Chapter 18\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Fletcher, I think I\u2019ve made myself clear.\u201d Her voice remained even-no anger, no trace of emotion. \u201cIt\u2019s over between us. Legally and emotionally, it\u2019s finished. Please don\u2019t come into my life again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t look at him after that. Instead, she walked right over to the rocking chair, sat down, picked up the book she\u2019d left half-finished on the side table, and flipped it open-as if everything that just happened was nothing but a minor interruption.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sunlight poured over her, casting her in a warm glow, but she sat there cold and indifferent, like an iceberg.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ethan stayed kneeling in the sand, watching her peaceful profile, the softness of her dress still lingering on his fingers. His heart plunged into darkness, dropping deeper with every breath.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Suddenly, not far away, loud whistling and drunken laughter cut through the quiet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A handful of local punks, drunk and swaggering, staggered over. Their eyes slid over Natalie with obvious bad intentions, and their mouths spilled crude jokes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ethan shot to his feet, shielding Natalie behind him. The icy sharpness returned to his gaze as he glared at the group. \u201cGet lost.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the punks, fueled by numbers and booze, didn\u2019t back down. Instead, they closed in, grinning. \u201cHey, is she your girl? We\u2019re just taking a look. No harm in that, right?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tension snapped the air tight.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of them reached out to shove Ethan aside, aiming to touch Natalie\u2019s face.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Without even thinking, Ethan threw a punch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019d trained before-his moves were fast and ruthless. In seconds, two were on the ground.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the punks were many, and drunk. They didn\u2019t care about holding back. In the chaos, one grabbed a discarded wooden oar from the sand and smashed it across Ethan\u2019s back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ethan grunted, staggering forward. But he refused to move, still keeping Natalie behind him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Through it all, Natalie stayed calm-watching the whole messy fight unfold.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even when Ethan took the blow, her face didn\u2019t flicker.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not until Ethan, trying to protect her, took a gash on his arm-blood started soaking through his sleeve. Only then did Natalie finally move.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She pulled out her phone, dialed the local emergency number, and spoke in clear, fluent\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 18\u00a0<\/p>\n
English, giving their location and the details of the injuries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
2\/3\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then she put her phone away, looked at Ethan-his face pale from pain, but still fiercely watching the punks-and spoke in a quiet voice, every word carrying: \u201cThe ambulance will be\u00a0<\/p>\n
here soon.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t glance at him again. She didn\u2019t even spare the punks-who now hesitated, unnerved by her composure and Ethan\u2019s skill. She turned, walked back to the wooden house,\u00a0<\/p>\n
and closed the door behind her with a soft click.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In that instant, she shut out all the chaos, blood, and the man who\u2019d taken the pain for her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ethan stared at her retreating back, at the door that swung shut without a hint of doubt. In that moment, the pain in his back and the wound on his arm were nothing compared to the shattering agony inside his heart.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The ambulance came quickly. It carried away both Ethan, battered and bruised, and the punk who\u2019d been knocked out with the oar.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the hospital, a doctor patched up Ethan\u2019s bruised back and stitched the cut on his arm. It\u00a0<\/p>\n
wasn\u2019t serious, but he needed to rest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The second the nurse left, Ethan forced himself up in bed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He looked at the gauze wrapped around his arm. He looked at the unfamiliar room, heavy with the sharp smell of antiseptic. He thought about Natalie\u2019s last cold glance, the way she closed\u00a0<\/p>\n
the door in his face.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All the reason and self-control he\u2019d been holding together snapped in an instant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He swung his arm violently, sending the glass and medicine bottles on the bedside table crashing to the floor with a piercing, shattering sound.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was like a caged beast, let out a strangled, painful growl, pounding his fists against the metal bedrail until his knuckles split and bled.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy\u2026 why\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He howled again and again, the words breaking in his throat. Tears spilled down his face at last -he couldn\u2019t hold them back. Dust, blood, and pain streaked his cheeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019d gotten hurt saving her. And she wouldn\u2019t even spare him a single look.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She\u2019d calmly called an ambulance for him, just like a stranger reporting an accident.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This utter, merciless indifference-shutting him out of her life for good-hurt more than any revenge ever could.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019d lost.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 18\u00a0<\/p>\n
3\/3\u00a0<\/p>\n
Utterly defeated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Back at the seaside cottage, Natalie sat by the window, watching the beach and sea turn peaceful again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The sunset spilled gold and red across the water.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She picked up the cup of water she\u2019d left hours ago and took a slow sip.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her eyes stayed calm-so calm that only at the deepest edge could you maybe spot a hint of something complicated, almost invisible, flicker through and then vanish.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She picked up her book and started reading once more, as if everything that happened at her door was nothing but a drama.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ethan returned from the tropical island battered and defeated, wounds barely healed, dignity in pieces.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even the sky above the southern city felt heavier, as if mourning with him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He shut himself away in the lakeside estate, working nonstop, desperate to numb himself \u2013\u00a0<\/p>\n
but it was no use.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Natalie \u2018s calm, distant face, the way she looked at him like a stranger, haunted him more than any nightmare.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He couldn\u2019t accept losing her-couldn\u2019t accept the idea that she was out there somewhere, living bright and free while he was trapped in darkness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jealousy and a twisted kind of possessiveness twisted tighter inside him with every passing\u00a0<\/p>\n
day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If gentle pleading couldn\u2019t bring her back, he\u2019d use the only method he knew-\u00a0<\/p>\n
Business.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019d force her to come back, no matter what.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Woke Up and Left the Cage of My Marriage 18 Chapter 18\u00a0 \u201cMr. Fletcher, I think I\u2019ve made myself clear.\u201d […]<\/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-20184","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\/20184","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=20184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}