Chapter 3Just a Baby? Is That Really Why He Divorced Me?

Unfortunately, Ethan seemed completely incapable of understanding reality.

First thing in the morning, I was jolted awake by my phone ringing. His name flashed on the screen. I immediately hit decline.

But then he called the old landline in the house.

Grandma, already up, reached for the phone, but I snatched the receiver faster.

"Grandma, I'm hungry. Could you make me something to eat?"

"When I was away, I missed your cooking every single day!"

Once Grandma was safely dispatched to the kitchen, I hissed into the phone, "Ethan, will you just give it a rest!"

"Can you please stop bothering my grandmother!"

"Well, if you hadn't hung up on my cell, I wouldn't have had to call here," Ethan shot back.

"Where's my breakfast? My stomach hurts, I'm starving."

Hearing him harassing me over breakfast, I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

When I didn't respond, Ethan's voice grew agitated. "Get back here right now and make me breakfast! Do you want me to get an ulcer or something?"

"Whether your stomach hurts or not has absolutely nothing to do with me!"

"Isn't Jessica there at the house? Let her make you something."

Ethan exploded. "Jessica is pregnant! How could I possibly let her cook!"

Those words, coming through the phone line, felt like another stab to the heart.

He couldn't bear to let her cook, but I was supposed to be at his beck and call?

I'll never forget the year I was drowning in my thesis work. He called, saying he craved my homemade chili. So, I rode my bike through a torrential downpour to deliver it to his office.

When I arrived, soaked to the bone, his colleagues stared at me with pity and curiosity.

I knocked on his CEO office door, and who opened it? Jessica, wearing a slinky little dress.

She took the insulated container from me, her voice dripping with faux surprise. "Oh, Claire, you really shouldn't have! Coming all this way in this storm with chili!"

"I told Ethan not to bother you, but he was just so worried about me, he insisted on calling you to make it for me!"

Jessica's words hit me like a bucket of ice water, freezing me from head to toe.

I just stood there, motionless.

It wasn't until Ethan came out from inside that I finally found my voice. "Were you planning to give the food I made… to her?"

Ethan looked completely nonchalant. "It's just food, Claire. No big deal."

"You haven't found a job yet anyway, making Jessica some food isn't exactly hard work."

"Besides, I've always seen her as a little sister. Once we're married, she'll basically be your sister-in-law. Think of it as getting to know each other early."

Back then, naive and trusting, I completely bought his explanation.

There was even a period when I genuinely tried to bond with Jessica.

Thinking back now, I want to shake my past self awake.

Claire, how could you have been so easily fooled!

I gripped the phone tighter, my voice cold. "Ethan, we are getting divorced."

"If you want food, figure it out yourself. Stop harassing me with this nonsense!"

"You have more than enough money, hire someone! Anyone would be willing to cook for you!"

"And I assume you don't want the scandal of your affair with Jessica splashed all over the gossip sites, right?"

Before he could start yelling, I slammed the phone down.

Strange. I clearly won that exchange, yet my heart still ached with a dull throb.

I rubbed my tired eyes and saw Grandma standing in the doorway, holding a bowl of hot oatmeal.

"Was that your husband on the phone, dear?"

I managed a weak smile. "Grandma, he won't be your grandson-in-law anymore. We're getting divorced."