Ex Wife's Collapse After Divorce novel Chapter 55

Chapter 55

The silence stretched, then Ethan let out a cold laugh.

He didn’t need anyone to spell it out. These people were testing him.

He could have pulled rank to force someone to go with him. But doing so would play right into Nathan’s hands, casting him as the rumored emotionally unstable, incompetent connected hire-only breeding resentment and inviting sabotage.

He wasn’t about to fall for such a cheap trick.

Ethan flashed Nathan a knowing smile, then turned and walked away.

“Wait!”

A young voice cut through the quiet. Ethan paused. A kid-barely out of college by the look of him-stood up from a corner cubicle, his face flushed. An intern badge dangled from his shirt pocket.

“Deputy Manager Carter, I… can I go with you?”

A few nearby employees exchanged glances. Someone let out a dry chuckle. The intern’s face reddened further, but he didn’t sit back down.

Ethan let the silence stretch just long enough to test the intern’s nerve. The kid didn’t look away.

Then he offered a genuine, appreciative smile. “What’s your name?”

“Travis, sir. Travis Holloway.”

“Let’s go, Travis.”

Travis’s eyes lit up. He scrambled to gather his things-

A heavy thud cut through the room.

Nathan’s fist connected with a stack of documents on his desk. When he spoke, his voice carried ice.

“Travis. The work I assigned you this morning. Done yet?”

Travis froze mid-step. “Group Leader, I finished that before lunch.”

“Perfect.” Nathan rose, gathering a massive stack of binders and loose papers from his workstation. He crossed to Travis’s cubicle and slammed them down with enough force to rattle the monitor. “Then

you’re free to handle these. Sort them. Print them. On my desk before end of day.”

The color drained from Travis’s face. The stack stood nearly a foot tall-hundreds of pages of unstructured data that would take days to process, not hours.

“Group Leader, could I-” Travis swallowed. “Could I have until tomorrow? End of day tomorrow?”

“I’ve seen your efficiency. You’ll manage.” Nathan’s lips curled. “Don’t disappoint me.”

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He turned and walked back toward his desk, passing within inches of Ethan. His shoulder nearly brushed Ethan’s chest. The smirk on his face broadcast the message louder than any words.

A public challenge. A thrown gauntlet.

Every eye in the department fixed on Ethan.

Ethan’s hand shot out.

His palm connected with Nathan’s shoulder-not hard, but firm. Nathan jolted to a halt, his smirk flickering.

“Hold on.”

Ethan’s voice was low, steady. He picked up the stack of files from Travis’s desk and, without breaking eye contact, pressed it back into Nathan’s hands.

“I think you’ll be handling this yourself, Team Lead Cross. You seem to have a lot of free time.”

Nathan’s jaw tightened. He squared his shoulders, chin lifted, refusing to back down. “Deputy Manager, sorting files is intern work. Everyone knows that. Surely you understand basic department operations?”

A few snickers rippled through the room.

Nathan pressed his advantage, tilting his head. “Unless you’re using your position to pressure me? Is

that it?”

Ethan let the question hang. Then he smiled.

It wasn’t warm.

“You’re right,” Ethan said. “I suppose I really don’t understand the basic operations of this department.”

“I always assumed that at any other company, conducting on-site market research was a vital part of a marketing employee’s job. I had no idea our department was the sole exception. Aside from Travis, everyone here seems to believe they have far more important things to do, and are far too busy to be

bothered.”

“Yet, from my rather shallow understanding, you guys aren’t actually that busy.” Ethan tilted his head. “So, to help align your actions with your words, I had no choice but to increase your workload-just to make sure you actually have endless tasks to keep you occupied.”

“I think having Nathan help share the intern’s workload is a very good start,” Ethan said flatly.

Nathan’s expression froze.

“Consider this your final deadline. Sort those files before close of business. If you can’t manage that-” Ethan held his gaze, unblinking. “-then don’t bother showing up tomorrow.”

A sharp inhale. Someone near the back nearly dropped their coffee cup.

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Nathan’s face darkened to a shade of ugly red. He opened his mouth, but Ethan had already turned away. He didn’t need to hear whatever comeback Nathan was scrambling to piece together.

“Let’s go, Travis.”

Travis stood rooted to the spot for a full second, eyes wide. Then he practically grabbed his bag and

rushed to follow.

The office doors swung shut behind them.

The moment the doors closed, Nathan’s coworkers swarmed him.

“Jesus, Nathan. Breathe. He’s not worth it.”

“Listen-right now, it’s better to let this go.”

One of them, a weasel-faced assistant named Caleb, leaned in with a conspiratorial whisper. “Think about it. Manager Yvonne handed him the Economic Development Zone project. The Economic Development Zone. You know what that means.

Nathan’s breathing slowed. His grip on the files loosened.

“Yeah.” A slow, ugly grin spread across his face. “I know exactly what it means.”

The Zone wasn’t just difficult. It was a career graveyard. Every company that had tried to invest there had walked away bleeding-or hadn’t walked away at all. Local gangs ran the place like feudal lords.

Protection fees. Intimidation. The works.

Yvonne hadn’t given Ethan a project.

She’d handed him a ticking bomb.

Caleb clapped Nathan on the back. “Just wait. Give him a month. When he crashes and burns, we’ll petition Yvonne. Incompetence. Leadership failure. He’ll be out before the quarter ends.”

Nathan exhaled, the tension finally leaving his shoulders. “Fine.”

He set the files aside and sank into his chair, already imagining Ethan’s humiliation.

Down in the parking lot, Ethan stopped short.

The car in front of him wasn’t a beater. A domestic sedan, clean, maybe a year or two old. Nothing flashy -but solid. Not what he’d expected from an intern.

Travis noticed his expression and shifted on his feet. “Uh, it’s my girlfriend’s, actually. She bought it.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Her family got a big relocation payout last year. I keep telling her I don’t

need it, but she insisted.”

Ethan raised an eyebrow. “And you’re still grinding out an internship?”

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