The Rise of Betrayed Husband
Copyright© 2026 by Laxu
Chapter 11: His Father-in-Law Threatens to Sue
At that moment, Ethan Hale was in the operating room as an assistant. On the table before him was a craniotomy, and the lead surgeon was William Lang.
The first assistant, the chief of surgery, cut the scalp, separated the skull, and opened the dura mater. Then Dean Lang took over to deal with the intracranial lesion.
As fourth assistant, Ethan never got near the scalpel, but he worked through every step of the procedure in his head. Decades of practice had honed William Lang’s technique to a fine edge, and his reading of the case was spot-on. Age was age, though. His hands were just a shade short of their peak in speed and steadiness.
If I were leading this, Ethan thought, I could cut cleaner, move faster, control the bleeding better, and give the patient a better shot at survival.
The feeling only grew stronger during a pause in the surgery, when the team used the patient’s vitals to discuss the postoperative recovery plan. The plan the dean’s team settled on was rock-solid and posed no risk to the patient’s life, but he would never fully recover. After an operation like this, he had five to ten years left at best. Ethan’s own approach carried some risk, but it could cure the man outright and let him live out his natural lifespan.
Still, Ethan knew his place. In this hospital, William Lang’s word was law, and he was only a lowly resident. A nobody.
Dean Lang had already had his secretary arrange a room for him in the staff housing: a private studio with its own kitchen and bathroom, a washing machine, the works. As soon as the surgery ended, Ethan moved straight in. For now, at least, he had a roof over his head.
The next day, Dean Lang called him to the dean’s office again, and there sat his father-in-law, Richard Lowell. Ethan’s face still stung from the slap last time, so he didn’t bother with a greeting. Realizing Richard had come for him, he said stiffly, “What are you doing here?”
For the first time in more than a decade, Richard Lowell felt the chill of real distance from his son-in-law, and it rankled. Then again, a man set on divorcing his daughter was hardly going to give him a warm welcome. “I came to ask you,” he said, “what exactly you think you’re doing.”
Ethan frowned. He had already laid his cards on the table. There was no reason for Richard to ask again—unless this was about the suit he’d filed in superior court. Businessmen hated lawsuits. “Didn’t I already tell you?” he said. “Claire wronged me and she wronged our marriage. I’m divorcing her. Mr. Lowell, put yourself in my shoes. What would you do? Could you stand your own wife cheating on you and having another man’s child? I can’t. Put a gun to my head and my answer would still be the same.”
“Ethan, you’ll say anything these days!”
“If I’ve offended you, I hope you’ll be big enough to forgive me. My words may be blunt, but they make sense. I don’t get it. This is a simple question of marriage and basic decency. Why won’t you give me what I’m asking for?”
“The divorce is nothing. But you’re demanding billions—is that what a decent man does?”
“I want a divorce, and I want compensation. That’s the price of Claire’s betrayal.”
“Divorce, fine. Compensation, no. Demanding billions, tens of billions—that’s extortion. If we sue you, you’ll be waiting it out in a cell.”
Richard was pounding the table now. He had truly had it with the man in front of him.
“Then let Sophie sue me. I’ll take my chances.”
Ethan didn’t back down. Claire running around with other men and having their children had already crossed his line. He’d wanted to settle this quietly—get the divorce, money or no money. But Claire refused to divorce him, and now Richard meant to threaten him into submission. He couldn’t stand for it.
Father-in-law and son-in-law parted on bad terms.