After my First Love Returned, I Decided to Divorce novel Chapter 5

I opened my mouth, but no words came out.

Panic and helplessness surged through me.

I never expected something this absurd to happen.

Ethan's expression was a tangled mess—confusion, anger, disbelief.

He practically jumped to his feet and grabbed my wrist, his grip tight and desperate.

"Emily! Are you really divorcing me?!"

His voice rang out so loud it made me flinch.

The other people in the courthouse turned to stare.

Seeing his dumbfounded, almost childish reaction, the whispers began:

"Is this guy serious?"

"His wife's divorcing him, and he looks like he just found out?"

"Figures. Bet he's one of those guys who thinks he's God's gift to women. Poor girl."

Ethan had always been used to being admired, adored.

When had he ever been humiliated like this?

But despite the anger burning in his face, all he could do was glare at me, demanding over and over again:

"You really want a divorce? Why?"

"Was I not good to you?"

The moment he said it, even he looked unsure.

His grip loosened, his fingers barely holding on to my wrist.

The pain flared where he had grabbed me, right over the scar that still hadn't fully healed—the one from when he got wasted and shattered a glass, cutting me in the process."

"I pressed a hand to my wrist, biting back a bitter laugh.

Good to me? Was he serious?

The years of humiliation, the constant belittling, the never-ending string of women throwing themselves into his arms—each one expecting me to just step aside.

"Not some punching bag for your family's temper tantrums!"

For five years, I had been drowning in depression.

Marrying a man I didn't love.

Working myself to exhaustion.

Enduring ridicule, scorn, even physical abuse.

Watching every penny I spent, like I was some parasite draining the great Johnson family's wealth.

Was this what a marriage was supposed to be?

My hands were shaking, my vision blurred with unshed tears.

Ethan stepped forward, raising a hand—maybe to wipe my tears, maybe to reach for me.

But before he could, someone else pulled me into a firm embrace.

"Ethan, enough."