# Chapter 10: The Invincible Ex-Wife
The grand banquet hall glittered with crystal chandeliers and the murmur of elite conversation. Every face in the room belonged to someone who had clawed their way to the top of their respective fields—CEOs, royalty, industry titans. This was no ordinary gathering, and Nicole knew exactly what she was walking into.
She had prepared herself mentally to see Eric Ferguson again. She had braced for that moment when their eyes might meet across the crowded room. But when it finally happened, when she spotted his familiar figure standing beside a woman with perfectly styled hair and a possessive hand on his arm, Nicole felt... nothing. Her heart did not stutter. Her palms did not sweat. She simply observed the scene with the calm detachment of someone watching a movie she had already seen.
*She took my place so soon?* Nicole thought, a quiet laugh escaping her lips.
Wendy Quade looked triumphant beside Eric, as if she had won some grand prize. But Nicole knew better. The prize was a man who had never truly valued the woman he had married in the first place.
Grant Stanton, ever perceptive, sensed the shift in her energy. His hand found her arm in a gesture that was both protective and reassuring. "Don't be afraid," he murmured. "I'm with you."
Nicole's smile deepened, transforming her features into something luminous. "I'm not the one who should be afraid."
And she meant it with every fiber of her being. She had no more worries, no more attachments to wound her, no more illusions to shatter. She was invincible—a woman who had walked through fire and emerged with nothing left to burn.
The two men approached each other like titans meeting on a battlefield. Eric Ferguson and Grant Stanton—equal in status, equal in influence, equal in magnetism. The air around them seemed to crackle with unspoken tension.
"Mr. Ferguson," Grant said, his voice smooth as aged whiskey. "I've heard a lot about you."
"Mr. Stanton," Eric replied, matching the tone. "So have I."
Their handshake was brief, clinical, and immediately released. But Eric's eyes never left the woman standing beside his rival.
And then he saw her.
Nicole stood there, radiant in a bespoke dress that hugged her curves like it had been painted onto her skin. Her fair complexion seemed to glow under the chandeliers, and her eyes—those clear, glistening eyes—held a spark of mischief and confidence he had never seen before. She looked like a completely different woman from the one who had signed their divorce papers.
This Nicole was unfamiliar. This Nicole was dangerous. This Nicole was fatally attractive.
Eric could not tear his gaze away. A storm of complex emotions churned in his chest—anger, confusion, something that might have been regret if he allowed himself to examine it too closely. *Did she go to Grant Stanton the day she vanished? What is their relationship?*
His dark eyes brewed with a simmering fury that he could barely contain.
But Wendy Quade noticed everything. She saw the flash of shock in Eric's eyes the moment he laid eyes on his ex-wife. She saw the way his jaw tightened, the way his breathing seemed to catch. Jealousy twisted in her gut like a knife.
"Nicole," Wendy said, her voice shrill and dripping with condescension, "why are you here? Do you think this is a place you can come as you please?"
The implication was clear: *Remember your place. Remember you were cast out.*
Eric's brow furrowed, his lips parting to intervene, but Grant's voice cut through before he could speak.
"Which family are you from, Miss?" Grant's tone was ice cold, interrogative, carrying the weight of a man who was used to making people squirm.
Wendy froze. She had forgotten herself. Forgotten that she was not speaking to some nobody but to someone clearly important. She scrambled to recover. "Sir, you may not know this, but Nicole just divorced Eric..."
She thought she was doing him a favor—exposing Nicole's shameful divorced status to her new sugar daddy. Surely this man would want to know he was with a discarded woman.
But Grant's response was sharp as a blade. "Is there a rule that divorced people can't attend? Isn't Mr. Ferguson also here?"
The room seemed to grow colder. Wendy tucked her hair behind her ear nervously, glancing at Eric for rescue. But Eric stood there like a statue, silent, offering no assistance. He watched the scene unfold with an unreadable expression, leaving Wendy to twist in the wind alone.
Nicole lowered her head and scoffed softly. When she looked up, her eyes were steel. "Ms. Quade, do I need to report to you whoever I'm with? Don't you think you're overstepping your bounds?"
Wendy had come looking for a fight, and Nicole was not about to back down. She had spent years being walked over—no more. This tit for tat had a new player, and Nicole was done losing.
The scandal between Eric and Wendy had been suppressed, but everyone in this room knew the truth. No one believed the divorce had been amicable. And Nicole, standing tall and beautiful beside Grant Stanton, did not spare Eric a single glance.
Grant swept a cold look over Wendy. "It seems that the quality of this banquet has dropped because of Ms. Quade's attendance. Mr. Ferguson, you need to improve your standards in selecting female companions."
Without another word, he guided Nicole away from the pair, leaving Wendy humiliated and red-faced.
"Eric..." Wendy's voice was pitiful, forlorn.
But Eric was no longer looking at her. His gaze followed the two departing figures—Nicole's confident stride, the way she tilted her head toward Grant as they walked. His expression was cold, dark, unreadable.
*We haven't been divorced for long, yet that woman is living in style. She pretended not to see me. She ran into the arms of another man.*
Business partners approached him, and Eric dismissed Wendy without a second thought, mingling through the crowd with a storm raging in his chest.
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Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, a massive swimming pool glittered under the moonlight. Nicole found a secluded corner, away from the prying eyes and clinking glasses. She held a glass of red wine, watching the silver reflections dance on the water's surface.
Wendy watched her from across the room, fury gnawing at her composure. *Why should an abandoned wife—a woman kicked out of the Ferguson family—get to attend such an exclusive banquet? Why does she get to stand beside a man like Grant Stanton?*
But Nicole did not see her. She was too busy admiring the moon, feeling free, and knowing that tonight was only the beginning.
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## Reader's Impressions & Star Rating
What a gloriously satisfying chapter! Watching Nicole transform from a discarded wife into an invincible force of nature is pure catharsis. The confrontation with Wendy was chef's kiss—Grant Stanton's icy takedown of Wendy's rudeness was absolutely delicious. And Eric's barely concealed jealousy? The man is clearly unraveling, and I am *here* for it.
The writing captures every nuance perfectly: the glittering atmosphere of the banquet, the electric tension between the four characters, and Nicole's newfound confidence that radiates off every page. The moonlight scene at the end is beautifully poetic.
**⭐ Rating: 4.9 / 5 Stars**
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## Next Chapter Prediction
Eric's jealousy is about to explode. Mark my words—he won't let Nicole's night with Grant go unanswered. The next chapter will likely see Eric approaching Nicole directly, either to interrogate her about her relationship with Grant or to attempt some power move to reassert control. But Nicole is no longer the woman who cowers. And Grant Stanton is not a man who shares what's his. A confrontation is brewing, and it's going to be explosive.