CEO Ex-Husband, Don't Bother Me-Chapter 85 - 83: Fatal Misunderstanding 2
Julian Donovan drove a long way with Dylan before he found Naomi Shaw sitting in the rain. He rushed out of the car and swept her into his arms. She struggled, but he held on tight and pushed her, soaking wet, into the vehicle.
"Whatever’s going on, we can talk about it at home! First, you need to calm down!"
’Home?’
Naomi Shaw sat silently in the back seat, the corners of her lips curling into a cold smile.
’Was that really her home? Wasn’t it his and Juliet Jennings’s?’
Dylan sat quietly in the front seat, perceptive as always. He kept glancing back at Naomi Shaw, who looked completely dazed.
Once they arrived at Julian Donovan’s apartment, he carried Naomi Shaw inside and pushed her into the bathroom, then tossed her a face towel and a bath towel.
"Go take a shower. We’ll have a proper talk when you get out."
Naomi Shaw only used the towel to wipe the rain and tears from her face before looking at him and saying quietly,
"You can drop the fake concern. I’m divorcing you."
Julian Donovan assumed she was only bringing up divorce because she had seen him holding Juliet Jennings, so he tried to explain.
"She was in a car accident a few days ago. It happened because she lost control of her emotions after I told her I just wanted to be friends. Her injuries are quite serious. At first, she refused treatment and said she didn’t want to live anymore. To get her to cooperate, I had no choice but to agree to some of her conditions..."
Julian Donovan hadn’t expected Juliet Jennings to do something as drastic as intentionally crashing her car. When she was pulled from the wreckage, she had multiple fractures and was half-dead. But once at the hospital, she refused all treatment, insisting that he promise not to break up with her and to let her move in with him after she was discharged.
He couldn’t just stand by and watch Juliet Jennings die, so he had agreed for the time being. His plan was to get her to accept treatment first, then call Naomi Shaw to explain everything. After all, she was supposed to be staying in Thailos with Lara Nash for a while. He never imagined she would come rushing to Meridia on her own, only to walk in on that scene.
Naomi Shaw just laughed at his explanation, laughed until tears streamed down her face.
"Julian Donovan, it’s already come to this. Why bother explaining? Go find the one you truly love. Weather the storms of life with her. No matter how bitter the future is, for you, I’m sure it will be pure bliss."
Her sarcasm annoyed Julian Donovan. He stepped forward and grabbed her.
"Naomi Shaw, I’ve already explained everything! Why are you still making such a scene? I told you, I’m going to stay with you!"
’Her heart felt as dead as ashes.’
"’Stay with you’? You mean let me keep the title of ’wife’ while you’re out being all lovey-dovey with your first love every day? Is that what you mean by ’staying with you’?"
Julian Donovan stared at her defiant face, frustrated by the accusations and distrust coming from the normally docile woman. It was all just a misunderstanding. He genuinely wanted to live a good life with her; he had no intention of getting back together with Juliet Jennings. He was only trying to placate her. How could he have imagined that Naomi would choose not to believe him?
Naomi Shaw met his gaze calmly.
"I want a divorce!"
"Never!"
Julian Donovan rejected the idea without a second thought. She just smiled faintly.
"If Juliet Jennings can threaten to kill herself to make you stay with her, then I can threaten to kill myself to make you let me leave!"
Julian Donovan stared at her in disbelief. ’She’d threaten to kill herself just to leave me?’ For her love to turn into such revulsion, for her to be so determined to leave... it was the most brutal blow to his pride. He wanted to strangle her right then and there.
"Naomi Shaw, what the hell do you want?"
’I’ve already explained. What more does she want?’
She ignored his fury, her persistence maddeningly resolute. At the end of his rope, Julian Donovan roared,
"Fine! You want a divorce? You can have one! But I get to keep our son!"
He didn’t know that when a woman truly hardens her heart, she can cast everything aside.
Her calm agreement completely shattered his composure.
"After the divorce, I’m changing the name of The Shaw Dominion to mine! Naomi Shaw, if you’re willing to watch your father’s entire legacy fall into the hands of an outsider, then go ahead and insist on this divorce!"
He was too proud to plead with her or say anything soft to make her stay; he had never done so in his life. He only knew how to threaten her with such forceful tactics. At this, Naomi Shaw’s heart felt even more like dead ashes.
"That’s fine. You earned it with your own hard work anyway."
’Everything The Shaw Dominion is today is because of him,’ she thought. ’Without him, it would just be an insignificant little faction.’
Now that the two threats he was sure would make her yield had failed, Julian Donovan finally realized she had truly made up her mind. He felt his own resolve falter.
"Fine, Naomi Shaw. I’ll grant you this."
She gave a faint smile.
"I believe I’m the one granting *your* wish."
Then, taking the bath towel and face towel, she walked into the bathroom and shut the door. ’After all, didn’t that woman say he wanted a divorce the last time he went back to Thailos?’
Her sarcastic retort infuriated Julian Donovan. He spun around, strode out, and slammed the bedroom door behind him.
The little boy sat quietly in the living room downstairs. He seemed to have already sensed the fracturing atmosphere between his parents. When he saw his father come down, he just looked at him, pursed his lips, and said nothing.
Every time Julian Donovan looked at Dylan, he felt a pang of guilt. He walked over and sat down beside him. Dylan looked up at him and asked,
"Are you and Mommy getting a divorce?"
He was always honest with his son.
"Daddy doesn’t really want to..."
Dylan replied like a little adult,
"Then you should ask Mommy to stay."
He muttered to himself,
"I explained it to her, but she won’t listen!"
Dylan quietly lowered his head.
"Oh. She must be completely heartbroken, then."
Julian Donovan felt a dull ache in his chest but didn’t know what to say. He just sighed and walked out.
Naomi Shaw took a quick shower and changed into clean clothes. When she came downstairs, Julian Donovan was gone. Dylan was still sitting there quietly. Thankfully, he hadn’t gotten soaked in the rain. She hugged him and asked softly,
"Dylan, let’s go back to Thailos right now, okay?"
’I can’t stand to be here another second,’ she thought. ’It doesn’t matter if there’s a direct flight to Thailos or not, I have to leave. I’ll take a connecting flight if I have to. Anything to get out of here.’
Dylan nodded with understanding.
"Don’t be sad, Mommy. You still have me!"
Naomi Shaw remembered her promise to Julian Donovan—that he could have their son. Her heart ached as she pulled Dylan into her arms and kissed him. Then, carrying her luggage and holding her son, she left. The rain was still pouring. Dylan held an umbrella over them both as they waited for a taxi. She had only been in this city for a few short hours, a city where she once thought she would spend the rest of her life.
Julian Donovan went to a bar to drink himself into a stupor. When he returned, he found that she and Dylan were gone. He frantically called her, but her phone was off. He had his men investigate and quickly found out that she had already bought tickets back to Thailos. He couldn’t imagine how she, who had never traveled far on her own, had managed to bring their son all the way to Meridia, nor how she was managing to get him back.
Her unyielding resolve instilled a sense of fear in him. For the first time, he realized she wasn’t weak at all.
The first thing Naomi Shaw did upon returning to Thailos was hire a lawyer to draft a divorce agreement. It was exactly as she had promised: their son would go to him, The Shaw Dominion would go to him, and she transferred all of her own shares in The Shaw Dominion to Dylan.
The second thing she did was find Tyson and ask for his help to disappear—to go somewhere Julian Donovan could never find her. She couldn’t stay here. If she stayed, she would be trapped in her memories of him, forever in pain, forever suffering.
’This time, I can’t allow myself to hesitate or go soft,’ she resolved. ’If I’m leaving, it has to be for good. I have to forget him, forget this place, and go live my own life.’
As for Dylan, she planned to see him in secret once she was settled. Her heart was simply dead to everything else. She never imagined she would later be caught in a disaster at sea.
When Tyson heard what Julian Donovan had done, he was so furious he wanted to fly to Meridia and beat him half to death. But Naomi Shaw simply placated him calmly.
"Tyson, why are you so angry? I’m not even angry anymore. I should thank him. These past six years have taught me how to grow."
Tyson couldn’t let it go.
"Naomi, how can you just let him off the hook like that!"
She just smiled quietly.
"He’s not really at fault. I was the one who insisted on falling in love with him back then. No one held a knife to my throat and forced me. If I had to sum up our relationship, I’d say this: I got what I deserved."
Tyson stared at her, stunned. Then, his heart flooded with a profound ache. ’What kind of soul-crushing heartbreak,’ he wondered, ’could turn such a gentle girl into this... this unbreakable woman?’
