Chapter 43\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stephen asked with a grin, \u201cDid you two go on a date tonight?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Natalie denied it. \u201cNo. He and I are just friends.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cStop lying to me. Men understand men. With the way Johnson looks at you, he\u2019s clearly interested,\u201d Stephen said smugly.\u201d Besides, he already had a crush on you back when you were in college. After waiting all these years, he\u2019s finally about to get\u00a0<\/p>\n
his chance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not getting married again, so don\u2019t try to play matchmaker,\u201d Natalie said quickly, worried that Stephen would get some\u00a0<\/p>\n
ideas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stephen crossed his arms. \u201cNot getting married is fine, but you can still date. Johnson\u2019s a solid guy. He set up a VC firm two years ago and has a killer eye for investments. He seems to hit the mark every time. He probably has shares in several listed companies\u2026 He\u2019s not worse than Jeffrey.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m staying single for life,\u201d Natalie said and hurried upstairs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stephen shouted after her, \u201cHey, Nat, when there\u2019s a good man, you should grab him! Don\u2019t be stupid again. Not all men in this world are like Jeffrey\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNatalie, did you hear me? He\u2019s a top-tier man. If you don\u2019t want him, plenty of women will throw themselves at him!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Natalie had already disappeared around the corner on the second floor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a blockhead.\u201d Stephen shrugged. Then, he grabbed his car keys and headed out. \u201cWhatever. I\u2019ll do my own thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was already 11:00 pm, but for Stephen, the nightlife was just beginning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
11\u00a0<\/p>\n
Natalie returned to her bedroom, filled the tub, and lay down in the bath. The warm water wrapped around her, easing the\u00a0<\/p>\n
chill and discomfort.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With her eyes closed, she thought about what she should say if she got to meet Daniel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As she thought about it, Natalie drifted off to sleep without realizing it. She was simply too exhausted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Only when her phone started ringing did Natalie jolt away, sitting up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The bathtub was temperature-controlled, so the water hadn\u2019t cooled at all. She had no idea how long she\u2019d been asleep.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The ringing continued nonstop.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Natalie stood up, causing the water to splash loudly. Then, she rummaged through the pile of dirty clothes on the floor until she found her phone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was Stephen calling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Strange. What was he up to now?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Natalie answered the call. \u201cHello, Steph.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A stern male voice came from the other end. \u201cAre you Stephen Bennett\u2019s family? You need to come to the police station immediately.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe police station?\u201d Natalie asked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wasn\u2019t he at home? In such a short amount of time, how had he caused enough trouble to get the police involved?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Natalie glanced at the time and saw that it was already 1:00 am.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, as soon as possible. Otherwise, we can\u2019t proceed with handling this case.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
X CLOSE\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAlright,\u201d Natalie responded. She grabbed a towel and hurriedly got ready to go out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She rushed to the police station as fast as she could.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the room, Stephen sat on a chair, reeking of alcohol. He was slumped crookedly, and his cheeks were flushed red. He was clearly still drunk.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Across from him sat another person, whose clothes and hands were smeared with blood. His head was wrapped tightly in white gauze, looking like a mummy. The man had his back to Natalie.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She glanced over quickly and had a rough idea of what had happened. Stephen had most likely gotten drunk, picked a fight, and smashed the guy over the head.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSteph,\u201d Natalie walked up to Stephen angrily. She kicked him without hesitation. \u201cWould it kill you to not cause trouble for once?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even after one kick, she wasn\u2019t satisfied and stomped on him several more times.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stephen opened his eyes and muttered, \u201cI\u2019m gonna\u2026 gonna beat that bastard to death\u2026 Who told him to run his filthy mouth? I had to teach him a lesson!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Natalie was about to speak when the injured man turned around. When she saw his face clearly, her mind instantly went blank.\u00a0<\/p>\n
X CLOSE\u00a0<\/p>\n
Divorced While Pregnant The Ex-Husband\u2019s Collapse 43 Chapter 43\u00a0 Stephen asked with a grin, \u201cDid you two go on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-divorced-upgraded-and-married-rich"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}