Biblioteca
Buscar
Início / Romance / HATE ME, HUSBAND / Chapter Twenty-Four: Toddler Steps

Compartilhar

Chapter Twenty-Four: Toddler Steps

Autor: Ruthie
last update Data de publicação: 2026-04-19 21:19:14
Layla’s POV

One week later

I tied my sports bra at the back, pulled on my leggings and headed down the hall to the home gym.

I had been using it regularly for a few weeks now — early mornings mostly, when the house was quiet and the equipment was all mine and I could get through a session without having to navigate anyone else’s presence.

I pushed open the door.

Ian was already in there.

He was at the weights — back to me, long-sleeved compression shirt, the fabric dark with sweat across his sho
Ruthie

Thank you for reading. Please like, comment, vote and add to library. Your support means everything. — Ruthie ❤️

| Curtir
Continue a ler este livro gratuitamente
Escaneie o código para baixar o App
Capítulo anterior Próximo capítulo
Capítulo bloqueado

Último capítulo

  • HATE ME, HUSBAND   Chapter Thirty-One: New York Is Small

    Layla’s POVI had not planned to go to the boutique today.It was one of those spontaneous decisions that happened on a Tuesday afternoon when a meeting got cancelled and I decided to go outside and get some air because apparently I had been sitting at my desk since seven in the morning and my eyes were doing something concerning.So I went outside.The boutique was three blocks from the office — one of those small, well-curated places that did not advertise aggressively because it did not need to, the kind of shop that relied entirely on word of mouth and the particular loyalty of people who had found it and never wanted to shop anywhere else.I was looking at a display near the entrance — a silk scarf in a shade of green that I had not decided about yet — when someone stopped beside me.“Layla.”I turned.Eric Petrakis was standing two feet away, looking at me with the open, easy smile I remembered from a beach in Bora Bora. Taller than I remembered somehow. Same warm energy.“Is thi

  • HATE ME, HUSBAND   Chapter Thirty: Coffee In Frankfurt

    Ian’s POV“I still can’t believe,” Gabriel said, dropping into the chair across from me and wrapping both hands around his coffee cup like it was the most important thing in the room, “that you dragged me to accompany you for this trip in November.”“You work for me,” I said.“I work with you,” he said. “There is a difference and I need you to respect it.”“Noted.” I picked up my own cup. “The difference means nothing in November in Frankfurt.”“It is so cold out there.” He looked toward the café window with the expression of a man who had been personally wronged by the weather. “I have a girlfriend in New York. A warm apartment. A very good coffee machine.” He looked back at me. “And I am here.”“The Frankfurt meetings went well right?”“They did,” he agreed. “That does not make it warm.”I almost smiled.This was the thing about Gabriel that no one who saw him in a boardroom would have predicted — the complete ease of him in moments like this. No performance, no careful management of

  • HATE ME, HUSBAND   Chapter Twenty-Nine: Company

    Layla’s POVThe doorbell rang at seven.I was not expecting anyone. Hailey had called earlier to say she had a date dinner she could not get out of. Martha and Alexia had already retired for the evening. I had settled into the quiet of the house with a book and the particular peace of someone who had accepted that tonight was going to be a solo evening.I opened the door.Audrey stood on the step — neat, warm-faced, a bag over one shoulder and a carrier with what smelled like takeout in her other hand. She smiled when she saw my expression.“You look surprised,” she said.“I am surprised,” I said smiling. “What are you doing here?”“Ian called me this morning.” She tilted her head slightly. “To keep you company.” She held up the carrier. “I brought food. Thai. Ian said you like Thai.”I stared at her.“Ian asked someone to come and keep me company,” I said slowly.“He also asked me to check that you were okay,” she said. “I decided a movie date was better.” She paused. “Are you going t

  • HATE ME, HUSBAND   Chapter Twenty-Eight: Passing By

    Layla’s POVI woke up slowly.No alarm. No sounds from the other side of the bed. No sense of another person existing anywhere in the immediate vicinity.I opened my eyes and looked at the ceiling.Then I looked at the bed.All of it was mine.Both sides. The full width of a king size mattress that had been divided by a pillow barricade for months and was now just — a bed. A large, comfortable, entirely available bed with no boundaries and no one to maintain them against.I stretched out completely. Arms wide. Legs wherever they wanted to go. The full starfish.This was actually wonderful.I lay like that for a while — just existing in the luxury of unclaimed space — and let the morning settle around me. The house was quiet. Martha was probably already in the kitchen. Outside New York was doing its usual thing.Ian was already in Frankfurt. Either way — not here.I decided again that four days was a perfectly reasonable amount of time and that I was going to be completely fine.I close

  • HATE ME, HUSBAND   Chapter Twenty-Seven: Germany

    Ian’s POVI had a problem.Not a business problem — those I could handle. Numbers, negotiations, difficult people across conference tables, markets that moved unpredictably, partners who needed managing — all of it fell within a category of challenge that I had been trained for and had spent years getting very good at.This was a different kind of problem.I was sitting at my desk on the forty-second floor of Lawson Group’s New York headquarters, in front of a spreadsheet that required my attention, and I was not looking at the spreadsheet.I was thinking about a red dress.More specifically I was thinking about the moment Layla had walked into the restaurant last night — the way the room had shifted slightly, the way my eyes had found her before I had consciously decided to look up, the way something had moved through my chest in the second before I got control of my expression.I pressed two fingers against my temple and looked back at the spreadsheet.The numbers made sense. I was n

  • HATE ME, HUSBAND   Chapter Twenty-Six: Not A Beast

    Layla’s POVI woke up alone.The other side of the bed was already neat — pillow in place, duvet undisturbed, the evidence of someone who had risen early and moved through the morning without waking me. I squinted at the light coming through the curtains and waited for my eyes to adjust.My head still ached. Not the sharp, debilitating pain of last night — that had receded into something duller and more manageable, the particular exhaustion that migraines left behind when the worst was over. I pushed myself upright slowly and leaned against the headboard.The bedroom door opened.Martha came in carrying a breakfast tray — porridge, pork stew, a glass of water with my medication already set beside it.“Good morning, Layla.” She set the tray across my lap with the careful efficiency of someone who had done this many times. “Mr. Lawson told me you were unwell last night. I made porridge and pork stew — it will help you feel better much faster than anything heavy.”“Thank you, Martha,” I s

Mais capítulos

Você também pode gostar

Explore e leia bons romances gratuitamente
Acesso gratuito a um vasto número de bons romances no app GoodNovel. Baixe os livros que você gosta e leia em qualquer lugar e a qualquer hora.
Leia livros gratuitamente no app
ESCANEIE O CÓDIGO PARA LER NO APP
DMCA.com Protection Status