Even If One Day Elena Wants a Divorce, It Will Never Come True?

"Elena, not coming home tonight?"

Ethan Jiang's voice carried through the phone line, calm and deep as ever, reaching Elena Shen's ears just as she stood at the bustling company entrance, where cars sped past in both directions. Yet what echoed in her mind was the image of his dark, unwavering eyes silently resting on her.

Her grip on the phone tightened unconsciously.

She turned slightly to the side, averting her gaze, and lowered her lashes as she offered a quiet explanation.

"My brother's back in Huaihai City. I'll be staying at home tonight."

There was a brief silence at the other end.

A moment later, Ethan asked, "Will you come home tomorrow night?"

"Tomorrow night…" Elena hesitated, uncertainty creeping into her voice. "Maybe."

Tiansheng Group Headquarters.

In the austere, cool-toned president's office, Ethan sat behind his desk, his eyes resting on an urgent document spread before him. The girl's uncertain voice still lingered faintly in his ears through the now-ended call.

He had just finished the morning executive meeting and hadn't had time to tell her—he would be working late tonight.

She messaged him while he was just about to call her, planning to say she shouldn't wait and should go to bed early.

His fingers tapped lightly on the desk's edge. Lifting his gaze, he said into the phone before it ended:

"All right. If anything happens, call me."

The girl obediently replied, then hung up.

After the call, Ethan sat in silence for a long while, eyes lowered on the document in front of him. Then, he pushed it aside.

When Eric Chen came in to deliver the project report, Ethan gave a succinct order:

"Contact Mr. Shen from the Shen Group. I want to meet with him at eleven."

Eric paused, instinctively glancing at the day's tightly packed schedule.

"But Mr. Jiang, at eleven you have a project alignment meeting with Rongxia Tech…"

"Push it to three," Ethan said without raising his eyes. His voice was cool and unquestionable. "Everything else, move accordingly."

Eric's eyes dropped to the final entry on the schedule—an online project negotiation that was originally set to conclude at ten-thirty p.m.

Now, with everything delayed, it would likely end around midnight.

But he said nothing. Quickly making arrangements, Eric turned and left. Having followed Ethan for years, even abroad, he was no stranger to such intensity. This—working until midnight—was once routine.

It was only after Ethan married Elena that his schedule had been rigidly capped: he had to be home by six every evening.

Even if there was an avalanche of work, nothing after six was shifted online.

He made it a point not to let Elena spend her evenings alone.

10:58 AM.

Ethan arrived at Shen Group headquarters.

Aurel Shen had just returned to his office from a conference meeting.

He wasn't surprised by Ethan's arrival. Even if Ethan didn't come in the morning, he would have shown up at Tiansheng Group in the afternoon.

Jason Fang and Eric Chen both tactfully stepped outside.

Inside the executive office, only Aurel Shen and Ethan remained.

It was a meeting long expected. Aurel didn't bother with pleasantries. Looking across at the man who had rarely intersected with his life until recent years, he got straight to the point.

"Mr. Jiang, you came earlier than I expected. But regarding this marriage alliance—pardon my bluntness—I do not approve of it."

Ethan's expression remained impassive.

He lifted his eyes briefly at the words and replied, voice even as always:

"This engagement was decided years ago. On what grounds, Mr. Shen, do you intend to oppose it?"

Aurel turned his tea cup slowly, his lips curling into a faint smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Like her brother."

Ethan's mouth curved ever so slightly. His gaze met Aurel's, his tone unhurried:

"Brother?"

"Her non-blood-related brother?"

"Mr. Shen, Elena and I are already legally married. Once a union is sealed, there is no room for talk of divorce. Surely, you're aware of that."

Aurel's gaze darkened.

They sat diagonally across from each other on the leather sofas. Their posture and expressions betrayed no overt emotion, yet the atmosphere within the office had subtly turned cold and still, a quiet tension hardening the air.

"So, what you're saying is—"

"Even if one day Elena wants a divorce, won't you grant it?"

Ethan offered no further clarification.

He had agreed to this marriage not as a temporary arrangement, but for permanence.

"There's no need for concern, Mr. Shen. Whether we divorce or not is between me and Elena. Once she joined the Jiang family, it became my duty to protect her."

"But you—Mr. Shen at first disapproved of her relationship with Adrian, and now you object to her marrying me. One time, then another. Tell me, is it that you don't want her marrying into the Jiang family, or… don't want her marrying at all?"

Aurel's expression turned grim, his voice cold.

"What exactly do you mean by that, Mr. Jiang?"

Ethan's tone did not waver, though his obsidian eyes grew several shades darker.

"You know exactly what I mean, Mr. Shen."

With that, Ethan slid a folder across the table toward him.

"Someone sent me this file a month ago. According to it, your biological parents died due to an incident involving the Shen Group. Elena's parents took you in out of guilt, raising you as their own, and treating you like family."

Aurel flipped through the document, eyes scanning rapidly across the lines. Then he snapped it shut with a sharp clap, his brow tensed with a cold, bitter edge.

His gaze sharpened as he stared at Ethan.

"What are you suggesting, Mr. Jiang? That I harbored resentment and orchestrated the car accident that killed Elena's parents ten years ago?"

Ethan didn't answer directly.

Aurel Shen was originally Pei Huaiyan.

He was the only son of a newly listed company in Huaihai, born into a family with assets in the hundreds of millions. His father, Pei Sheng, was a shrewd entrepreneur whose company had, within a few years, secured a cooperation deal with Shen Group—then one of the most powerful conglomerates alongside the Jiangs.

To cement that collaboration, Pei Sheng often visited Shen Group's subsidiary sites personally, checking in on projects.

But during his final visit, just before the project's conclusion, Pei Sheng died in a site accident.

The Shens, feeling a deep sense of guilt, reached out to Pei's wife. But she had long grown discontent with her husband's work-first lifestyle and, the day before the accident, fled overseas with her first love, taking with her all the company's liquid assets and Pei Sheng's entire fortune.

By the time the Shens arrived at Pei's home, they found only a nine-year-old boy—abandoned by both parents.

With no trustworthy relatives and the Shen Group implicated in the fatal accident, Elena's father made the decision to adopt the boy, with Elena's mother's consent.

They changed his name to Aurel Shen, erased his past, and raised him in the Shen family estate as their own, giving him everything.

For Aurel's sake—and perhaps to protect him from lingering resentment—they concealed his origins.

Even the Jiangs didn't know about his true identity.

Not until a month ago, when someone anonymously sent Ethan this very file before he returned from abroad.

Ethan's gaze swept over the folder now in Aurel's hands. His voice remained detached, but cold clarity underpinned his words.

"You were loved as their son. Elena sees you as her only family. After her parents passed, you were all she had left. So, for her sake—personally and as her husband—I sincerely hope that you had no part in that tragic car crash."

He stood, fingers deftly buttoning his jacket.

Under the weight of Aurel's icy stare, he delivered his final words with cutting directness:

"But if you did—if you were involved in an accident ten years ago—the Jiang family will never let it go."