PART 2: A Stranger Let Me Sleep on His Shoulder—Then My Ex-Husband Found Me Before the Plane Even Landed -030
“He’s my husband.”
“Ex-husband,” Adrian corrected quietly.
Elena looked at him.
“We’re separated. Nothing is final yet.”
The security officer straightened.
“That complicates things.”
“Name?” Adrian asked.
“Mara Vance.”
“No. His.”
Mara glanced at her phone.
“Ethan James Walker.”
Elena felt her stomach drop.
Mara turned the screen around.
There he was.
Ethan.
Standing inside George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
Blue sweater.
Dark jeans.
Perfect hair.
The familiar silver watch Elena had bought him on their fourth anniversary.
And that same charming face that had once convinced her mother he was the safest man Elena could possibly marry.
Except Ethan wasn’t smiling now.
He was talking to an airport employee while holding up a photograph.
A photograph of Elena and Lily.
Adrian looked at Elena.
“Did he have permission to follow you?”
“No.”
“Does he have custody orders?”
“No.”
“Any restraining order? Court arrangement?”
“No. Nothing.”
“Then you’re not leaving through the public terminal.”
Elena’s head snapped toward him.
“I can’t just disappear with you.”
“I’m not asking you to disappear with me.”
His voice remained calm.
“I’m asking you not to walk directly toward a man who somehow knew exactly which flight you were taking when you never told him
That silenced her.
Lily shifted in her arms.
“Mama?”
Elena immediately softened.
“I’m here, sweetheart.”
Lily opened sleepy brown eyes.
“Are we in Texas?”
Elena kissed her forehead.
“Yes.”
“Is this the cowboy place?”
Despite everything, Adrian smiled.
“One of them.”
Lily studied him seriously.
“You’re the pillow man.”
Mara blinked.
Adrian cleared his throat.
Apparently billionaires could be embarrassed.
Elena almost laughed.
Almost.
