Who's Crying Now, Ex-Husband? novel Chapter 525

The craving for a cigarette was driving her mad.

“Do you know?” Mila drew a deep breath, lowering her gaze, her voice eerily calm. “Do you realize those two boys can’t stand each other? Or was it deliberate—sending Julian to that school?”

Sophia bit down on an unlit cigarette, not the least bit flustered at being caught. She looked entirely nonchalant, as if everything was just as it should be. “Well, I see you’re not as clueless as I thought.”

Smack!

The slap echoed in the narrow hallway, sharp and explosive. The unlit cigarette hit the floor. Silence fell—long and suffocating.

Sophia slowly turned her face back, dazed and stunned, five red fingerprints blooming across her cheek. Her head throbbed and her ears rang.

It took ages for the numbness to recede and for her anger to catch up with reality. Fury was pounding in her skull, threatening to obliterate every last shred of restraint. In a flash, she lunged, one hand clamping around Mila’s throat, shoving her hard against the wall. Her voice dropped, low and dangerous.

“How dare you! Who do you think you are?”

All her life, Sophia had been the one dishing out punishment—never the other way around. No one had ever dared slap her like that, not even her own parents.

Her grip tightened.

Mila could barely breathe. Her vision collapsed into dark spots, her lungs screamed, her hands pried desperately at Sophia’s fingers but weakened fast. As her arms started to fall, she summoned the last of her strength and stomped down—hard—on Sophia’s foot in its high-heeled shoe.

Sophia’s hand finally released.

Mila slid down the wall, gasping, everything spinning. Through the fractured light, she saw Sophia recovering and moving toward her. Panicked, she fumbled in her bag until her fingers closed over something cold—a pocketknife she’d snagged from Leonard on her way here. She brandished it, pointing it at the advancing woman.

“Don’t come any closer!”

Sophia stopped. Only then did Mila allow herself to breathe. One hand held the knife steady, the other braced against the wall as she fought to her feet.

She hadn’t wanted it to come to this, but after last time, she knew exactly how unstable Sophia could be. Meeting with her alone without some kind of protection? She wasn’t that reckless.

A fit of coughing wracked her, and it took a moment before Mila could speak again, voice hoarse. “Just… calm down. Let’s talk.”

Sophia let out a dry, humorless laugh. “Talk? Fine. As long as you let me slap you back.”