Chapter 13\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not long after, at a business cocktail party full of well-dressed guests and sparkling glasses, the air buzzed with lively conversation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A business rival who\u2019d 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. \u201cHey Fletcher, heard that gorgeous wife of yours-the one who\u2019s 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\u2019re really done with her, how about letting me have a try? I\u2019d be more than happy to take over-\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before he could finish, Ethan spun around and punched him right in the face.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The crash of breaking glass and the man\u2019s painful shout rang out together.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ethan\u2019s eyes burned red with fury. He looked like a wild animal that had just been provoked-\u00a0<\/p>\n
completely losing his composure. He lunged again, raining punches and kicks down on his rival as chaos erupted all around.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think you have the right to talk about her? You?!\u201d Ethan ground out through clenched teeth, his voice dripping with anger and possessiveness. Everyone nearby felt the chill of his\u00a0<\/p>\n
rage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t 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\u2019t ease at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He couldn\u2019t stand it. He couldn\u2019t stand any man talking about her in that tone. He couldn\u2019t stand the thought of her ever belonging to someone else.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After that, Ethan grew even quieter, his temper even shorter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He started to realize he was constantly comparing Natalie to Vivian.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Looks? Natalie was dazzling-like a legendary beauty. Vivian was just\u2026 pretty, at best.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Personality? Natalie was full of life, passionate and unafraid to love or hate. Vivian seemed mild, almost dull.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Background and talent? Natalie outshone her in every way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ethan couldn\u2019t make sense of it-why his mind kept going back to Natalie, making these comparisons he\u2019d never done before. One night, after a few too many drinks with an old friend, he finally let the words slip out. \u201cHey, do you think there\u2019s something wrong with me? Vivian\u2019s the one who needs protecting, but lately, all I do is think about Natalie and all the\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 13\u00a0<\/p>\n
2\/3\u00a0<\/p>\n
chaos she caused\u2026\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
11\u00a0<\/p>\n
11\u00a0<\/p>\n
His friend gave him a look like he\u2019d 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\u2019t married her, the line of men waiting to snatch her up would stretch across the entire city! Vivian\u2026 Come on. Besides crying, what else does she do? Don\u2019t tell me you actually-what, you\u2019ve been in love with your own wife all this time and didn\u2019t even realize?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn love with Natalie?\u201d Ethan froze, the truth striking him with the force of a thunderbolt. The glass nearly slipped from his hand.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And as if fate wanted to prove him right, just days later, his assistant brought two investigation results-both devastating.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u2019s back was turned, slamming a heavy candelabrum down to knock her out cold.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The second was the full truth about the so-called poisoning incident. The server who\u2019d claimed he was bribed had finally broken down under Ethan\u2019s pressure, spilling everything: it was Vivian\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ethan stared at the video of Vivian\u2019s twisted face as she started the fire, listened to the server\u2019s confession of her scheme, and felt himself freeze.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n
All this time, he\u2019d 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And what had he done?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Time and again, he had chosen Vivian\u2019s lies over Natalie\u2019s truth. He had wronged her, broken her, and ultimately, delivered her to a prison cell with his own two hands-leaving her to\u00a0<\/p>\n
wither behind bars while he looked away.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cVivian is sensitive, she can\u2019t handle hardship. Natalie\u2026 she can take it.\u201d He remembered saying that-words sharp as barbed wire, now lashing back at his own heart, tearing him open.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Regret crashed over him like a tsunami, drowning him until he could barely breathe.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was drawn, almost against his will, to pull up footage from the hospital after Natalie\u2019s\u00a0<\/p>\n
surgery.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 13\u00a0<\/p>\n
3\/3\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the video, she woke up-no tears, no struggle. She just lay there on the hospital bed, utterly quiet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She\u2019d 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\u2019d asked for-she didn\u2019t even look. She just brushed them all off the table, her surrender deeper and colder than any breakdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That was when he finally understood: what he lost wasn\u2019t just the title of \u201cMrs. Fletcher.\u201d He\u2019d lost the woman who once loved him with all her heart, the woman who burned so bright\u00a0<\/p>\n
for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And her leaving? He was the one who\u2019d driven her away, step by step.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u2019t hold back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u2019d messed it all up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He started using every resource he had, searching the globe for any sign of Natalie. He didn\u2019t care what it cost.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the city\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And the stories about Natalie-the woman who once dazzled the entire city and then\u00a0<\/p>\n
disappeared in a blaze of drama-never stopped, either.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Woke Up and Left the Cage of My Marriage 13 Chapter 13\u00a0 Not long after, at a business cocktail party […]<\/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":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-woke-up-and-left-the-cage-of-my-marriage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20179","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=20179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20179\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}