Chapter 3 Sibel, I Hate You

"Sibel, what are you doing!"

"Wendy, help!"

Julian quickly put down his glass, but before he could get there, Sibel said through gritted teeth, "Crying won't help."

She had never been this harsh with Ethan before. This was the first time he'd seen her truly angry, not a hot-tempered outburst, but a rage laced with despair.

"What did you just say to me?" Sibel reminded him. "You told me to get out of the hospital bed, didn't you?"

"Ethan, I'm not your mother, but I've been taking care of you since you were three days old—changing your diapers, feeding you. You were premature. You'd just come out of the incubator, tiny and frail. The doctors weren't even sure you'd make it."

"Sibel!" Julian hadn't expected her to bring this up. He snapped at her, "That's enough!"

Sibel ignored him.

"Everything I've given you over all these years. You can take it for granted, you can pretend it means nothing, but you have no right to tell me to get out."

She let go of Ethan. "Remember this, I have no son. You never have to call me Mom again."

Ethan was so frightened he started sobbing. Even after Sibel released him, he didn't dare cry out loud.

"Sibel, why are you scaring the kid? He didn't mean it like that!" Julian's face darkened as he strode toward her and reached for her wrist. "You!"

The next moment, his arm was blocked.

Rayn had been standing quietly to the side this whole time. Now he stepped in, shielding Sibel behind him.

Julian didn't know who he was. "Get out of the way. That's my wife."

"Not anymore," Sibel said coldly. "Julian, have your lawyer draw up the divorce papers. I'll accept any terms."

Then she turned to Wendy, who was still in the room.

"You want family? Fine, I'm giving you both of them. Wishing you all a happy life together."

She turned and walked away. Behind her came Julian's voice, low and terrifying: "Sibel. Stop right there."

The last time he'd spoken like that was when an overseas vendor had cheated him.

He'd flown abroad afterward and dismantled their entire chain of companies across Europe and America, sending hundreds of people to prison.

Now his fury had clearly reached the same point of no return. "Sibel, take one more step and don't ever come back!"

"You begged to marry into the Logan family. Now you think you can just walk out?"

"Sibel, I hate you!" Ethan screamed through his tears.

Sibel stopped.

She didn't turn around. Her voice was quiet and cold in the empty hallway. "I did love you once. I loved Ethan too. But I was blind back then. I won't make that mistake again."

"Julian, don't worry. I'm never coming back."

Sibel spent three days in the hospital and didn't reach out to Julian once.

Ethan didn't message her either. It was Rayn who occasionally mentioned that the father and son had been staying at the hospital with Wendy the whole time.

On the day she was discharged, while the two of them were away, Sibel slipped back to the villa and collected some of her things.

Her best friend Chloe Bright came with her, chattering nonstop the whole time, which actually lifted Sibel's mood.

"So what's the plan?" Chloe asked, flooring the gas in her red Ferrari. "Go back to your old job, research at a pharma company? Join me in AI medicine? Or…" She shot Sibel a wink. "Listen to me, just become an influencer."

Sibel laughed. "I've been a housewife for five years. What am I going to debut as?"

"You never had kids, your figure's perfect, your face is flawless, why not?" Chloe shook her head in mock disbelief. "It's honestly not fair. Everyone else is getting chubby, and you still have that tiny little face. You look exactly the same as you did at eighteen!"

"Alright, I know you're just trying to cheer me up." Sibel smiled. "I want to go into innovative medicine. What's the most promising direction right now?"

"Now you're speaking my language!" Chloe slapped the steering wheel. "Come do research with me, help me make money, babe. I'll get you a villa and a luxury car this year, plus a hundred million in cash and next year you better make our company ten billion, okay?"

The two of them moved into a high-end apartment in the tech and innovation district, laughing the whole way. Chloe brought over a stack of documents for Sibel to look through, and after a few days of reading, Sibel had a rough direction in mind.

Her message thread with Julian had been silent for a long time. Then, one day, a message finally appeared.

[Home at 3pm. Have soft food ready.]

Sibel stared at it for a long moment. At first she thought he'd sent it to the wrong person. Then it hit her—he was giving her a way out. An opening to go back, keep cooking and cleaning for the two of them, and call it even.

She blocked Julian without replying, tossed her phone aside, and went back to her book.

She never saw the long list of dishes Ethan had sent her either.

At 3:10, the gates of the Logan Villa swung open.

"We're home!"

Ethan ran straight into the dining room in his outdoor shoes, but the smell he'd been expecting wasn't there.

In fact, there was a faint smell of dust in the air.

The villa had been empty for two weeks. A thin layer of dust had settled over everything. Two unwashed plates sat in the sink, the dried residue crusted onto them.

Sibel wasn't there.

Ethan had sent her over twenty dishes he wanted to eat through his kids' smartwatch. She hadn't replied to a single one.

"She's not here!" Ethan came running out and looked up at Julian, his mouth starting to quiver.

He liked Wendy more, sure, but it had been so long since anyone had held him and told him a bedtime story. So long since he'd had a home-cooked meal. There was a hollow feeling somewhere inside him he couldn't quite explain.

"Sibel must be angry at me." Wendy stood by the door, still in her shoes. "Maybe I should just go…"

"No need." Julian frowned. "This is my home. You're the one who belongs here. Do whatever you want."

"Wendy! Come sleep in my room!" The moment he heard that, Ethan completely forgot about Sibel and happily grabbed Wendy's hand. "I'll sleep in the middle, you sleep on one side, and Dad on the other! Okay?"

Wendy covered her mouth, giggling. "Don't say things like that."

Julian paid the comment no mind. He went upstairs to change, his expression cold—then opened the walk-in closet and stopped.

Half of it was empty.

Sibel had taken her things.

Still not done with her little tantrum?

He felt a sharp flash of irritation, pulled out his phone, and called her.

It rang for a long time. No answer. He called again—and this time she rejected it outright.

Before he could get angry, a text from Sibel came through.

[Send the divorce papers to my email. Text me the time and place to sign. No need to call.]