Woke Up and Left the Cage of My Marriage 11
Chapter 11
Ethan Fletcher was in the middle of a crucial international video conference when word of the explosion at the family estate arrived.
His assistant burst into the room in a panic, forgetting to even knock. The man was white as a sheet, his voice trembling uncontrollably.
“Mr. Fletcher… the mansion… the estate just exploded!”
On the other end of the call, executives watched as their always unshakable young leader suddenly shot to his feet. His leather chair scraped sharply across the floor with the force of his movement.
For a split second, the calm on Ethan’s face shattered, and a kind of fear he’d never known — almost panic-flashed through his deep eyes. “What did you say? Exploded? Where’s Natalie?! Wasn’t she there alone today?!”
He didn’t wait for an answer. He bolted out the door like the wind, leaving a screen full of
stunned faces behind in total silence.
As he ran for the elevator, his voice, usually cold and calm, was now hoarse and desperate as he yelled into his phone, “Get the car! Now! Get me to the estate-fast as you can!”
The Rolls-Royce tore through city traffic, running every red light. The roar of the engine was like the pounding of a drum-matching his own frantic heartbeat.
A bad feeling twisted in his chest, cold and relentless, as if a snake had wrapped around his
heart.
As the car raced up the winding road to the family mansion, flames shot into the sky and billowing smoke turned half the night red.
The mansion-once a symbol of power, tradition, and rules-was now nothing but a burning
ruin.
Sirens, shouts, and the crashing of collapsing walls all blended together-a scene of utter catastrophe.
Ethan’s car hadn’t even stopped when he pushed open the door and rushed out.
A wave of heat slammed into him, but he barely noticed. His eyes, bloodshot and desperate, locked on the burning ruins. He grabbed the lead bodyguard by the arm, his voice raw, on the edge of breaking. “Where’s Natalie?! Where is Mrs. Fletcher?!”,
The bodyguard, terrified by a side of Ethan he’d never seen before, stammered out, “Mr. Fletcher… she… Mrs. Fletcher isn’t here. We, we checked the outside cameras… Saw her leave
Chapter 11
alone in a cab before the explosion… Headed to the airport. And… preliminary investigation shows the explosives… they might have been planted by Mrs. Fletcher herself.”
“The airport?” Ethan repeated, as if the word made no sense, his heart gripped by an invisible hand, suddenly frozen.
She wasn’t at the scene… but she went to the airport? And she set the explosion herself?
“Find out! Now-check every flight leaving South City! Track her down!”
His command was a near roar, veins bulging at his temples.
But after pulling every possible string and using all his power, the result crushed him.
No flight records for Natalie. No entry or exit logs. It was as if she’d vanished into thin air- gone without a trace. For the first time, Ethan truly understood what it meant to lose something. A cold, empty panic seeped into his bones.
Propped up by her housekeepers, Margaret erupted into a frenzy of sobs and curses. “Natalie… she’s a curse! A goddamn disaster! She’s going to destroy everything we’ve built! Why has God inflicted a jinx like her upon our family?!”
O
Relatives crowded around, voices harsh and mean.
“Told you we should never have brought a woman like that is untamable –she has absolutely no regard for our rules!”
“Now she’s blown up the estate-what won’t she do next?!”
“We have to find her and punish her, no exceptions!”
As Ethan listened to the flood of vile words, standing before the burned remains of the place that had been their so-called ‘home,’ flashes of three years ago hit him-the day Natalie crashed her red Ferrari through the gates, standing on the ruins with her chin raised, smiling
at him.
Back then, she was fire-stunning, fearless, so bright she seemed untouchable.
Irritation and resistance roared up in his chest. He spun around, his eyes icy as he cut through the noise with a single, frozen word: “Enough!”
Silence slammed down. Everyone stared at him, stunned that he’d defend the person they all
blamed.
Ethan took a slow breath, forcing down the strange feeling twisting inside him, regaining control-mostly. His voice, however, still carried a barely suppressed violence. “Search. I don’t care what it takes-find her. The Fletchers’ reputation will not be ruined like this!”
After everyone scattered, Ethan stood alone in front of the rubble, the firelight painting
Chapter 11
strange shadows across his face.
3/3
It was as if he was possessed. Ignoring the guards, he stepped straight into the still-smoking ruins, sifting through burnt debris with his bare hands.
Sharp cement and twisted metal tore his expensive suit and sliced his fingers. Blood mixed with ashes, but he didn’t even flinch.
At last, he reached the spot that had once been the master bedroom. There, in the charred wreckage, he found a scorched, bent ring-the outline just barely recognizable.
Their wedding band.
She… hadn’t taken it.
He clenched the cold, twisted piece of gold so tightly his knuckles turned white.
A sharp, needle-like pain pierced some hidden corner of his heart, spreading slowly outward.
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