Elissa snapped her head up to glare at him. “Let go of me.”
“Oh, I will.” His breath came in heavy bursts, betraying the storm inside him. His gaze bore into her. “But first, you are going to explain. Why were you meeting your ex-husband?”
Elissa gave a humorless laugh, glancing toward the café. “Isn’t it obvious? We were having dinner together.”
“Dinner?”
Ernest’s face darkened further, his tone icy and hard. “Since when does dinner come with hugs? And the way you two were staring into each other’s eyes—do you take me for a fool?”
Ernest’s features were contorted with raw emotion. His expression mirrored the betrayal of a husband discovering his wife entwined with another man. A bitter laugh escaped Elissa’s lips—equal parts fury and incredulity—as she refused to defend herself. “You witnessed it. Yes, I embraced him. So what? This hardly concerns you.”
“Elissa!” Ernest’s voice thundered, his eyebrows knitting together as rage emanated from every syllable. Fresh chapters posted on Find~Novel.net
His fingers clamped around her wrist like iron. “Refuse me all you want—withhold your forgiveness. But Robin remains forbidden territory.”
“My relationships are entirely my affair. You forfeited any right to have an opinion about my life.”
Exhausted by the confrontation, Elissa rotated her captive wrist, desperate to escape his grasp.
“I said NO!” His voice sliced through the air. “He cannot be part of your equation.”
Ernest maintained his vise-like grip, fury blazing in his gaze. “Must I refresh your memory? That man brutalized you repeatedly. Are you willing to deliberately ignore that reality once more?”
His fingers dug deeper into Elissa’s flesh as he yanked her toward him, eliminating the distance between them.
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“Don’t allow your resentment toward me to paint him as some misunderstood saint… He remains both abuser and adulterer at his core.”
“I understand him in ways you never could!” she snapped defensively. Deep lines creased Elissa’s forehead as she shook her head with deliberate slowness. “He wasn’t born cruel. He transformed… because you entered our lives.”
Ernest recoiled as though physically struck, his eyes widening in disbelief.
“For God’s sake, just remove yourself from my existence completely!” Seizing the moment of his stunned silence, Elissa wrenched her arm free, flung those final words behind her, and fled at breakneck speed, terrified he might pursue her.
Ernest remained rooted to the spot, temples pulsing with agonizing pressure. Could she truly be contemplating reconciliation with Robin even after everything?
Once safely inside her apartment, Elissa clutched her phone with trembling fingers, her thumb hovering over her mother’s name in her contact list.
Heartbeats passed before she mustered the courage to press the call button. The connection failed immediately.
A mechanical voice announced that the number no longer existed.
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