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2026-11-10 21:05:28
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I LEFT WHEN HIS EX CAME BACK WITH HIS SON 209
CHAPTER 209BRANDONI saw her before I understood that I was SEEING her.The towel had slid a few inches, and for one terrible second the top of her was right in front of me, the line of her collarbone, the swell of her breasts, the water running down between them, a good deal more than I had any right to look at, and my mind went completely blank. I had negotiated with men who wanted me ruined and sat through a trial and a funeral, and not one of those moments had emptied my head like this. Then she caught the towel, and I tore my eyes to the carpet.“I’m sorry,” I said, much too quickly. “I did not know you were coming in. I am sorry, Thalia.”She said nothing at all. She crossed the room in three fast steps, snatched her brush from the dresser, and I heard her breath shake before the door closed behind her, not slammed, but shut with a care that was somehow worse.I stood where I was for a full minute with a glass of water I had forgotten I was holding.My plan had been simple. I w
I LEFT WHEN HIS EX CAME BACK WITH HIS SON 208
CHAPTER 208THALIAI woke up warm, which was the first red flag.Gray light was leaking through the curtains, and somewhere outside a bird was screaming about something. There was a heavy weight across my waist, warm breath stirred the back of my neck, and under my cheek, instead of a pillow, was a shoulder that smelled like cedar and oud.Oh no. No, no, no.My back was glued to his chest like we’d been custom made for each other, his arm was wrapped around me, my hand was tucked under his, and our fingers were laced. I had gone to bed on top of the covers, a whole foot away, with a cardigan and a firm moral code, and now I was under the blanket, and my moral code was nowhere to be found. Somebody had moved in the night, and I really didn’t want to know who.I lay there for one stupid second, listening to his heartbeat, which was slow and steady and unfairly comforting, while his breath moved against my hair and I let myself pretend I was in some other life where this was allowed. The
I LEFT WHEN HIS EX CAME BACK WITH HIS SON 207
CHAPTER 207THALIA"Brandon, you need to wake up."I shook his shoulder, and he did not stir, except to turn his face toward the pillow, away from the lamp I had switched on. The heat coming off him was like standing near an oven. I did not stop to think. I went down the stairs two at a time in my bare feet, and the house was a long dark tunnel around me.In the kitchen I tore open the drawer where Dr. Evans's sheet lay under the tray. Signs of infection: fever, swelling, heat at the wound. Begin antibiotics at once. If the temperature passes 39, call. I read it twice with my hands shaking and then I filled a basin with cool water, grabbed a stack of clean towels, the thermometer, the saucer with its forgotten tablet, and a glass, and ran back up.The thermometer read 39.4."Fool," I said, in a voice that was nearly a sob. "Stubborn, impossible fool."I sat on the edge of the bed and lifted his head with one arm. His hair was damp and stuck to my wrist. His eyes opened a crack, glass
I LEFT WHEN HIS EX CAME BACK WITH HIS SON 206
CHAPTER 206THALIA“Understood,” Brandon said at last.That was all. He swallowed the tablets one by one, set the glass down with great care, and walked out of the kitchen. I listened to his steps on the stairs, steady and unhurried, and a door closing at the top.I had said exactly what I meant, in exactly the voice I had planned. There was no reason for my hands to be shaking.He kept to my terms with a precision I found, by the next morning, almost unbearable.“Shall I look at the window, or at the wall?” he asked, in the study, as I peeled back the edge of his dressing with the door wide open.“At whatever you like.”“Then the window. You said I was not to look at you the way I did yesterday, and I am not certain how else I look at you, so I have decided to look at nothing.”“That’s very mature.”“I thought so.”I dabbed the cut, and the skin at its edge was warm under my fingers, warmer than it should have been. “This feels hot.”“The heater is on.”“The heater is across the room
I LEFT WHEN HIS EX CAME BACK WITH HIS SON 205
CHAPTER 205THALIANobody moved.The rain ticked against the glass. Catherine stood with the spoon still lifted over the pot, and a drop of soup fell from it and landed on the stove with a tiny hiss that sounded enormous. Brandon had not picked up his crayon. He sat with his hand open on the table, looking at his nephew, and I could not read a single thing in his face.“Leo,” Catherine said at last, very gently. “Sweetheart, what made you say that?”“Because it’s true.” Leo looked from one adult to the next, puzzled that no one was nodding. “Uncle Brandon laughs when Thalia’s here. He doesn’t laugh at home. And Mommy makes him do the quiet face.”“The quiet face,” Catherine repeated faintly.“The one he does when he’s not happy.” Leo picked up a purple crayon and went back to his stegosaurus, as if the matter were settled. “I’m only saying.”I wanted the floor to open. I stared at the teapot, and I felt Brandon’s eyes come to me, slowly, and stay. I did not look up. If I looked up, I
I LEFT WHEN HIS EX CAME BACK WITH HIS SON 204
CHAPTER 204THALIAIt rang twice, bright and cheerful, and I jumped. Brandon went rigid. He pushed back his chair and walked down the hall with a stiffness in his shoulders I had never seen for anyone else at the door, and I followed, tugging my cardigan closed, my face burning.Catherine stood on the step under a black umbrella, a bag of groceries on one arm. Beside her, in a yellow raincoat two sizes too big, Leo hopped from foot to foot with the stegosaurus blanket in both fists.“Uncle Brandon! Thalia!”He shot past his uncle’s legs and hit me at the waist, and I caught him, grateful for something to do with my arms.“Leo.” Brandon’s voice was level and a shade colder than I liked. “Why are you not in school?”I glanced up. He never sounded like that with Leo, and I found it oddly unsettling.“It’s the weekend,” Leo informed him, with the weary patience of a child explaining the obvious. “There’s no school. Grandma brought me.”“And soup,” Catherine said, lifting the bag. She look
I LEFT WHEN HIS EX CAME BACK WITH HIS SON FIVE
BRANDONThe first thing I felt was anger.It sat heavy in my chest all afternoon, refusing to fade.I stood in my office at Langford Pharmaceuticals, staring through the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the city. Traffic crawled below like ants. People moved through their ordinary lives, wh
I LEFT WHEN HIS EX CAME BACK WITH HIS SON FOUR
THALIAI had just placed the cardboard box in the passenger seat and was about to start the engine when someone called my name.“Thalia!”The voice came from behind me.I froze for a second before turning around.Brandon was walking out of the company building, his expression already dark with ange
I LEFT WHEN HIS EX CAME BACK WITH HIS SON THREE
THALIAThe meeting dragged on for nearly forty minutes.Charts flashed across the screen as Dr. Harlan talked about revised timelines for Project Elara. Clara stood beside him, explaining sections of the presentation as if she had always been part of the team.I stayed quiet.My pen tapped against
I LEFT WHEN HIS EX CAME BACK WITH HIS SON TWO
THALIABy the time the car rolled through the iron gates of the estate, the tightness in my chest had already become hard to ignore.Thomas stopped in front of the entrance and stepped out to open my door.“Welcome home, ma’am.”I nodded faintly and walked inside.The house was quiet. Too quiet.Wi
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