Chapter 33

Ethan POV

"I just don't blame him at all." I wandered all over the room with Mia sitting on the bed with a sad expression towards me.

"Ethan, calm down. Let's discuss how we can resolve all this," she said with a much calmer tone.

I looked at her, and we were both eye-piercing into each other. I walked closer to her, giving myself a sitting space on the bed.

"Mia, I want you and I plus this family to get peace," I said with a calm look.

"Then you have to calm down for that to happen," she requested.

"I can't calm down when I know there's a huge issue on the ground" I stood up quickly.

"I need Andrew out of my way, Mia!" I whispered to myself.

"I can't believe you're even taking his own side," I said, my voice rising in anger immediately.

"I'm not taking anyone's side here in this matter," Mia said, with her voice calm and gentle.

"So, what is happening if you are not taking sides?" I asked with a calm tone.

"I just want us to resolve this issue peacefully without blood flowing like he said."

"Peacefully? You are here, Mia," I repeated, my voice incredulous and filled with surprise as she just said a strange word to me.

"What?" she inquired.

"How can we have peace when Andrew is still in the picture here? He's the only one who's been causing all the problems, Mia. He's the one who's been manipulating us and using our things and people against us. Since you rejected him."

"Manipulating us?" Mia said, her voice defensive and also filled with her own surprise.

"If you are being manipulated, then that is good for you," she hissed. "Bryan, I'm not some kind of puppet who can be manipulated anyhow. I'm a grown woman who can make my own decisions and  choices. She added.

"Really?" I said, my voice sarcastic, filled with tension and a little chuckle.

"Because it totally seems to me like you're doing exactly what Andrew wants you to do now. You're defending him and enabling him, even when he's clearly our own enemy and we both need to take him down."

"I'm not defending him here, Bryan; I'm just trying to be understanding and use my brain," Mia said to me with arrogance.

"And I'm not enabling him in any way; I'm just trying to be compassionate and get some information." She added.

"Compassionate?" I repeated it, my voice disbelieving her statement. "You have the time for that in this battle?" I asked with already-deep anger.

"What's bad?"

"You're being compassionate with the man who wants to take you away from me and your child? The man who wants to destroy our marriage and our peace?" My eyes were pale already.

"Ethan, just please," Mia said, her voice soft and calm.

"Let's just talk about this calmly and rationally, like a mature adult and not like a toddler," she hissed to her words.

"I don't want to talk about it calmly and rationally, or rather like an adult. I want us to talk about this like  toddlers." I said, my voice angry, arrogant, rude, and annoyed.

"I want us both to talk about it with passion and emotion. I want to talk about how much I truly love you and how much I want to protect you and my baby from Andrew." She said it calmly.

"Ethan, I love you," Mia added.

"But I also care about Andrew. Despite his being my ex, I don't want to see him hurt."

" Why?" I repeated, my voice filled with emotions.

"Can we just take him as a friend, Ethan, or is that much?" I interrupted her immediately.

"He's not a friend of ours, and he can never be, Mia. He is our main rival. He's a deep threat to our marriage, our family, and our happiness."

"But seriously, I don't see him the way you think." Mia words were already familiar to me.

"I see him as a person who needs our help and support in his life since he has already passed through a lot of problems.".

"Well, I don't see him that way that you think," I said with uncontrollable anger visible in my eyes.

"I see him as a person who needs to be stopped from taking away my peace. And I'm going to stop him, Mia. I'm going to protect our marriage and our family from him, no matter what it takes me, no matter the pain I would pass through."

"Ethan, please don't say that," Mia said, her voice worried and filled with emotions.

"Mia, what side are you even on?" I screeched with anger already.

"Oh, no one's side, Ethan," she smiled to me while I looked at her with my own anger.

"Mia, seriously, you aren't normal at all," she said, drawing herself closer to me.

"I know my way around and don't think I don't know what I am doing." She whispered slowly into my ears. "Also, I know Andrew better than you and know what he is capable of doing," she smiled as soon as she finished her statement.

"And what does that mean?" I groaned.

"You won't know now," she said again, keeping me in the dark.

"Can you just talk?" I questioned.

"Yes, I wish I could," she said, taking a few steps backwards.

"Mia, come back here," I said as soon as she tried walking out of the room.

"Ethan, I have a child to go look after," she said and walked out.

"What's wrong with her?" I questioned myself, bouncing on the bed quickly, with thoughts going through my mind so fast.

"She's acting so weird and abnormal," I said to myself as my phone beeped beside me, which I just ignored until a louder buzz from the same phone made me look in its direction and pick it up.

I opened up my phone and went through it. I was shocked by the text message I received from a private number.

"It's time to do what I promised," my eyes almost pulled out.