Walking Away While Pregnant: Dear Ex-Husband, I Don't Love You Anymore Chapter 10

Elise threw back the covers and got out of bed, heading straight for the door.

Dylan reached out and caught her wrist. "What are you doing now?"

She jerked her arm free, disgust written all over her face. "Don’t touch !"

His brows furrowed. "Calm down."

"I am calm." Elise lifted her chin slightly, eting his eyes without flinching. "This is the calst, clearest I’ve been in five years. Dylan, listen carefully—I am divorcing you."

"I’ve already told you about the empty grave. I hid it for your own good."

"For my own good?" Elise let out a sharp, derisive laugh. "Then what—are you going to say that building another ho outside, with another woman and child, was also for my sake?"

"They’re two different things." Dylan’s expression tightened. "Calm down. Acting like this won’t solve anything."

Elise stared at him, speechless.

Even now—after everything—the man she had once loved so deeply still looked so arrogant, so certain of himself.

To him, the death of their twins had been nothing more than an accident. The five years she had spent drowning in grief were nothing but her own emotional problem.

Perhaps he had felt guilty once. But compared to the happiness Quinn and that child brought him...

What did guilt even matter?

All at once, Elise felt... nothing.

No love. No hate.

None of it ant anything anymore.

She had been blind. She had chosen the wrong man from the start.

Closing her eyes, she took a slow, steady breath. When she opened them again, there was nothing left inside but a hollow stillness.

"Dylan... do you think that no matter what you do, I’ll always accept it without question?"

He was caught off guard.

Before he could answer, she continued, "Do you think I can’t live without you?"

Dylan frowned, but said nothing.

To Elise, his silence was answer enough.

"You’re right. Before I knew all this... I thought I couldn’t live without you either."

Her voice was cold, distant. "This marriage... I fought for it many tis. I loved you. I was willing to give you everything without regret."

"In that first year, I thought I was the happiest woman in the world. My husband was the man I loved most, and I was about to give birth to our children. I truly believed we would spend our lives together."

Her voice trembled faintly.

"No matter how busy you were, you ca ho every day. You went with to every prenatal checkup. You fulfilled your role as a husband, and you gave all the respect and dignity I deserved as your wife..."

She pressed her lips together, her voice catching. "I thought... you loved too."

A pause.

"But now I see... it was all just wishful thinking on my part."

She lowered her gaze, stepping past him toward the door.

Dylan stood there, stunned. The hand she had shaken off felt strangely empty.

In his line of sight, her slender figure moved farther and farther away.

Thud.

The glass hit the nightstand with a heavy sound. The milk inside sloshed, spilling over the rim.

The doorknob turned.

Elise pulled the door open. But the mont she stepped out, her arm was seized.

Before she could react, Dylan had lifted her into his arms.

Bang!

With a kick of his long leg, the door slamd shut again.

"Dylan! Let go!" Elise struggled, but instinctively held back, mindful of the child in her womb.

Dylan’s face darkened. He carried her back to the bed and set her down, then leaned over her, his tall fra pressing close.

Her breath hitched.

Her hands ca up instinctively, bracing against his chest as she glared at him. "Don’t touch !"

"You wanted a child, didn’t you?" Dylan said, bracing himself on either side of her. His expression was unreadable, his dark eyes fixed on her.

"Fine! Then we’ll have another one."

His voice was calm, but his heavy breathing betrayed the storm inside his heart.

"Don’t worry. Robin’s existence will never threaten our child."

The words made her stomach turn.

Without hesitation, Elise raised her hand and slapped him again. This ti, he could have stopped her.

But he didn’t. He took it head-on.

"Have you had enough?" Dylan’s expression darkened. "Can you listen to now?"

Elise looked at him with nothing but revulsion, pushing against him one more ti. "Get away from !"

His eyes narrowed slightly. "If you still refuse to listen, I don’t mind using stronger thods."

Her breath caught. She knew exactly what he ant.

They had been together too long—she understood him all too well.

And now... With the child in her womb, she didn’t dare push him too far.

Taking a deep breath, forcing down the storm inside her, she spoke through clenched restraint, "Fine. Then let go of first."

Seeing her yield, Dylan lifted a brow slightly.

He had always found her monts of surrender... agreeable.

His expression eased. He let go of her and moved to sit at the side.

Elise pushed herself upright, instinctively smoothing the hem of her clothes. Then she walked to the sofa by the floor-to-ceiling window and sat down, her face cold and composed as she looked at him.

"Now," she said, "you can talk."

Dylan frowned faintly at her attitude, but he knew her temperant well.

If not for the loss of their twins, she would have been soone radiant—full of life, full of warmth.

The mory of who she once was stirred sothing complicated inside him.

There had been a ti when he saw her as the light in his life—his little sun. He had even sworn, silently, to give her a lifeti of care and protection.

But fate... had other plans.

He pulled himself back, rubbing his brow.

"Five years ago," he began, "the funeral car transporting the twins... was involved in an accident on the way to the cetery. It collided with a truck. The car caught fire imdiately."

His voice lowered.

"The flas spread too quickly. By the ti rescue teams arrived... the vehicle was completely destroyed. The driver and another staff mber didn’t survive either."

Elise’s eyes reddened instantly.

Her hands clenched into fists as she shut her eyes. Tears spilled down her cheeks.

"At the ti, you were still in the ICU, not out of danger," Dylan continued. "I was afraid you wouldn’t be able to handle the truth. So I went ahead with the funeral... and set up morial graves for them."

Her chest rose and fell violently.

She bit down hard, trying to contain herself, but the pain was unbearable.

Her poor children... in the end, they hadn’t even been laid to rest.

And all of this... Was because of him.

"Dylan." She opened her eyes again, staring straight at him through tears.

He t her gaze, and sothing in it pierced him. A flicker of unease rose in his chest.

"I used to tell myself," she said slowly, "that even though the kidnapping happened because of you... you were still their father. You wouldn’t have wanted that outco either."

Her voice trembled, but she forced it steady. "I kept telling myself—you must have been hurting too. That I should understand you."

A pause.

"Do you know what it feels like?"

His throat tightened as he looked at her.

Her voice dropped, almost hollow.

"Every ti I close my eyes... I see it. The kidnappers raising that baseball bat and bringing it down on my stomach—again and again. And then... all that blood."

"Stop..." Dylan lowered his gaze, unable to et her eyes. "What happened to the children... Yes. I owe you an apology. A billion apologies. So I’m sorry, Elise."

Elise stood up, wiping her tears away.

"Wanna know sothing? The way you comfort that child... you really can be gentle. I used to imagine... that you would have been like that with my children too."

Dylan’s head snapped up.

For the first ti, unmistakable pain flickered in his eyes.

But Elise no longer cared.

"Once the divorce agreent is ready, my lawyer will send it to your company," she said calmly. "I don’t want this house. As I said before—everything we built together, I’m taking all of it."

Her gaze was cold, unwavering.

"You still have the Bennet Corporation. These shared assets an nothing to you."

A faint pause.

"I won’t let Quinn and that child enjoy what I created."

She t his eyes one last ti.

"If you truly feel any guilt toward our children... then sign the papers. That’s all I will ask of you."