No Second Chances Ex-husband (Lauren and Ethan) novel Chapter 122

CHAPTER 0122

ROMAN’S POV

After hearing her last words, I let out a quiet sigh that felt heavier than it should have. I dragged over an office chair from the corner and sat down across from her. For the first time since I walked in here, I didn’t feel like a boss talking to his employee, I felt like a man trying to reach through the invisible wall she had built around

herself.

She had just let down her guard a little, and that was progress, something I’d been trying to achieve for days. If she was willing to even slightly, then maybe, I could close the distance between us.

open up,

She said she wasn’t ready to fall in love again, but her voice carried a sadness that made me believe she wanted to, deep down. Her heart just needed to heal and that wouldn’t happen if she kept living in her shell, convinced that everyone who came close would hurt her. Maybe… I could be the one to help her heal.

elling me,” I began carefully, leaning back in my chair, “that you haven’t been in any relationship

“So you’re since you left Ethan?”

Her eyes darted toward me before she nodded, a faint, almost tired smile tugging at her lips. “Yes,” she said, her voice soft but steady. “Even though I know it’s not something to be proud of.

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I watched her roll her eyes and then glance away like she regretted saying it out loud. For a moment, I didn’t know what to say there was something in the way she said that, something that sounded less like shame and more like self–protection.

“Well,” I said finally, “what I’m about to ask… I’ll understand if you don’t want to say anything about it. But if Ethan hurt you this much, then why did you marry him in the first place?”

She let out a small breath and looked down at her hands. Her fingers toyed absently with the edge of a bracelet on her wrist as though she was trying to decide how much to tell me.

“The truth is,” she started slowly, “he wasn’t really like this when I first met him.”

Her eyes drifted somewhere far away, back into memories that still had the p

back into memories that still had the power to sting. “He was a nice guy… someone who was recovering from a heartbreak from his ex, the same woman he’s married to now. We bonded over that pain. I tried to help him move on, and eventually, we got married. I thought he was the one.”

She gave a small, humorless laugh. “Guess I was wrong.”

I didn’t interrupt. Her voice was fragile, steady one moment and trembling the next, like someone who had carried too much weight for too long and didn’t know how to set it down anymore.

“So one day he just woke up and turned into the heel?” I asked softly.

She looked up at me and sighed. “Well… It’s complicated. He never stopped loving her, that’s the truth. He truly had his eyes set on getting back together with his ex, and he succeeded, even though he was married to me.‘

The way she said it made my chest tighten. There was no anger there only exhaustion. She had accepted the pain, but it still lived inside her.

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“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said, my voice dropping low. “He’s always been an asshole. I can’t say I’m surprised.”

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Her lips twitched slightly at that, the ghost of a smile flickering and fading almost instantly.

“Which makes me want to ask,” she said after a moment, her gaze returning to me, “how did you meet Ethan? How did the history between the two of you start?”

That question… It took me off guard.

For a moment, I just stared at her. No one had ever asked me that before not even my ex–wife. She never cared enough to. Yet here was someone who barely knew me asking something so personal, like she genuinely wanted

to understand.

It caught me off balance, and oddly enough, it felt good.

A small smile pulled at my lips as I leaned back in my chair and let out a low chuckle. “Uhmm,” I said, scratching the back of my neck, “I haven’t been asked this before. It’s a long story, though.”

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“Well, I have time,” she said with a light shrug. “I mean, you’re the boss of this company. If I spend the whole day here, no one can complain.”

Her tone carried a trace of humor, but her eyes were curious. It was the first time I’d seen her look at me that way, and it did something strange to me.

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