After the Divorce, He Begged Me Back Chapter 09

After the Divorce, He Begged Me Back Chapter 09

By the time Holden slammed through the 

doors of the maternity ward, Amber was in 

the throes of intense labor. 

Seeing him march into the room, her 

sweat–streaked face lit up with a brief spark 

of relief. 

“Honey! You made it!” she gasped through a 

contraction. “I knew you wouldn’t leave me 

alone in this place. The baby is coming. 

You’re about to be a father!” 

But there wasn’t a single shred of warmth in 

Holden’s eyes. He strode over to the bedside, 

reached out, and wrapped his hands violently around her throat. 

“The night before our wedding,” he hissed, squeezing down hard. “What exactly did you 

tell Chloe?” 

Amber choked, her airway instantly cut off 

as her face bruised into a deep purple. 

She thrashed against the mattress, her fingers clawing frantically at his wrists, but 

her movements grew weaker by the second. 

Right before she lost consciousness, Holden released his grip and threw her back against 

the pillows. 

Amber gasped violently for air, hacking and coughing as oxygen flooded her lungs. 

Holden didn’t show an ounce of compassion, standing over her like a grim reaper. 

“I will ask you one last time. What did you 

say to her?” 

Before Amber could steady her breathing, 

another brutal contraction ripped through 

her abdomen. 

The terror in her eyes slowly hardened into an expression of venomous, unadulterated 

rage. 

“I told her the truth!” she shrieked. “I told 

her that her hysterectomy wasn’t a medical. 

mistake!” 

Holden’s entire frame shook with fury. 

“How did you find out?” 

Amber let out a high–pitched, manic laugh. 

“Back when I was your secretary, I stood 

outside your office and heard your entire 

phone call with the surgeon.” 

Losing all control, Holden lunged forward 

and slammed his hands around her throat 

once more. 

Amber tried to fight him off, but a sudden 

gush of dark blood pooled onto the sheets. 

beneath her. 

Her water had broken, and a massive 

hemorrhage had triggered full emergency 

labor. 

Staring at the spreading crimson stain, a 

slow, twisted smile spread across Holden’s 

face. 

He pulled his hands back, muttering to 

himself like a lunatic. 

“It’s all your fault… Chloe refuses to come 

home because of you. I’m going to make you pay.” 

Terrified by his madness, Amber gathered every ounce of strength left in her body and slapped the emergency call button on the wall. 

Alarms blared down the hallway, and a team of doctors and nurses rushed to the room, only to find Holden had locked the heavy 

security door from the inside. 

Amber’s desperate screams echoed through the glass for what felt like an eternity until 

her voice cracked and she finally blacked out 

from exhaustion. Only then did Holden slide 

the bolt open. 

The medical team scrambled inside to check 

the monitors, but the lead obstetrician. 

slowly lowered his head, shaking it in defeat. 

“The infant was deprived of oxygen for too long in utero. I’m so sorry… there’s no 

heartbeat.” 

Holden let out a cold, chilling chuckle. “Good. Now that the mistake is gone, Chloe 

will come back to me.” 

He spun on his heel and stumbled out into the night like a zombie. 

Within two months, Holden’s firm officially 

filed for bankruptcy, its assets liquidated to 

cover his immense debt. 

Amber lost her mind completely following the loss of the child. She wandered the streets in a tattered hospital gown, grabbing strangers and sobbing the same question. 

“Have you seen my baby boy? Where is he?” 

Meanwhile, Holden spent every single day standing outside the EC Group headquarters like a hollow shell, staring up at the glass facade, waiting for a glimpse of me. 

Ethan stood beside me in the executive suite, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder. 

“I’ll have security remove him from the 

premises,” he murmured. 

I shook my head, glancing down at the pathetic figure shivering on the sidewalk. 

“If he loves standing in the cold so much, let 

him. I am never looking at him again.” 

Ethan pulled me into his arms, his touch 

warm and grounded. 

“Chloe, there’s something I need to show 

you.” 

“What is it?” I looked up at him. 

He pulled a bound document from his desk 

and slid it into my hands–it was an equity 

transfer agreement. 

“I’ve transferred exactly fifty percent of the 

conglomerate’s shares into your name,” he 

said softly. 

I froze, my jaw dropping. “Ethan… this is 

worth billions. I can’t take this.” 

He let out a soft laugh, brushing a strand of 

hair behind my ear. 

“This empire was always built for you, 

Chloe. The initials of the firm, EC… it stands 

for Ethan and Chloe.” 

I gasped, covering my mouth as tears filled my eyes. He had named his lifelong dream after us before I even knew it. 

Before I could process the shock, Ethan sank 

down onto one knee and produced a velvet box containing a flawless, brilliant–cut 

diamond ring. 

“Chloe, will you marry me and let me protect. you for the rest of our days?” 

My head nodded almost involuntarily as a sob of pure joy escaped my lips. He leaped up, laughing as he scooped me into his arms and spun me around the office. 

One month later, an EC Group security guard stepped out of the lobby and walked over to the ragged man huddled by the concrete 

steps. 

“Hey, wake up, buddy,” the guard muttered, nudging him with a boot. 

Holden’s bloodshot, glassy eyes drifted up 

toward the guard’s face. 

The guard slapped a heavy, cream–colored card against his chest with absolute disgust. 

“The office is closed tomorrow because the entire staff is attending the CEO’s wedding. The boss told me to make sure you got this.” 

Holden took the card with trembling fingers, while the guard turned back toward the glass doors, shaking his head. 

“No clue what the boss is thinking, giving a formal invite to a homeless bum.” 

Holden flipped the card open. Resting inside was a gorgeous, high–gloss wedding portrait 

of Chloe and Ethan, smiling radiantly in each 

other’s embrace. 

A choked sob caught in his throat. He looked 

up at the towering skyscrapers one last time, before dragging his broken feet down the avenue, disappearing into the fog. 

On the day of our wedding, Holden never showed his face. Instead, a small package 

was delivered to my dressing room. 

Inside lay the diamond wedding band I had left on the desk six months ago. I didn’t say a word: I walked out to the pavilion and tossed 

it directly into the deep waters of the lake. 

Turning back, I walked down the aisle, reached out my hands to Ethan as he smiled 

up at me, and whispered the words that 

cemented my new life. 

“I do.”