After My Husband Cheated, I Fell for My Younger Trainer Chapter 11
On the day of the court-ordered mediation, Ethan wore the same white shirt he had worn at our wedding
I remembered it well.
The shirt was the same, but Ethan had grown painfully thin.
He had not shaved. His eyes were sunken, and a wrinkled document was crushed in his fist.
He stopped me in the hallway.
“Erin.”
I paused.
He looked at me, his voice hoarse.
“Look at me.”
I raised my eyes.
A bitter smile twisted his mouth.
“Do I look miserable enough for you to feel sorry for me now?”
I studied his exhausted face and thought of myself a year earlier.
Back then, I had been so thin my collarbones jutted beneath my skin, and even my own reflection frightened
Ethan had seen me like that.
All he had asked was whether I was trying to lose weight.
“No. Not even close.”
The last trace of hope vanished from his eyes.
“You’re cruel.”
I nodded.
“I learned from you.”
His lips parted, but he said nothing else.
Inside the mediation room, his attorney tried to claim a larger share of the marital assets.
“Mr Walker also contributed to the household during the marriage and covered part of the couple’s daily
expenses
My attorney slid a stack of documents across the table.
‘The apartment is registered solely in Ms. Carter’s name. She and her mother paid the down payment and every renovation expense, and the banking records are complete.”
My attorney slid another file across the table.
“The vehicle is also registered in Ms. Carter’s name, and the purchase funds came directly from her father’s
account.”
Then she placed a third file beside it.
“Four of the company’s key clients over the past three years were introduced by Ms. Carter’s father. The
emails and meeting records are all here.”
Across the table, Ethan slowly went pale.
Every advantage my family had given him, every favor he had refused to acknowledge, was now laid out in
front of everyone.
I was not trying to humiliate him. I wanted him to understand that the success he had always claimed as
entirely his own had never been his alone.
As his attorney leafed through the documents, his voice steadily faded.
Finally, Ethan interrupted him.
“Enough.”
His attorney looked startled.
“Mr. Walker?”
Ethan stared at me, his eyes bloodshot.
“Erin, you’ve been preparing for this all along?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
His body went rigid. Then he laughed, but the sound broke apart as tears spilled down his face.
“So every day you looked at me, you were already planning how to leave?”
I did not look away
“Ethan, I used to look at you every day and wonder when you would finally come back to me.”
He froze.
“Then I stopped waiting for you to.”
When the mediation ended, he still refused to sign.
The mediator reminded him twice.
Ethan picked up the pen, then put it down again.
His hand shook so badly that the pen dragged across the page, leaving a jagged black line.
He looked up at me.
“You’ll regret this.”
I gathered my copy of the documents and met his eyes.
My voice was firm.
“My only regret is that I didn’t come to my senses before I married you.”
At last, he signed.
The pen punched through the paper, leaving an ugly hole.
Bright sunlight greeted me outside the courthouse.
Kyle was waiting beside his car.
He wore a white T-shirt and black athletic pants, and the wind had left his hair slightly messy.
The moment he saw me, he jogged toward me.
“Did you cry?”
He cupped my face in both hands and turned it from side to side, checking me carefully.
“Did anyone give you a hard time?”
I shook my head and could not help smiling.
“No.”
Relief swept across his face before he pulled me into his arms.
“Good. Then let’s go celebrate.”
“Celebrate what?”
“The fact that I’m finally your boyfriend.”
He looked down at me, his eyes shining with excitement.
“Erin, when you introduce me from now on, don’t call me your swimming instructor anymore.”
“What should I call you?”
He thought about it seriously.
“Your boyfriend, your future husband, or your family. Any of those works for me.”
I laughed and pushed lightly against him.
“You’re getting more demanding.”
He opened the car door and bent down, shielding my head from the roof.
“First, steak. We can take the rest slowly.”
Before getting into the car, I glanced back.
Ethan stood on the courthouse steps, still holding the agreement.
He watched Kyle wrap an arm around my shoulders and watched me smile, but he did not move.
Then he took out his phone and called me.
As the car window closed, my screen lit up.
I looked down, saw his number, and declined the call.
Kyle started the engine.
“Who was it?”
“My ex-husband.”
The corner of his mouth lifted.
“I like the sound of that.”
As the car pulled away, I saw Ethan still standing there in the rearview mirror.
At that moment, I remembered the college campus five years earlier.
The sunlight had been just as bright.
After chasing Ethan for an entire year, I had finally gathered the courage to stop him.
“Ethan, I’ve been waiting for you for so long. Can you please look at me?”
Back then, he had walked straight past me without even turning his head.
Now everything had reversed. It was his turn to stand there and wait, and I never looked back.
