Weston’s gaze lingered on the red marks still fading from Claire’s throat, his voice dropping colder.
“It’s precisely because you can’t handle a family matter like an adult that it needs someone older stepping in.”
“Go home.
Your mother’s waiting for you at the estate.
There’s nothing left for you here.”
Ethan flushed with embarrassment.
He and Weston were roughly the same age, and yet in that moment he might as well have been a toddler being sent home to find his mother.
He stepped closer, voice softening deliberately.
“Uncle, I can handle today.
No need to get involved.”
Weston’s expression didn’t budge.
“Is that so?
You think you’ve handled this well?”
Ethan’s pride cracked wide open, his face burning, but he didn’t dare push back.
Weston’s rise through the Shaw empire years ago had been the stuff of legend ruthless, precise, terrifying.
The Shaw family now sat at the height of its power, and in Havenbridge, people spoke his name with equal parts respect and fear.
Outsiders envied the Ashfords simply for being connected to him.
And Ethan had only just taken the CEO seat.
He’d need Weston’s guidance more than ever going forward.
Picking a fight over something this small would be a special kind of stupid.
“…Right.
I’ll head out, then.
Thank you, Uncle.”
Once Ethan left, Marcus went inside to negotiate at the front desk.
Claire stood waiting anxiously by the door when Weston spoke again.
“When you were a kid, even when you couldn’t win a fight, you’d at least bare your teeth.
What happened to you?
Got addicted to playing the devoted, docile wife?”
Tears stung Claire’s eyes, humiliation rising fast.
“When we were kids, there were no real consequences.
We could fight and just run home.
Try that now even a tiger gets skinned alive for baring its teeth at you or Ethan.
Let alone someone like me.”
Something unreadable flickered across Weston’s face.
His mouth curved slightly.
“So they’ve fully tamed you, then.
The Ashfords.”
Claire’s eyes trembled.
She wanted to argue, but didn’t know where to even start.
That’s when Naomi emerged from inside, trailing Marcus, gripping the hem of her shirt.
“Claire, I’m so sorry.
I dragged you into this, didn’t I?”
Claire’s tears spilled over as she pulled Naomi into a tight hug.
“What were you thinking, starting a fight like that?
Never do something so reckless again, do you understand me?”
Naomi cried through a face streaked with tears and worse, stubbornly refusing to nod along.
Claire is my best friend.
Ethan actually slapped her.
I couldn’t just stand there.
I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
Claire, torn between heartbreak and gratitude, grabbed her hands to check for injuries.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
Naomi laughed through the tears.
“Please.
I did taekwondo for years.
I scratched Rosalind’s face and pulled a whole clump of her hair out.”
“And that scumbag Ethan I slapped him, kicked him a few times.
If he hadn’t dodged, I would’ve ended his chances of having kids permanently.”
Claire squeezed her hand hard, cutting off the victory lap.
Ethan’s uncle is standing right there.
Naomi bit her lip, forcing an awkward smile.
“Mr.
Shaw.
What a coincidence, running into you here.”
Weston said flatly, “Just passing through.”
Claire: “…”
Unpredictable as ever.
Genuinely, exactly like when he was a kid.
Ten seconds ago she’d been frozen solid by his tone.
Now he was casually indulging Naomi’s ridiculous swagger like it was nothing?
Weston turned to get in his car.
As he passed Claire, he added, quiet, almost to himself: “Even without teeth or claws, a tiger’s still a tiger.”
Claire stood frozen, watching the black car pull away, until Naomi’s voice snapped her back.
“Claire, what tiger?
What’s Weston Shaw playing at?”
“It’s nothing.
Come on, let’s get you home first.”
Back at the estate, Ethan braced for the lecture, and Margaret didn’t disappoint.
“You’ve barely settled into the CEO chair, your position isn’t secure yet, and every uncle and cousin in this family is just waiting for you to slip up!”
“If it weren’t for your uncle’s connections keeping this quiet, do you have any idea what a scandal like this could’ve done to the company’s stock?
Have you even thought about that?”
“You threw away this whole family to marry Claire, and now you’ve hit her in public.
At this point, why not just divorce her!”
Ethan rubbed his temples, trying to tune her out.
But that word divorce landed like a needle straight through his chest.
He winced.
“Mom.
I’m not divorcing Claire.”
Margaret’s eyes flickered, and she pulled up the restaurant’s surveillance footage on her phone, holding it out to him.
“Not divorcing her?
Watching this, I genuinely can’t tell whose husband you’re supposed to be.”
The video played Rosalind sitting beside Claire, chatting casually, then throwing water in Naomi’s face.
Claire retaliating.
Then Ethan, without a single question asked, slapping Claire hard across the face.
Right up until he carried Rosalind away, Claire stood there frozen, blank, like a bystander who hadn’t even registered what happened.
A lump rose in his throat.
“Mom, why are you showing me this?”
Margaret dragged the progress bar back, pausing on the exact frame of Rosalind throwing the water.
“Ethan, your father died young, and you grew into someone mature, responsible you never once worried me.
But when it comes to relationships, you’re blind.
Forget that she’s technically your sister-in-law, can you not see how two-faced this woman is?”
She looked down on Claire’s background, sure.
But she despised Rosalind’s manipulation far more, and Ethan seemed completely spellbound by her.
Ethan’s jaw tightened, lips pressed into a hard line.
He said nothing for a long moment.
“Mom.
Do you remember the accident?”
Pain crossed Margaret’s face.
“Barely.
When I woke up in the hospital, they told me your father died on impact, your sister was missing, and you”
“The blood clot in my brain was pressing on the optic nerve,” Ethan continued.
“The doctors said I might never see again.”
“I was six.
Terrified.
And you were drowning in grief Dad gone, my sister missing you had nothing left to give me.”
“There was a little girl who used to visit me at the hospital every few days back then.”
“She brought candy.
Told me stories about the world outside.
Taught me how to fold every candy wrapper into a paper crane.”
She told me once I fold a hundred cranes, my wish comes true, and I’ll be able to see again.
Ethan’s fist tightened against his knee.
“I looked for her for years.
Nothing.
Not until she married into this family married Julian.
I only recognized her by the jade pendant she still wore.”
“I already lost her once.
And now Julian’s gone, she’s alone, and this is the second chance the universe is handing me.”
“I have the means to protect her now.
Whatever mistakes she makes along the way, I will protect her.
No exceptions.”
His phone rang.
On the screen: Rosalind’s saved contact name Little Paper Crane.
His expression softened instantly.
“Mom, I’ve laid it all out for you.
This was never about lust clouding my judgment.
This is me getting back something I already lost once.”
“Rosalind matters more to me than anyone.
I won’t let anyone hurt her.”
“As for Claire, I know her.
I’ll get her something nice tomorrow to smooth things over.
We’ll go back to normal.”
Just then, Vera stepped in from the hallway.
She addressed Ethan respectfully as he left the room, then turned and handed Margaret two red certificates.
“Ma’am.
The divorce is finalized.”