The car sped down the road, but Hailey Tang wasn't watching the world blur by outside the window. She was lost in thought, her voice quiet. "Zhang Ma… was it really that ridiculous for me to insist on marrying Ethan Yu?"
Zhang Ma blinked, caught off guard. "Miss Hailey, wasn't that your biggest wish?"
Hailey gave a bitter chuckle. "Yeah… but I never once considered how he felt. He didn't want to marry me. Not really."
There was no bitterness in her tone—just a haunting sort of clarity. "No wonder he hates me."
No wonder, in her past life, everything had fallen apart so horribly.
Zhang Ma hesitated for a moment, then said carefully, "I don't know what the Young Master was thinking, but we all know what kind of person he is. No one can force him to do anything he doesn't want to."
Hailey turned to her slowly, startled.
Zhang Ma continued, "If he truly didn't want to marry you, I doubt anything or anyone could've made him. Maybe… maybe he had his reasons."
Her words hit harder than Hailey expected.
Right. Ethan wasn't the type to cave under pressure. If he didn't want to marry her, he could've dragged out the engagement for years, come up with excuses, found loopholes. But instead… he married her.
Why?
If he hated her so much—if he truly never intended to marry her—why did he?
It wasn't love. Of that, she was absolutely certain.
So what was it?
Just as that impossible question spun in her mind, her phone rang. The screen flashed with the name: Ethan Yu.
Hailey stared at it, stunned. Why was he calling?
She answered. "Hello?"
"Where are you?" Ethan's voice was low and full of icy fury.
Hailey blinked. Wasn't he the one who told her to get lost?
"I'm… on the road. Is it time to sign the papers?"
"You have five minutes. Get back here." Then—click. The call ended.
She stared at her phone in disbelief. "What the hell?"
Why was he like this?
Still, she turned to the driver. "Take us back. Now."
The driver didn't ask questions. The car turned around immediately.
They hadn't gotten far, so within minutes, the car pulled up again in front of the villa she had just sworn to leave forever.
Hailey assumed he wanted her to come back and sign the divorce papers after all. She headed upstairs, straight to the bedroom.
She pushed open the door—and stopped.
The shower was running. Ethan was in the bathroom.
She hesitated at the threshold, then knocked on the frosted glass door. "I'm back. Do you want to sign now?"
No answer.
She let out a sigh and leaned against the wall, deciding to wait.
Ten minutes later, the bathroom door finally opened.
Ethan stepped out, wrapped in nothing but a white towel slung low on his hips, water still dripping from his hair. His perfectly sculpted body looked like it had been chiseled by a Renaissance artist.
His chest was broad, his abs sharply defined, and his long, muscular legs peeked from beneath the towel in a way that should've been illegal.
Hailey's breath hitched for a fraction of a second.
Damn it. She had been obsessed with this man once for a reason.
He wasn't just rich and powerful—he was the kind of dangerously attractive that made people lose common sense. The kind of man who ruined lives with a smirk and a sideways glance.
She had grown up around handsome men, came from a prestigious family herself, and wasn't exactly hard on the eyes. But Ethan Yu had still managed to sweep her off her feet at first sight.
And she'd fallen—hard.
Even now, standing there in just a towel, he still looked like temptation personified.
But Hailey wasn't that naïve girl anymore.
She took a steadying breath and kept her tone casual. "So? Why'd you call me back?"
Ethan didn't answer right away. He just shot her a cold glare. "Who gave you permission to leave?"
Hailey choked on her breath. "What?!"
Was this guy serious?
"Didn't you just tell me to get out? That you never wanted to see me again?!"