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Chapter 72
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2025-03-24 18:59:47
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After Divorce: Ex-wife Never Turns Back Chapter 73
Emily's POVI blinked up at Damian, caught off guard by the sudden confession. He didn’t sound hesitant, but there was a certain weight to his words, as though he had been waiting for the right moment to say them.“I thought about it,” I admitted, my voice quiet in the dimly lit room. “It didn’t make sense to me, especially after everything we’ve been through.”His lips twitched with the ghost of a smile, but his eyes remained serious. “It wasn’t about keeping distance, Emily. I never wanted that.” He paused, as if choosing his next words carefully. “I’ve been dealing with my family’s business late at night. I didn’t want to disturb your rest.”Relief flooded through me, washing away the last remnants of doubt I hadn’t even realized I was still holding on to.“You were protecting my sleep?” I asked, a soft laugh escaping me.He smirked, brushing a kiss against my forehead. “I was trying. Though, I have to admit, I missed you more than I expected.”I smiled, my fingers tracing the stro
Last Updated : 2025-03-24After Divorce: Ex-wife Never Turns Back Chapter 74
Louis's POVLately, my life has been a complete mess.I stood in my office, the once-pristine shelves now half-empty, their contents scattered across the desk in various stages of packing. The room, once a symbol of my ambition, now felt suffocating, like a tomb I was sealing shut with every item I placed in the boxes.The decision had been made. I was leaving this company behind, stepping into a new position at Charles’ family business, a move that wasn’t entirely my own.Maya had ensured that.I dragged a hand through my hair, exhaling sharply. The very thought of it sent a wave of unease through me, an unshakable heaviness that clung to my chest.My eyes flickered toward the darkened window, and just like that, the past surged forward, an unwelcome ghost clawing its way back into my mind.***Maya sat across from me, draped in silk, her lips curved in a knowing smirk. She held a glass of wine between her fingers, swirling it lazily as she leaned back against the plush couch in our
Last Updated : 2025-03-24After Divorce: Ex-wife Never Turns Back Chapter 75
Louis's POVThe city lights blurred as I drove through the night, their glow reflected in the windshield like distant stars mocking me. A week had passed since I left my old office, and yet, the weight on my shoulders had only grown heavier. Because of Maya, my workload had doubled. More meetings, more responsibilities, more insufferable business dinners with men whose voices grated on my nerves.This was what she wanted.Maya had secured her position as Charles’ daughter, and in turn, she had pulled me into a world I had no interest in. She wanted me integrated, established, tied so deeply into her family’s empire that there was no escape. And I let her.Networking events. Tedious discussions about investments, supply chains, and expanding market control. I had to play my part, to endure it all if I wanted to keep my place. I despised it. Every second of it felt like a slow suffocation, like being trapped in a role I never auditioned for.Tonight had been particularly unbearable.I g
Last Updated : 2025-03-24After Divorce: Ex-wife Never Turns Back Chapter 76
Maya's POVLucy Laurent, the woman who would soon be my mother-in-law, was going to drive me insane.No, she already had driven me insane.Every single day, it was something new. Some trivial argument over a meaningless detail, some clash of preferences, some new and insufferable eccentricity she introduced into the house. We were two completely different people—our tastes, our habits, our very lives could not have been more incompatible. And yet, somehow, we were stuck under the same roof, battling over dominance like two queens in a game of chess.I was patient. I always won in the end.But the victories were exhausting.She knew how to push my buttons, how to make everything just unbearable enough to ruin my mood. But ever since my status changed—since I became Charles’ acknowledged daughter, since I secured my position at the top—she had started showing some restraint. At least on the surface.Still, I wasn’t a fool. I knew she loathed me.But I didn’t care. Because I had everythi
Last Updated : 2025-03-27After Divorce: Ex-wife Never Turns Back Chapter 77
Maya's POVI couldn’t take it anymore. My hands were trembling as I clutched my phone, my breath coming in short, ragged gasps. The sheer disgust of what I had just seen, the chaos of this house, the stench that clung to every surface, it was all too much. I swiped at the tears on my cheeks, pressing the call button with shaking fingers. The phone barely rang before Louis picked up."Maya?" His voice was steady, indifferent, as if he hadn’t just left me to drown in this nightmare of a house.I felt my composure shatter the moment I heard his voice. "Louis, I can't do this anymore," I cried, my words tumbling out in a desperate, breathless rush. "I swear to God, I am losing my mind in this house! Your mother—she is unbearable! She is always here, always interfering, always shoving her ridiculous remedies down my throat, and I have had enough!"There was silence on the other end, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop. "She keeps making these disgusting concoctions and insists I drink them.
Last Updated : 2025-03-27After Divorce: Ex-wife Never Turns Back Chapter 78
Louis's POVThe moment my phone rang and I saw Maya’s name flash on the screen, I knew something was wrong. I had been getting ready to leave work, shrugging on my jacket, when I answered. The second I picked up, her voice hit me like a storm, raw, frantic, and nearly breaking apart with rage and frustration."Louis, I can't do this anymore!" she cried, her voice shaking. "I swear to God, I am losing my mind in this house! Your mother is unbearable! She’s always here, always interfering, always treating me like I’m some child who can’t take care of myself! And those—those disgusting concoctions she keeps forcing on me, I can’t take it, Louis, I won’t take it! Do you have any idea what I walked into today? Do you? The house is a disaster! It looks like some kind of apothecary exploded, and the kitchen—Louis, I went into the kitchen, and there were dead bugs in the food. Dead. Bugs!"I gripped my phone tighter, momentarily stunned into silence. My mind should have been focused on Maya,
Last Updated : 2025-03-28After Divorce: Ex-wife Never Turns Back Chapter 79
Louis's POVMaya let out a sharp, humorless laugh, eyes widening as she stared at my mother in utter disbelief. “Thanking you?” she spat. “For what? For making me live in this?” She gestured wildly around the room, her hands trembling. “For making my house smell like rotting plants? For forcing me to drink God-knows-what every single day? For making me feel like I am losing my sanity?”Lucy sighed, rolling her eyes slightly, as if Maya were nothing more than a dramatic child throwing a tantrum. “You’re exaggerating,” she said with that same infuriating calmness. “The house isn’t that messy. You young people are just too accustomed to sterile, lifeless spaces. A home should have character. It should be full of life, full of culture. You act as if a few books out of place and a few herbs drying in the air is a disaster.”“A few herbs?” Maya shrieked. “There are piles of them, everywhere! It looks like a witch’s lair! And the books? They’re not even ours! Where do you even get them?” She
Last Updated : 2025-03-28After Divorce: Ex-wife Never Turns Back Chapter 80
Maya's POVMy life was finally perfect.Louis was always busy with work, but that was exactly what I wanted. He was dedicated to the family business, leaving me to enjoy the luxury of our new home, a spacious, pristine sanctuary untouched by chaos. No more bizarre herbs strewn across counters, no more foreign guests parading through the house at all hours, and, most importantly, no more Lucy. I had won.The house was everything I had dreamed of, the kind of place women envied and whispered about over brunch. A classic American two-story home, wrapped in elegant ivory siding, with dark shutters that framed tall, stately windows. The front yard was a masterpiece—symmetrically trimmed hedges, a smooth stone pathway leading up to a grand mahogany door, and a black wrought-iron gate enclosing it all in a picture-perfect vision of stability. No overgrown vines creeping over walls, no bizarre statues cluttering the yard. It was polished, refined, and entirely mine.The backyard was just as f
Last Updated : 2025-03-31
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After Divorce: Ex-wife Never Turns Back Chapter 127
Charles’s POVI stepped out of the car, cane in hand, my breath fogging in the cool air. The facility was just as pristine and peaceful as always, with its manicured gardens and soft music playing behind the glass walls. A place designed for tranquility. For forgetting. For hiding people too delicate for the real world. I paid for that illusion, month after month. My name on the donation plaques ensured discretion, ensured comfort. But it could never bring back time.I walked slowly, every step measured, every inhale deliberate. I had postponed this visit for weeks, maybe months if I were honest. There was always a reason not to come. A meeting. A dinner. A fabricated emergency. I had buried myself in the rituals of my empire, pretending I had no ghosts left to face. But they lived here. She lived here. And I was out of excuses.The nurse greeted me at the door. A young girl with a polite smile and eyes that were far too curious for my liking.“She’s in the solarium,” she said, motion
After Divorce: Ex-wife Never Turns Back Chapter 126
Barrett's POVI had heard the shouting. Not unusual in this house, no. Emotions ran high, and the Barrett mansion had always been a place where drama echoed off the marble floors like thunder. But this—this was different. This wasn’t the irritated bickering of cooks or the clipped tones of Charlotte talking on the phone. This was raw. Violent. Human. I sat up straighter in my chair, the fine wood creaking beneath me, and tilted my head, trying to catch more. But by the time I reached the hallway, adjusting my robe and gripping my cane with one steady hand, everything had fallen silent.The lights down the corridor flickered briefly as I stepped into the hallway. And then I saw Alfred, the butler, coming up from the west wing, his face pale, his hands shaking slightly in their white gloves.“Where is Charles?” I asked sharply, my voice cutting through the silence.“Gone, sir,” Alfred said quickly. “He rushed Mrs. Lyla to the hospital. She… there was an accident. She fell. She hit her h
After Divorce: Ex-wife Never Turns Back Chapter 125
Charles’s POVLyla’s voice sliced through the stillness of our bedroom like a jagged piece of glass, sharp and trembling, trembling not just with rage but with years of swallowed tears and disappointment. I could barely look at her, but I couldn’t look away either. Her eyes, red-rimmed and glistening, stared straight into me, as though she could see the rot beneath my composed surface. My tablet was still in my hands, but my fingers had gone numb, and the glowing screen now felt obscene in the face of her heartbreak.“I just want my daughter to live with dignity!” she cried out, each word unraveling like a stitch pulled too tight. “Without guilt, without feeling like she doesn’t belong!”I flinched. There it was. The thing I had been pretending didn’t exist for years now. The truth. Ugly, bleeding, and long overdue. I stared at her, silent, pinned to the mattress by the weight of my own cowardice. My mouth opened, but nothing came out. How could it? I didn’t have the right to defend m
After Divorce: Ex-wife Never Turns Back Chapter 124
Lyla’s POVMaya turned, holding a plush white bear with a satin bow. “Still nothing?”“No,” I said, blinking back the sting in my eyes. “It’s fine. He’s probably just busy.”“With what?” she snapped. “Charlotte’s endless parade of guilt? That woman could turn a sunny day into a funeral. I swear, if she says one more thing about how he ruined her childhood, I will personally frame every photo of you raising Damian and make her eat them.”I laughed, despite the tightness in my chest. “She just misses her mother. And Charles... he carries that guilt like a stone.”“He uses it as a shield,” Maya muttered. “To push you out.”We went back to the mansion just before five. Maya excused herself for a nap, her hand resting protectively over her belly. I watched her walk away down the long corridor, her robe trailing like a queen’s train, and I felt a sudden ache so deep I nearly staggered. I had done everything for this family. I had been the glue, the thread, the silence between their shouts.
After Divorce: Ex-wife Never Turns Back Chapter 123
Lyla’s POVThe moment the doors closed, Maya turned on me like a storm. “I hate seeing you like this—like some kind of servant in the Barretts' house. You do things out of kindness, and they just don’t get it. They don’t see you. And let’s be honest, you don’t even have a place there—not officially.”The words hit me like a slap. My hands trembled, and before I could stop it, the tears came. Hot, humiliating, relentless tears. I didn’t even wipe them away. I just stood there, crying, whispering, “I’m sorry, Maya. I’m so sorry,” again and again like a broken record.Maya’s anger faltered. Her expression cracked, and she stepped forward, her voice softer now. “Hey. No. No, no, no.” She wrapped her arms around me and pulled me close, one hand stroking my hair the way she used to when I was the strong one and she was just a frightened little girl.“It’s not your fault,” she whispered. “But you can’t keep living like this.”I sobbed into her shoulder, my fingers clutching at the fabric of
After Divorce: Ex-wife Never Turns Back Chapter 122
Lyla’s POVThe morning sun filtered through the gauzy curtains of the garden canopy, spilling soft light across the freshly trimmed hedges and carefully positioned wrought-iron furniture. The air smelled faintly of lilacs and expensive fertilizer, the kind that came in black-and-gold packaging and boasted European soil enhancements. I sat quietly across from Maya at the little round table near the fountain, my hands cupped around a delicate porcelain coffee mug, steam curling into the spring air like the ghosts of my intentions. Maya looked stunning, of course, as she always did—even with her pregnancy making her visibly rounder. She wore that expensive silk robe I had given her, pale blue with gold piping, and her skin glowed like she had been kissed by candlelight. I couldn’t stop staring at her, not because I was jealous, but because she had everything I had once dreamed I’d give to a daughter of my own.“Coffee is perfect today,” she murmured, taking a sip, her voice casual but cl
After Divorce: Ex-wife Never Turns Back Chapter 121
Emily’s POVThe moment I stepped out of the kitchen and into the golden wash of candlelight across the dining room, I felt it—that humming tension between Nathan and Charlotte, subtle but impossible to ignore. The clink of glasses, the low hum of conversation, the lingering scent of thyme and seared lamb, and then there they were, lit like a frame from one of Nathan’s short films.He was laughing at something Charlotte had said, his grin lopsided and boyish, while she, swirling the last of her red wine, leaned in close enough for it to look deliberate. My eyes flicked down to the dessert plate in my hands, warm from the oven and dusted with a whisper of powdered sugar. Almond tart with a dollop of lavender cream. A gentle final note. But I couldn’t take my eyes off them.As I approached their table, Nathan was chuckling. “Okay, let me guess,” he said, shaking his head, “you are either an ex-girlfriend of Damian’s... or a very jealous current one.”Charlotte’s laugh rang out, a high, a
After Divorce: Ex-wife Never Turns Back Chapter 120
Emily’s POVThe clang of pots, the hiss of oil on the pan, the sharp snap of a flame lighting beneath a sauté pan—it was my soundtrack, my rhythm, my heartbeat on nights like this. I moved through the kitchen with purpose, checking sauces, folding spices into dressings, sliding warm focaccia into a woven basket and breathing in the garlicky perfume that bloomed from the oven. My apron was streaked with flour, my hands busy, but my eyes kept flicking through the pass window toward the bar where something… unexpected was unfolding.Charlotte. Damian’s sister. She was supposed to be aloof, quiet, the elegant mystery of the Augustus family. And yet here she was, sitting at the bar like a regular, not a whisper of privilege clinging to her. She had been here all evening, weaving herself into the fabric of my place like a thread that had always belonged. At first, I had barely seen her. I had been flying in and out of the dining room, answering questions from customers, throwing glances at
After Divorce: Ex-wife Never Turns Back Chapter 119
Nathan’s POVI moved to a quieter corner of the bar and pulled up my computer. I needed to catalog my clips before the light changed. As I clicked through stills and video snippets, she showed up again and again. One shot was practically a close-up—her brow furrowed as she listened to the bartender, her lips barely parted like she was on the verge of some revealing statement. It was like she had been placed there deliberately, woven into the frame by fate rather than accident.Curious, I asked the bartender when she walked by, “Hey, do you know who that woman is? The one in the cream coat?”The bartender smiled brightly, a bit too brightly. “Oh, her? I think she’s a journalist. Said she was working on a piece for some food magazine. Real polite. Asked all the right questions.”I arched a brow. “Really? Which magazine?”The bartender shrugged. “Didn’t say. You know how these people are. Always sniffing around for the next trend.”My gut told me she was sniffing for something else.Stil
