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Chapter 141

last update publish date: 2026-04-23 00:10:03

Damien’s POV

She comes home early, and I know it before I even see her.

The elevator stops on our floor at four-forty-seven, and the time registers immediately because it is wrong. Esmeralda does not leave Morrison at four-forty-seven. She leaves at six-thirty on a light day, later when things demand more of her, and they almost always do. For a moment, I sit still at my desk, listening to the quiet hum of the apartment, already aware that something has shifted in a way I cannot yet name. It is
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    Lila’s POV“Hi,” Esmeralda says, opening the door before I even knock.She has Margaret in one arm and a coffee in the other, like she’s been doing this long enough to make it look effortless. Her hair is done, her clothes actually fit, and there’s a steadiness to her that wasn’t there months ago, not perfection, not ease exactly, but rhythm. The kind you learn, not the kind you’re born with.“Hi,” I say, already looking at the baby. “Oh.”“I know,” Esmeralda says, stepping aside to let me in.“She has your—”“The jaw, yes. Everyone says the jaw.”“And Damien’s—” I lean in a little closer, studying her properly now. “Actually, I don’t know what she has of Damien’s yet.”“The patience,” Esmeralda says simply. “She waits for things.”I glance at her, because she doesn’t say it like a joke or a guess. She says it like a fact, like she already knows her daughter, like she’s been paying attention long enough to recognize patterns. It’s such a her thing to do that it almost doesn’t register

  • Ashes Of His Regret    Chapter 153

    Esmeralda’s POV“Ask me again,” I say.Damien looks up from his laptop slowly, like he’s making sure he heard me right. The document on the screen is forgotten almost immediately, his attention shifting fully, completely, the way it always does when something about me changes, even slightly.“Again?” he asks.I glance at the bassinet, at the quiet rise and fall of Margaret Rose’s chest, then back at him. “Yes,” I say. “Properly this time.”He closes the laptop.He turns toward me.“Esmeralda,” he says.“Yes.”“Will you marry me?” A pause. “The real version. The full version. In front of people who matter, on a day we choose, with no strategy attached.”I look at him.The man who fell in love with me at a charity gala and said nothing for three years. Who signed a contract and made it real. Who measured a ring size three weeks in advance and waited. Who sits in hospital chairs all night and moves things on bathroom counters without commentary and is there for the four AM hours because

  • Ashes Of His Regret    Chapter 152

    Damien’s POVThe first week home is nothing like I planned.I had everything arranged in the way I arrange things that matter. The nursery was finished three weeks before the due date, every detail considered and executed without compromise. Marcus had my schedule at Hale Industries reduced to something manageable, structured in a way that allowed presence without complete absence. Dr. Obi’s number was saved in multiple places, and I had read enough to understand what the first few days would require. On paper, it was thorough. In reality, none of it prepared me for what actually happens when a newborn enters your home and quietly, without asking, changes the shape of everything.The shift is not loud. It is not the chaos people describe when they talk about sleepless nights and exhaustion like it’s a war zone. It is something more precise than that. The house develops a different rhythm, one that does not announce itself but becomes undeniable within hours. We move around her withou

  • Ashes Of His Regret    Chapter 151

    Esmeralda’s POV“You should try to get some sleep, Mrs. Hale.”The nurse says it softly from the doorway, her voice careful in the quiet of the room. I shake my head, adjusting Margaret Rose slightly against my chest, my fingers instinctively supporting her head the way I’ve already learned to do without thinking about it. “I’m okay,” I tell her, and I mean it. The nurse studies me for a second like she’s deciding whether to insist, then smiles in that knowing way women like her have, like she has seen this exact moment a hundred times before and nods. “Call if you need anything,” she says, before slipping out and closing the door gently behind her.The room settles into that deep hospital quiet that only exists in the early hours of the morning. It isn’t silence, there are distant footsteps, the low hum of machines, the occasional cry of a newborn somewhere down the hall..but inside this room, everything feels contained, slowed, almost suspended. Damien is asleep in the chair beside

  • Ashes Of His Regret    Chapter 150

    Damien’s POV“They’re not ready for you yet, sir.”The nurse says it gently, like she’s used to delivering this exact sentence to men who don’t quite know what to do with it. I nod once, because there isn’t anything else to do, and step back into the hallway as the door closes again. The sound is soft, but it lands heavier than it should. For a moment, I stand there staring at it, like if I look long enough it might open again on its own.It doesn’t.So I move, not pacing in any dramatic sense, not drawing attention to myself, just walking the length of the hallway and back again because my body refuses to stay still when my mind is entirely somewhere else. I have been in situations that required control before,boardrooms, ourtrooms, negotiations where one wrong word would cost millions. I have never had a problem holding steady in any of them.This is different.This is a door I cannot walk through.***************Marcus finds me there.I don’t hear him approach, but I register his

  • Ashes Of His Regret    Chapter 149

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    ESMERALDA'S POVMy phone wakes me at 6:23 AM.Not the alarm. The buzzing.Constant, relentless buzzing.Text after text after text.I grab it, still half asleep.47 missed calls.132 text messages.What the—Then I see the news alert.BREAKING: Is Hale Marriage a Fraud? Contract Details ExposedMy

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-04-05
  • Ashes Of His Regret    CHAPTER 9

    ESMERALDA'S POV My heart is still hammering against my ribs when Lila reaches me. "Esme! Oh my god, are you okay?" She grabs my shoulders, checking me over. "You almost—that car almost—" "I'm fine." My voice sounds far away, like it's coming from underwater. "I'm fine." But I'm not fine. I'm sha

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  • Ashes Of His Regret    CHAPTER 6

    ESMERALDA'S POV I didn't really sleep, I just lied there through out the night, drifting in and out of shallow rest, my mind replaying every word I overheard until it loses meaning and sharpness and still refuses to let me go. When morning finally comes, it doesn’t feel like relief. It feels lik

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-17
  • Ashes Of His Regret    CHAPTER 7

    JULIAN'S POVThe weekend in the Hamptons was exactly what I needed. Vivienne's beach house, her children running along the shore, dinners without tension or tears. Alexander and Sophia call me "Uncle Julian" now, their small hands reaching for mine when we walk.It felt like family. Real family. No

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-17
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