My Ex-Husband Became My Boss | He Left Me 5 Years Ago, Now He Wants Me Back
Chapter 6
Richard looked exactly like the man in the photograph.
Older.
Calmer.
More dangerous.
Emma stared at him.
“You destroyed our marriage.”
Richard smiled.
“No.”
“You threatened Alexander.”
“I protected my investment.”
“You ruined my father.”
“Your father made a mistake.”
Emma took a step forward.
“What mistake?”
“He trusted people.”
Alexander’s voice became cold.
“You’re done.”
Richard laughed.
“Still arrogant.”
“You should be in prison.”
“I was.”
Emma froze.
“What?”
Richard sat down.
“Three years.”
“For what?”
“Fraud.”
“Then how did you get out?”
“I cooperated.”
“With whom?”
Richard smiled.
“You’d be surprised how many powerful people prefer cooperation over justice.”
Emma looked at Alexander.
“Is this the person you were protecting me from?”
“Yes.”
Richard laughed.
“Protecting her wasn’t enough.”
He looked at Emma.
“She had access to something.”
“What?”
“Your father’s trust.”
Emma frowned.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You don’t know much about your own family.”
Richard stood.
“Your father left you something.”
“What?”
“A controlling stake.”
“Where?”
Richard smiled.
“That’s the problem.”
Alexander stepped forward.
“You’ll never get it.”
Richard looked at him.
“I don’t need you.”
“You need her.”
“Yes.”
Richard turned toward Emma.
“And now she knows why the marriage ended.”
Emma stared.
“You wanted the divorce.”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Richard smiled.
“Your father.”
Emma froze.
“My father?”
“He knew the company was collapsing.”
Richard explained that Emma’s father had entered a secret agreement with Reed Global.
The agreement required Alexander to marry Emma.
Not for money.
For protection.
Emma looked at Alexander.
“Is that true?”
Alexander’s silence was answer enough.
“You knew?”
“I knew about the agreement.”
“You married me because of it.”
“At first.”
Emma’s heart broke again.
Richard smiled.
“Now you understand.”
But Alexander stepped forward.
“That’s not the whole truth.”
Richard frowned.
Alexander turned to Emma.
“I married you because I loved you.”
“Before or after?”
“Before.”
Emma looked down.
Richard laughed.
“Don’t believe him.”
Alexander ignored him.
“I knew about the agreement before our wedding.”
He swallowed.
“But by then, I had already fallen in love with you.”
Emma stared.
“Then why?”
“Because I thought I could protect you.”
“And when you couldn’t?”
“I left.”
“You destroyed me.”
“I know.”
Emma turned away.
Richard watched them.
“You see?”
He smiled.
“Love is weakness.”
Emma looked back at him.
“No.”
She pointed at him.
“Lies are weakness.”
Richard’s expression hardened.
Then a security alarm sounded.
Police were outside.
Richard’s face changed.
Alexander had recorded the entire conversation.
Richard was arrested.
But before he was taken away, he said:
“You don’t have the trust.”
Emma frowned.
Richard smiled.
“It was never in your father’s company.”
Then he was gone.
Emma turned toward Alexander.
“What does that mean?”
He looked at the documents.
“I don’t know.”
They searched everything.
Finally, Emma remembered something.
Her father had once given her a necklace.
A small silver pendant.
She had kept it locked away after his death.
She returned home.
Opened the box.
Inside the pendant was a tiny inscription.
A date.
Her parents’ wedding date.
Alexander looked at it.
“That’s not a date.”
“What is it?”
“A code.”
They entered it into the old family records.
A hidden file appeared.
The trust.
Emma stared.
The document listed assets worth nearly $180 million.
She looked at Alexander.
“I had this?”
“Yes.”
“And you knew?”
“Some of it.”
She shook her head.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wanted you to choose me without knowing what you had.”
Emma’s expression softened.
But then she remembered something.
“I chose you once.”
He looked at her.
“And you left.”
He lowered his eyes.
She wasn’t ready to forgive him.
Not yet.
But for the first time, she knew the truth.
The divorce had never been what she thought.
And neither had their love.
