Chapter 47
Ex-Husband’s Regret
That night
Rowan
âWhat the hell happened to you?â Gabe asks looking at the ice pack that was plastered to my face.
âEthanâ I just grunt. Not in the mood to deal with my brother.
Fuck! I still canât believe that I got into a fight with the fucking idiot. I was just so pissed and I let
his words get to me.
âThe cop?â He asks curiously. âAvaâs new man?â
At that I blow. I take the ice pack and throw it against the wall.
âHeâs not her fucking manâ I snap standing up.
My emotions were raw and close to the surface. I still donât understand why Ava canât see that the
fucker is a fraud.
I havenât been able to get anything deeper about him. The reports paint him as an okay guy.
Nothing out of the ordinary, but my gut tell me otherwise. There was just something about him
that rubbed me wrong. Something that he was hiding. My gut has never been wrong before.
âFrom what I hear, he isâ¦what happened?â
I take a deep breath, trying to cool down the fire burning inside me.
âWe were helping Ava move furniture into her new house and he told me to back off. Said that she
was his and he wasnât going to allow me to ruin thingsâ I admit finally.
Gabe stares at me like he canât believe what I just said. Like I was trying to figure out what the
hell was wrong with me.
âSeriously? Thatâs what made you get into a fight with himâ
âYes!â
He sighs before sitting down. âIn case you havenât noticed, sheâs no longer your wife and given that
he is dating her, he has every reason to ask you to back off. Isnât that the same thing you asked of
Ava when you started dating Emma?â
I fist my hand in frustration. Why is it that no one saw what I saw. No one realized the truth? How
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âItâs not about thatâ I seethed. âThere is just something about the man that isnât fucking right. Why
can none of you see that?â
I start pacing my home office. My fury burning so close to the surface. I was almost losing it. First I hear
that Emma threatened Noah and that Travis did nothing. Then I had to watch while Ethan
and Ava made googly eyes at each other.
She was so taken by him. So enthralled that she couldnât see a fucking thing. What the hell was wrong
with her? Sheâs the most cautious person I know, yet she let him into her life without even
question anything.
âWhat are you talking about?â he asks giving me his whole attention.
I donât stop pacing. I just couldnât sit down with all the fucking emotions inside me.
âI donât know how to fucking explain it, but there is just something I donât like about him.
Something doesnât feel right with himâ
It doesnât make any fucking sense, but I canât ignore the feeling. Thatâs why I have my P.I
investigating him.
Gabe says nothing for a while and when he does, I feel like punching the crap out of him.
âCould it be that youâre jealous of him?â
âThe fuck I amâ I bellow. âWhy the hell would I be jealous of him? I donât have any fucking feelings
for Ava, remember?â
What he was saying was absurd. I could never be jealous when it comes to Ava. She is my sonâs
mother and Iâm looking after him. Thatâs all.
âLook, you were married to her for nine fucking years, itâs hard to stay with someone for that long
and not develop any feelings towards them. Especially someone who isnât truly evilâ
I stare at him in shock, before shaking my head. âThereâs no fucking way that I developed feelings
for her. I stayed married to her because of Noah. My heart always belonged to Emma and you
know that. Thatâs the reason I couldnât develop any feelings for herâ
He had completely lost his fucking mind. Itâs not unusual for people to stay married even though
they donât love each other. Nine years couldnât change the fact that I wasnât Ava biggest fan.
Especially not after the stunt she pulled to get me to sleep with her. 2
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âThen explain to me why you feel so strongly about her dating Ethan?â he insists.
âI already fucking told you! I wouldnât have cared if she dated any other man, but something is just
fishy with that copâ
We were going round in circles and it was only making me more pissed. I thought at least he
would understand but looks like he doesnât. Instead he has this stupid notion that Iâm angry
because I have feelings for Ava and that Iâm jealous.
âIâll be the first to admit that what Ava did nine years ago was wrong. We treated her horribly for it, but
what if she wasnât lying when she said she was drunk? What if she was telling the truth?â
âThatâs impossibleâ
âIs it? We all wanted you with Emma. Weâll except for Ava. After what happened, we wanted
someone to blame. It was easier to blame the girl who had been obsessed with you for years than
to accept that both of you had made a mistakeâ (3)
Looking at him quietly, I stand frozen. What the fuck had gotten into him?
I watch as he takes out his phone and dials a phone number.
âWhat are you doing?â I question him suspiciously.
âSomething we should have done a long timeâ¦Iâm finding out the truth about that nightâ he says.
We wait a bit and then someone answers the phone. I stare at him numbly as he ask the person to
get him the video footage from the bar and the hotel. He then commands him to get it within an
hour.
âI donât know what youâre trying to achieve by digging this shit upâ I tell him after he hangs up
the phone.
It was all in the past. We all knew what happened, so what the hell was digging up the past going
to achieve?
âA part from knowing the truth? Well, it will clear things for you. Like I said, I believe you feel something
for Ava and you have felt it for a long time. Your bitterness at what you believe is her
betrayal is what keeps you from admitting the truthâ he looks at me straight in the eyes.
His grey eyes which are similar to mine, challenging me to argue with him.
I turn on my heels and take a seat. I refuse to let him see how bothered I am by all this. Iâm still
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his shady character led to him insisting that I was blocking my feelings for Ava
We donât speak. I was now pissed at him too, but he didnât seem to notice or care because he was
busy doing something on his phone.
I donât know how long we sat in my office when his phone pinged
I watch him closely as his face turns to shock them mortification. My curiosity gets the better of
me. I now want to see whatâs gotten him so disturbed.
âGabe?â I cautiously call his name.
He looks up. His eyes haunted as he silently gives me his phone. I take it with shaky hands,
knowing I wonât like what I see.
Slowly, I look down at his phone. I watch as everything unfolds. I watch as the truth I held on for
so long crumbles. I watch as the real events of that night are revealed.
Cursing, I stand up. Unable to bear the impact of what that video meant.
Ava had been telling the truth the whole time. We were both drunk, meaning for the past nine
years she was blamed and punished for something that wasnât her fault.
âFuck!â I shout, unable to contain the crushing weight inside me.