Chapter 369: The Never-Ending Cling

That word—"wifey"—was Easton's way of publicly declaring that she still belonged to him. A warning to other men to back off.

“I said it without thinking, not to spread rumors,” Easton said, looking around like it was no big deal. “Are you heading home?”

“What the hell are you even saying? That wasn’t a slip of the tongue—you did it on purpose!” Ellis didn’t even acknowledge his second question. She wasn’t letting him change the subject. Not until she verbally ripped him to shreds.

If she didn’t put him in his place, did he really think she was all bark and no bite?

“Fine, I admit it. I did it on purpose,” Easton said with zero shame.

His blunt confession didn’t ease her anger at all.

“You’re insane!”

She’d rehearsed a whole list of things to scream at him, but suddenly didn’t feel like wasting the energy. Judging by how persistently he pestered her, nothing she said would actually get through to him.

So she turned around and walked off without another word.

Her car was soon brought around by the valet, and she drove off, fully expecting Easton to do something annoying—and right on cue, she spotted him trailing behind her in the rearview mirror.

She didn’t even have road rage, but this? This was enough to make her want to develop some.

By the time she reached the underground parking at her building, Easton parked right next to her.

Right next to her. As if he was purposely testing how far she could be pushed. Ellis completely lost her patience and grabbed his damn tie again the moment she got out.

“Do you ever stop? Do you have to stick to me like glue? Are you some kind of human duct tape?”

He’d moved into the apartment above hers and she hadn’t packed up and moved—that was her already giving him more grace than he deserved. But no, the man had to keep escalating things, day after day, pushing her further and further toward a full-blown breakdown.

“You used to cling to me too,” Easton said innocently.

Ellis was so mad she could barely breathe.

Yeah, she’d clung to him. Because she had loved him—really, truly loved him—and had no sense of security. But Easton? All he was doing was making her sick.

“So if I did something stupid back then, now you’re going to copy it like a damn toddler?” she snapped. “Do you have any idea how annoying this is?”

“I know,” he said, surprisingly calm.

And yet he was still doing it. “I’m keeping my distance,” Easton tried to justify himself. He really had been trying. Trying not to hover too close, trying not to always follow her around like a shadow.

He just wasn’t very good at it.

Ellis was too angry to even respond. She yanked her hand away from his tie, stormed to the elevator, and hit the button hard enough to break it.

1:00 PM

Chapter 369: The Never-Ending Cling

Finished

Of course.

She said nothing, pretending he didn’t exist. Meanwhile, he kept sneaking glances at her, like he was hoping the old Ellis—the one who used to cling to him—would suddenly come back.

The moment she walked into her apartment, she was done pretending. She threw her purse onto the entryway cabinet with a loud thud, loud enough that Maya, sitting in the living room, turned to look at her.

The angle wasn’t great, so Maya couldn’t see her expression. She raised her voice a bit. “It’s your first day at work. What’s with all the drama already? Is your boss that difficult?”

“It’s that lunatic upstairs!” Ellis snapped.

“Oh—your ex-husband,” Maya said knowingly.

Ellis dropped onto the couch and glared up at the ceiling, like she was trying to melt Easton with her eyes.

“My boss brought me to this dinner event, and guess who showed up? Easton. And in front of everyone, he called me wifey! I nearly passed out from rage!”

It was humiliating. Like their entire three-year marriage had been one big joke. She had once begged him to show her even a shred of affection, begged him for a pet name, for anything. He’d never given her one. And now, divorced, he was suddenly tossing out pet names like they were free samples? It wasn’t cute—it was just cruel.

“Wifey?” Maya looked as stunned as Ellis had felt earlier. “Is he seriously trying to fake a whole happy-couple narrative now? What kind of twisted logic is that?”

“I have no idea,” Ellis growled, trying her best to calm the volcano erupting inside her.

He was pushing her past her limits, and yet somehow, he still didn’t seem satisfied.