the maids to… vacuum them up.”
“SHUT UP!” Ethan roared, smashing his fist into a glass cabinet.
He sprinted out of the house.
11:07
Whoops! My Revenge Plan To Trash EX Worked Too Well!
28.2%
Chapter 8
Fumbling with the car keys, he finally got the engine started.
His hands shaking too violently to grip the wheel.
When he got to the company, he stood outside her office for a long time, bracing himself.
He expected to see her focused at work like she always did.
But the room was… empty!
“Resigned?” Ethan slammed his hand on the desk. “When?”
“Two… two weeks ago,” the HR director stammered.” Lisa handled the paperwork.”
He stormed into the executive suite, as Lisa was organizing files.
“Where is Vivian?” He grabbed her wrist. “Tell me!”
Lisa winced in pain but, figuring Ethan was the baby’s father, she told him.
“Mr. Voss… Mrs. Voss is pregnant. I think she resigned to…rest.”
“Pregnant?” Ethan’s eyes lit up. “She’s… she’s pregnant?”
“Yeah. I sent an email to Skylar, the day Mrs. Voss left…” Lisa’s voice trailed off as she saw Ethan’s deathly pale face.
“Two weeks ago? The day she fainted in the hospital…”
་ ་ ་ ་ ་ ་ ་ ་ ་
When Ethan found Skylar, she was cooing at the baby. “Email? Oh, I didn’t see it. I’m on maternity leave, you know…”
Ethan snatched the baby shoved him at the nanny, and backed Skylar against a wall.
“Vivian is the VP. Her resignation email should have come to me. You manage my inbox and you said you’d forward anything important. Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t checking?”
“Oops, my bad!” She said, trying to play dumb like she always did.
It didn’t work this time..
Ethan was so angry.
Company policy stated that if a resignation email wasn’t answered in three days, it was automatically approved.
“Ethan, look, the baby’s smiling…”
Skylar tried, holding the infant out like a shield.
But this time, Ethan recoiled. He remembered what Lisa said.
Vivian was pregnant…The child he’d always wanted.
He stumbled back, grabbed his keys, and ran out of the house, heading straight for the corporate apartment.
11:07
Whoops! My Revenge Plan To Trash EX Worked Too Well!
28.5%
Chapter 8
Pink baby’s breath, prenatal vitamins, and sour plums Vivian loved… Ethan stood in front of her apartment door, his heart pounding.
He imagined how he would make it up to her. But when the door opened, a strange woman stood there.
“Who are you?” She asked.
He checked the address again. This was the right place.
“Who let you live in Vivian’s apartment?” He growled.
“Oh, the barren one…” the woman corrected herself under his glare. “Mrs. Voss moved out last month. My husband is the new project director. We live
here now.”
Ethan called HR.” Who approved them to live in the executive apartment?”
“It was… Miss Quinn…”
The phone shattered on the floor.
With tears in his eyes, Ethan threw the family’s luggage into the hallway. “GET OUT! Every brick in this place was designed for her!” He screamed.
“NO ONE ELSE IS ALLOWED TO LIVE HERE!”
A few days later, a haggard Ethan intercepted Lisa at the airport. “Where is Vivian… please…”
Seeing the once–arrogant tycoon reduced to a shell, Lisa sighed. “Mr. Voss, just give up. I’ve tried to contact Mrs. Voss. If she wanted to reply, she would have reply early.”
He didn’t seem to hear her, his hands clamped onto her suitcase handle like a vise.
Security had to drag him away. As they did, he kept staring at the departure board.
At a new ad for the company Liam & Co in D.C., there seemed a familiar face in the chairman’s photo…
But his phone rang, pulling him away.
“Ethan? The baby has a fever. Where are you?”
“On my way.”
As he left, he thought, “Are Vivian and the baby… are they okay?”
“It hasn’t been late…”
RATH
He told himself. They never finalized the divorce.
