My Ex-Husband Begged Me to Take Him Back - Chapter 45

Chapter 45: Fake concern?

Dylan entered the room quietly to on Ava, but her icy glare made him pause at the doorstep.

“Why are you here? Shouldn’t you attend your beloved?” Bitterness churned in her chest, twisting her insides with indignation.

Dylan didn’t answer. Instead, he sat down beside her, reaching for her bandaged hand.

“Don’t touch me,” Ava snapped, pulling her hand away.

But Dylan was undeterred. “Let me check,” Dylan growled and grabbed her hand back, his grip tighter this time.

Ava’s breath quickened with frustration, her chest rising and falling as she watched him unroll the bandage, inspecting the wound. His movements were deliberate, his touch gentle despite the tension between them.

He reached into the nearby drawer, pulled out ointment, and applied it to her injury with careful strokes. But his care was not enough to pacify her. Ava was too mad at him. To her, this was just a drama.

‘This isn’t real. None of this is real,’ she thought bitterly.

She would always be a second choice—a shadow in the looming presence of Gianna. Dylan had proven time and again who he would choose when it mattered most, and it was never her.

When he was about to rebandage her hand, Ava jerked it away. “I can do it myself,” she snapped, grabbing the gauze from his hand. But as she tried to tie it around her wound, her fingers fumbled, her face twisting into a grimace as the gauze slipped through her hands.

Dylan watched in silence, his patience wearing thin as he saw her struggle. Without a word, he grabbed her hand again.

“What are you doing?” Ava protested, trying to push him away, but his grip was unyielding this time. She couldn’t break free.

“Stop struggling,” Dylan hissed and skillfully wrapped the gauze around her hand, ignoring her resistance.

However, his actions didn’t soften her heart. “I am too tired of your fake concern,” she shot back, her eyes blazing with fury. “What are you trying to prove? That you feel sorry for me? Have you forgotten what you said to me a while ago?”

She pinned him with an accusatory glare. “You asked me to apologize to Gianna for something I didn’t even do. Did you bother to find out what really happened?”

Dylan was already regretting yelling at her, and her sharp words only made him feel worse. However, pride and ego kept him from voicing an apology.

“Look, she was crying.” He tried to explain. “I thought…”

“You thought!” Ava interrupted with a sneer. “As long as someone is crying, they’re automatically the victim! Is that what you’re saying? That tears make lies the truth! And anyone who stands up for themselves is always wrong?”

Dylan opened his mouth to reply, but she wasn’t finished.

“She was playing the victim, shedding crocodile tears. Why couldn’t you see it?” Her voice cracked, the pain behind her anger clear as she glared at him.

Dylan sat frozen, momentarily speechless. His mouth opened and closed, but no words came. He didn’t know how to respond, couldn’t find the right thing to say.

“I’m not surprised,” she said flatly. “This is nothing new to me. You always trust Gianna and Erica—and you’ve never cared enough to see what I’ve gone through.”

Her emotions threatened to overwhelm her, her voice wavering as she fought to keep her composure. She took a shaky breath and blinked back the tears. “Gianna hurt me, but you thought I was the one who hurt her. You believed her without a second thought—because, in your mind, I’m always wrong.”

She curled her lips bitterly. “That’s why you let Erica slip away, even though you knew she was behind the attack on me. I don’t matter to you. So what if someone nearly beats me to death, right?”

Dylan’s frustration finally boiled over. “It’s not like that,” he snapped. “What I did to Erica was harsher than you could imagine. Turning her over to the cops wasn’t enough. She could have come back for you, and things could have been worse. But I sent her away to make sure she couldn’t hurt you again.”

Ava wouldn’t buy it. “Oh, please, Dylan. Don’t insult my intelligence with such excuses. I know exactly what you’re trying to do. And this explanation only makes me sick.”

“This is not an excuse,” he grumbled. Desperation crept into his voice as he tried to make her understand. “I am serious. I did this to protect you.”

“I’m serious too,” Ava interrupted, cutting him off before he could say another word. “And I’m tired.” She looked away. “Can you just leave?”

Dylan cocked his head as he regarded her with a squint. While Gianna clung to him, desperate for his attention, his own wife was coldly pushing him away as if she didn’t want him around her. Did she truly despise him this much?

“Leave, or I’ll leave myself,” Ava threatened.

Dylan’s face twisted in frustration and barely contained rage. Without a word, he turned on his heels and stormed out, the door slamming behind him with a loud bang.

As soon as he was gone, Ava’s resolve hardened. With a decisive mode, Ava picked up the phone and called Ethan. “Prepare a divorce agreement for me,” she said when the call connected. “I want to end this marriage as soon as possible.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nicholas strode into the office, his expression sharp and focused. Alex greeted him with a slight nod.

“What did you find?” Nicholas asked without wasting a beat as he settled down in his seat.

Alex slid a photograph across the desk toward him. “Miss Gianna is pretty close to this guy,” he began. “His name is Brian, her co-star. They’ve worked together on a couple of films and have been secretly seeing each other.”

Nicholas picked up the photo, his lips curling into a smirk. “Interesting!”

“And here is something else,” Alex continued, his expression darkening. “Her phone records show that she contacted Brian the day she had claimed she was kidnapped.” He placed a thick folder on the desk, filled with documents. “That day, Brian was at Hotel Siera. He spent the entire day with a woman, but I couldn’t identify her yet.”

Nicholas’s eyes narrowed as he flipped through the folder. “Did you check the hotel’s surveillance footage properly?”

“I did. But there is no sign of Gianna anywhere on the tapes,” Alex replied.

“Hmm,” Nicholas hummed as he continued checking the file. “Maybe she changed her appearance to avoid being recognized. I want you to check the footage again—every detail. Leave nothing out. And keep a close watch on this Brian.”

Alex nodded curtly. “I’ll take care of it.”

Nicholas glanced at the photo once more before tossing it back on the desk. “Did you find any new information about the recent attack on Ava?”

Alex shook his head, sighing in disappointment. “Nothing new yet. I’m still working on it.” He hesitated, his eyes flickering with uncertainty. “But there is something strange I need to tell you.”

“What is it?” Nicholas immediately straightened and looked up at him curiously.

“I found something unusual about Ethan Moss,” Alex spoke cautiously.

At the mention of Ethan, Nicholas’s jaw tightened. “What about him?”

“He has been looking into the car accident that killed Dylan’s parents,” Alex revealed, confusion evident. “Why would he be interested in an accident that happened more than a decade ago?”