Woke Up and Left the Cage of My Marriage 13
Chapter 13
Not long after, at a business cocktail party full of well-dressed guests and sparkling glasses, the air buzzed with lively conversation.
A business rival who’d always been at odds with the Fletchers came over with a drink in hand, grinning as he raised his glass next to Ethan. His tone was openly mocking. “Hey Fletcher, heard that gorgeous wife of yours-the one who’s like a thorny rose-actually took off? what a pity! I really liked her fearless attitude. Way better than those whiny girls who just cling to men all day. If you’re really done with her, how about letting me have a try? I’d be more than happy to take over-”
Before he could finish, Ethan spun around and punched him right in the face.
The crash of breaking glass and the man’s painful shout rang out together.
Ethan’s eyes burned red with fury. He looked like a wild animal that had just been provoked-
completely losing his composure. He lunged again, raining punches and kicks down on his rival as chaos erupted all around.
“You think you have the right to talk about her? You?!” Ethan ground out through clenched teeth, his voice dripping with anger and possessiveness. Everyone nearby felt the chill of his
rage.
It wasn’t until security pulled him back by force that Ethan finally stopped, gasping for breath. He straightened his tie with shaking hands, eyes locked on his beaten, bloody enemy. But that fierce, violent energy in his heart didn’t ease at all.
He couldn’t stand it. He couldn’t stand any man talking about her in that tone. He couldn’t stand the thought of her ever belonging to someone else.
After that, Ethan grew even quieter, his temper even shorter.
He started to realize he was constantly comparing Natalie to Vivian.
Looks? Natalie was dazzling-like a legendary beauty. Vivian was just… pretty, at best.
Personality? Natalie was full of life, passionate and unafraid to love or hate. Vivian seemed mild, almost dull.
Background and talent? Natalie outshone her in every way.
Ethan couldn’t make sense of it-why his mind kept going back to Natalie, making these comparisons he’d never done before. One night, after a few too many drinks with an old friend, he finally let the words slip out. “Hey, do you think there’s something wrong with me? Vivian’s the one who needs protecting, but lately, all I do is think about Natalie and all the
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chaos she caused…’
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His friend gave him a look like he’d lost his mind. After a pause, he rolled his eyes and sighed. Ethan, are you blind? You even need to ask? Any man with a pulse would know who to choose. Natalie is a total knockout-gorgeous, exciting, full of life. If you hadn’t married her, the line of men waiting to snatch her up would stretch across the entire city! Vivian… Come on. Besides crying, what else does she do? Don’t tell me you actually-what, you’ve been in love with your own wife all this time and didn’t even realize?”
“In love with Natalie?” Ethan froze, the truth striking him with the force of a thunderbolt. The glass nearly slipped from his hand.
And as if fate wanted to prove him right, just days later, his assistant brought two investigation results-both devastating.
The first was footage, recovered by the tech team, from the security cameras in the family chapel after the fire. The images were grainy, but clear enough to see Vivian, wild-eyed, smashing the ancestral portraits, setting the velvet tapestries alight-then, when Natalie’s back was turned, slamming a heavy candelabrum down to knock her out cold.
The second was the full truth about the so-called poisoning incident. The server who’d claimed he was bribed had finally broken down under Ethan’s pressure, spilling everything: it was Vivian’s idea. She told him to put just a bit of the drug in her own drink, then blame Natalie for it, trying to destroy her once and for all.
Ethan stared at the video of Vivian’s twisted face as she started the fire, listened to the server’s confession of her scheme, and felt himself freeze.
—
All this time, he’d thought Vivian was soft and fragile the one who needed protection. Turns out, she was the one with a black heart, the one hurting Natalie again and again.
And what had he done?
Time and again, he had chosen Vivian’s lies over Natalie’s truth. He had wronged her, broken her, and ultimately, delivered her to a prison cell with his own two hands-leaving her to
wither behind bars while he looked away.
“Vivian is sensitive, she can’t handle hardship. Natalie… she can take it.” He remembered saying that-words sharp as barbed wire, now lashing back at his own heart, tearing him open.
Regret crashed over him like a tsunami, drowning him until he could barely breathe.
Sleep stopped coming. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Natalie-bloody, lying in broken glass. Her face when he forced her into surgery, her empty, hopeless eyes.
He was drawn, almost against his will, to pull up footage from the hospital after Natalie’s
surgery.
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In the video, she woke up-no tears, no struggle. She just lay there on the hospital bed, utterly quiet.
She’d woken up in that video, no tears, no noise. She just lay there in silence, staring at her bandaged arm with dead, empty eyes. When his assistant brought her jewelry-the ones he’d asked for-she didn’t even look. She just brushed them all off the table, her surrender deeper and colder than any breakdown.
That was when he finally understood: what he lost wasn’t just the title of “Mrs. Fletcher.” He’d lost the woman who once loved him with all her heart, the woman who burned so bright
for him.
And her leaving? He was the one who’d driven her away, step by step.
Ethan collapsed against the back of his chair, covering his eyes with his hand. Wetness seeped out between his fingers, betraying the tears he couldn’t hold back.
The twisted wedding ring found in the wreckage now lay quietly in his drawer, a cold reminder of how precious she truly was-and how badly he’d messed it all up.
He started using every resource he had, searching the globe for any sign of Natalie. He didn’t care what it cost.
In the city’s high society circles, rumors spread fast. They all said the icy, proud Mr. Fletcher had become someone else after his wife left-silent, brooding, and frighteningly obsessive.
And the stories about Natalie-the woman who once dazzled the entire city and then
disappeared in a blaze of drama-never stopped, either.
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