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Chapter 24
publish date:
2026-02-26 23:58:09
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Cruel Love Back in His Hands Chapter 78
The specialist confirmed it on Wednesday morning.She was a calm woman in her fifties named Dr. Susan Hale who had clearly delivered this particular news many times and had learned to deliver it with precision and without drama. She explained what endometriosis was doing in Kristine's body, what it had been doing for some time, and what needed to happen to address it. She used the word surgery twice. She used the word soon three times.George sat beside Kristine through the entire appointment.He asked questions Kristine had not thought to ask. Measured, specific questions — the kind that came from someone who understood the clinical landscape and wanted the full picture. Dr. Susan Hale answered them in full, occasionally glancing at Kristine as she did, checking she was following. She was. She was following every word. She had just run out of the particular energy it takes to be the one asking.Surgery was scheduled for ten days out. A Friday. Pre-op prep the day before.They walked
Cruel Love Back in His Hands Chapter 77
Her name was Carla Reyes.Not the journalist. Someone else entirely. She had lived in Portland for eleven years, worked in corporate finance, and had filed a restraining order against Nathan Caldwell during her second year of postgraduate study when they were at the same university. She had been twenty-three. He had been twenty.She told Kristine all of this on the phone in a voice that was completely controlled except at the edges, where it occasionally tightened around certain words the way scar tissue tightens around old wounds."He was charming at first," Carla said. "He was always charming. The problem was that he was also always watching. Not obviously. You only noticed in retrospect when you thought about how much he knew about your routine. Your timetable. The coffee shop you used on Thursdays. Who you walked home with."Kristine sat very still at her desk and listened."I tried to end things after four months. I told him directly. He seemed to accept it." A pause. "And then t
Cruel Love Back in His Hands Chapter 76
It started again on a Tuesday.The pain was low and familiar, the same dull pull she had felt the first time months ago — the thing that had sent her to a clinic and then to a referral and then to George's exam room and started all of this. She recognised it immediately. She had thought it was gone or at least managed. It was neither.She took paracetamol at her desk and kept working.By Thursday it was worse. She took more paracetamol. She moved carefully. She made sure she was always sitting when she spoke to people so nothing showed on her face from the effort of standing upright.She did not tell George.She had thought about it. She had thought about it the same way you think about setting something heavy down when your arms are full — the appeal of it is real but the timing is wrong and you keep walking. George had enough. His legal defence, the lawsuit, the review panel, the suspended contract, the public record with his name on it. She was not going to add her body to the list
Cruel Love Back in His Hands Chapter 75
The conference room was on the fourteenth floor of a building in downtown Seattle that smelled like carpet cleaner and old ambition.Claire's lawyer was a man named Devlin. He was compact and deliberate and he had the particular stillness of someone who had spent twenty years learning how to make other people uncomfortable while remaining comfortable himself. He shook Kristine's hand at the start of the session and smiled like they were colleagues at a lunch.She had been warned about him.George's lawyer had said: he will try to make it personal. He will go places that feel irrelevant. He has one job in that room and it is to make you look unreliable, impulsive, and motivated by personal attachment rather than truth. Do not react. Do not fill silences. Answer the question that was asked and nothing else.She had thought she was ready.The first forty minutes were straightforward. He walked through the timeline of her employment at Caldwell, her professional relationship with George,
Cruel Love Back in His Hands Chapter 74
The new witness's name came through the following afternoon.Marcus called before the lawyer did, which told her he had his own channels into the court filing system that she didn't ask about."Sandra Holt," he said. "She works in procurement at Caldwell Technologies. Third floor. Been there four years."Kristine tried to place the name. She could. Vaguely — a woman she had passed in corridors, exchanged hellos with in the kitchen, nothing deeper than that. Not someone she had confided in. Not someone with any reasonable proximity to her relationship with George."What's her connection to Nathan?" she asked."Still working on it. But she's listed on an internal task force that he chairs — supply chain review committee, set up eight months ago. They've had at least twelve meetings together." A pause. "She also filed for a personal loan last year that was declined by two banks. Three months later the loan was cleared through a private lender." He let that sit. "I'm still tracing the len
Cruel Love Back in His Hands Chapter 73
Claire had been gone for nine days when she reappeared.Not in person. On paper.George's lawyer called on a Monday at midday and Kristine heard it in his voice before he said the words — that particular flatness that meant the news was not good and he was already managing how to deliver it."She's filed a civil suit," he said. "Emotional distress. Claims that George's conduct — the harassment, the intimidation, the reputational damage she's suffered since the original complaint became public — has caused her significant psychological harm."George was sitting at the kitchen table when the call came through on speaker. He didn't move. He looked at the wall for a moment."She filed a harassment complaint against me," he said. "And now she's suing me for the distress caused by the fallout from that complaint.""Yes," the lawyer said."A complaint she fabricated.""Yes. And because the civil standard is lower than criminal, the fabrication being exposed doesn't automatically close this.
Cruel Love Back in His Hands Chapter 23
Kristine was still staring at her computer screen, seeing nothing, when someone knocked on her cubicle wall.George."Can we talk?"She glanced around. Half the office was at lunch. Lucy was gone. "Here?""Conference room B. It's empty."She followed him down the hall. He closed the door behind the
Last Updated : 2026-03-25Cruel Love Back in His Hands Chapter 22
Kristine was in the middle of revising a patient portal design when the receptionist called her desk."Kristine, there's a Dr. Townsend here to see you?""I don't have any meetings scheduled.""She says she's here to support Dr. Mitchell's consulting work. Should I send her up?"Kristine's stomach
Last Updated : 2026-03-25Cruel Love Back in His Hands Chapter 29
Kristine floated into the office the next morning. There was no other word for it. She was glowing, smiling at everyone, practically humming as she walked to her desk.Lucy's head popped up immediately. "Oh my God.""What?""Look at you! You're glowing!""I am not.""You absolutely are! What happen
Last Updated : 2026-03-28Cruel Love Back in His Hands Chapter 30
George was reviewing patient files in his temporary office when his email pinged.Subject: Contract Extension ApprovalHe opened it."Dr. Mitchell, we're pleased to inform you that your consulting contract with Caldwell Technologies has been extended for an additional six months, effective immediat
Last Updated : 2026-03-29
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