CEO Ex-Husband, Don't Bother Me-Chapter 64: How Dare You Ask Me for Love (2)

Then again, he hadn’t completely abandoned them to fend for themselves. He did, after all, return for Dylan’s second birthday.

Early that morning, Naomi Shaw was still in bed, sleeping with Dylan in her arms, when her phone rang. She picked it up and was surprised to see it was him calling. After all, it had been a long time since he’d last called.

She answered the phone, a little uneasy. His voice came through the line. He seemed to have a cold; his voice was so altered she almost didn’t recognize it.

"Are you home right now?"

She confirmed that she was. He tossed a single sentence at her.

"I’m on my way back."

Naomi Shaw thought she must have misheard him. Clutching the phone, she was momentarily speechless. He hung up with an abrupt CLICK. She stood there, stunned, for a long moment before she came to her senses.

’And here I thought he was never coming back.’

’But why would he come back now, after what I said last time made him so angry?’

’But regardless, now that he said he was coming back, it’s not like I can throw him out. Especially since he sounded sick.’

She turned to look at Dylan, still fast asleep, and bent down to kiss his little cheek. She then got up, got ready, and went downstairs. She had just told Mrs. Sommers to make breakfast for one more person when his car pulled up outside the main gate.

Dressed in a black suit, he got out of the car and strode inside. Arnold followed behind him, carrying his luggage. She didn’t know when it started, but he no longer wore the kind of clean, white shirts he used to when she first met him. These days, he was always in an intimidating black, or other dark, cold colors that created a sense of distance.

He entered the living room, his gaze lingering on her for a fraction of a second, almost imperceptibly. Mrs. Sommers froze when she saw him, and Naomi Shaw also stood there, not knowing what to say. It was Arnold who finally broke the awkward silence.

"Miss Naomi, Julian is sick. He has a bad cold and seems to have a fever, too. Could you find some cold medicine for him?"

Naomi Shaw snapped out of her daze and turned to look for the first-aid kit, while Mrs. Sommers said,

"No wonder Naomi just asked me to make an extra portion. So it’s because Julian was coming home! I’ll go get it ready right away!"

Naomi Shaw, returning with the medicine, felt a pang of awkwardness. Arnold sidled up to her with a grin and said,

"Miss Naomi, just treat Julian as your first patient and take good care of him!"

With that, Arnold turned and left cheerfully, leaving Naomi Shaw feeling awkward once again.

"Mama..."

Dylan’s tearful cry came from upstairs. He must have woken up and started crying because she wasn’t the first person he saw. Naomi Shaw shoved the medicine into Julian’s hand and ran upstairs.

Fortunately, Dylan wasn’t the type of child to throw a tantrum. The tears in his eyes vanished the moment he saw her. She picked him up and was dressing him when Julian Donovan pushed the door open and walked in. Seeing him, Dylan happily reached out his arms, wanting to be held.

"Daddy, you haven’t been home in so long..."

Dylan, whose speech was getting more and more fluent, greeted him with a line that was like a punch to the gut.

Thinking of his bad cold, Julian Donovan said to Naomi Shaw,

"I have a cold. I probably shouldn’t hold him. I don’t want to get him sick."

Naomi Shaw nodded. Seeing how haggard his face was, she finally said,

"I’ll take Dylan downstairs first. I’ll have a maid prepare a room for you so you can get some rest."

The moment the words left her mouth, he shot her a fierce glare.

Naomi Shaw didn’t know why he was upset again. She said nothing more and left with Dylan in her arms. After handing Dylan over to a maid, she poured a glass of water, grabbed the medicine from earlier, and went back upstairs. To her surprise, water was running in her bathroom. Through the frosted glass door, she could see the lean silhouette of a man’s body.

Her face flushed slightly. She knocked on the bathroom door.

"Are you... planning to stay in this room?"

’Didn’t I just say I’d have a maid prepare a room for him?’

The sound of the water stopped, and his displeased voice came through the door.

"Where else would I stay?"

She didn’t say anything else. She went inside, put down the water and medicine for him, and then stripped the sheets and duvet cover she and Dylan had slept on from the bed. She took a new set from the closet and made the bed for him. ’If he wants to sleep here, fine. Dylan and I can just sleep in another room.’

By the time she finished changing the bedding, he was out of the shower. She stood there, holding the used sheets and duvet cover, and said coolly,

"Breakfast is ready. If you’re hungry, come down and eat."

After speaking, Naomi Shaw turned and walked out, not allowing herself to spare him another glance.

Julian Donovan watched her retreating, distant back, thinking of her cold attitude just now. He slammed the towel in his hand onto the floor.

’In truth, he had come back this time thinking it was perhaps time to end things between them.’

’It wasn’t that he didn’t miss her during their time apart. But he was a man—a proud and conceited man at that. He wanted his woman to be gentler, more dependent, more affectionate toward him. She used to be so well-behaved and sensible. He didn’t know how she had become the person she was now.’

’Juliet Jennings, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. Ever since that drunken incident, Juliet had never once mentioned his situation with Naomi Shaw. She only said she would wait for him. That was what he admired about Juliet: she was smart and not clingy. All this time, Juliet’s gentle thoughtfulness was a constant presence by his side. When he compared that to Naomi Shaw’s endless cold shoulders, the scales in his heart gradually tipped toward Juliet.’ 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

’But the most important reason pushing him toward this decision was something that happened once when he visited Juliet Jennings on set. From a distance, he saw Juliet run out, crying her eyes out. Her agent chased after her. He followed them to her dressing room. Just as he was about to push the door open and ask what was wrong, he heard her agent shouting angrily inside.’

"Juliet, I’ve told you before about all these rumors, about everyone calling you Julian Donovan’s mistress, but you wouldn’t believe me! Now you’ve heard it with your own ears. Hurts, doesn’t it? ’The other woman,’ ’homewrecker,’ ’shameful mistress’—it doesn’t get nastier than that!"

He could hear Juliet Jennings inside, just sobbing heartbrokenly. Her agent, however, was only getting angrier.

"I don’t get what you’re trying to gain by sticking with him in this ambiguous relationship! I’m giving you an ultimatum right here, today: either you make a clean break with Julian Donovan, or you make him give you a proper title! I can’t stand having an artist I manage be part of a mistress scandal like this!"

Juliet Jennings retorted through her tears,

"What am I trying to gain by staying with him in this ambiguous relationship? I’m not trying to gain anything! I love him, so I’m not willing to put him in a difficult position. I won’t force him to get a divorce. I’d rather bear all these rumors by myself, in silence. As long as I can be by his side, what does it matter if I never have a proper title for the rest of my life!"

"Juliet Jennings, you’re hopeless!"

her agent roared, exasperated.

"You’ve spent these past few years in Meridia, building a career for yourself again through your own hard work and struggle. Are you really going to throw away your future just to be labeled a mistress?"

Juliet Jennings began to sob uncontrollably.

"I don’t care if I throw it all away! At worst, I’ll just announce my retirement from show business!"

He heard the utter exasperation in her agent’s voice.

"Retire? And if you retire and Julian Donovan still doesn’t give you a proper title, you won’t even have an income! Are you planning to starve to death?"

He had never heard Juliet Jennings cry so heartbrokenly before. That, combined with her agent’s words, threw his mind into turmoil. He yanked at the tie around his neck and walked away.

’And that was what led to his current line of thinking: We should just separate. It would be a relief for all three of us. Besides, it’s not like she treasures this marriage or has any lingering affection for me as her husband anymore.’

’He would bring it up with her after their son’s birthday. If she wanted their son, he would let her have him. He would give her a sum of money large enough to raise their son to adulthood.’