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WAY TO KEEP HER

Author: O.A PRESHY
last update Last Updated: 2025-06-28 04:33:01

XAVIER POV

The court gave Isabella sole custody.

It was everything I planned for. Everything I’d worked toward, step by step, piece by piece.

And yet… I hadn’t won.

Not really.

I could see it in her eyes.

She should’ve been relieved…happy even. But the woman sitting on the garden bench now looked more shattered than victorious. Her shoulders were hunched. Her eyes stared blankly ahead, not watching Eva play, not really seeing anything.

She was here. With me. With Eva. We were the “family” everyone saw and believed in now.

But I could feel it. The distance. The tension. The ache in her chest that didn’t go away, no matter how tightly I wrapped her in this carefully built life.

She still loved him.

No matter what Drake did… no matter how badly he broke her… she was still his.

And that infuriated me.

I took a slow sip from my coffee and pulled out my phone. My thumb hovered over the screen before I finally typed.

“First phase is done. We got custody. But I haven’t won her. She’s still i
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  • ISABELLA (The Night that ruined me)   SEX WITH HER

    DRAKE’S POVIt had been a week.Seven damn days since everything shattered.I sat in the dimly lit living room, the television screen casting flickers of light across my face. My hand gripped a half-full wine glass like it was the last thing tethering me to this world. I didn’t even taste the wine anymore. I just held it..tight..because if I let go, I’d break.Tears slipped down my cheeks, silent and burning. My chest tightened with every breath I dragged in, shallow and uneven. My hands shaking.Then I saw it.Her.Isabella.There she stood on the screen, flawless in an elegant cream dress, her curls pinned back in soft waves that framed her delicate face. And beside her was him. Xavier Gustavo. Hand placed on the small of her back like he owned her. Like she belonged to him.My jaw clenched as I leaned forward, my gaze locked on the television.The press swarmed them, shoving microphones in their faces like bloodthirsty hounds. Then Isabella spoke, her voice soft, calm, sure.“We’re

  • ISABELLA (The Night that ruined me)   HEART DROWNING

    ISABELLA’S POVI couldn’t breathe.The room was too quiet. Even the hum of machines seemed to hold its breath.The doctor opened the file, eyes scanning across the first page as if debating whether to say the truth out loud. My fingers tightened unconsciously around Xavier’s arm. He didn’t flinch.His mother stood frozen, arms crossed like a statue carved in suspicion. Macy looked like she was about to scoff. Camille, next to me, shifted with unease.Then the doctor spoke.“Xavier has suffered more extensive damage from the smoke inhalation than we initially believed.”I felt my chest tighten. I hadn’t expected that. Xavier had walked, talked, even smiled through it all. How could that mean something worse?The doctor continued. “We discovered scarring in the heart’s tissue. Likely from prolonged exposure to synthetic fumes during the fire. It’s caused a form of cardiomyopathy .. a rare condition that weakens the heart muscles.”He glanced up. “It’s irreversible.”No one moved. Even M

  • ISABELLA (The Night that ruined me)   BACK AGAIN

    XAVIER’S POVI smiled.Not the kind you give when you're happy..but the kind that sits deep, knowing, twisted.Isabella sat beside me, looking like she wanted to disappear. Her fingers tapped her lap nervously, her gaze shifting everywhere but my face. She looked like a woman trying to hold herself together.I noticed her eyes flick to the door more than once. Still hoping, maybe, that he would come back for her.But he wouldn’t.Drake had left. And she had no one else.Except me.I leaned back with a soft groan, letting out a slow breath as I clutched my side. Fake, of course..but effective.Her head snapped toward me. “Are you okay?” she asked quickly, panic blooming across her face.“Just... dizzy,” I murmured, letting my eyelids flutter. “It’ll pass.”She shifted closer, and like clockwork, her hand reached for mine.Hook. Line. Guilt.She still felt responsible. Still cared. Not enough to say yes outright..but just enough to keep me in her orbit.Good.Everything was working as I

  • ISABELLA (The Night that ruined me)   SPLIT BETWEEN

    ISABELLA’S POVI didn’t call after him.I just stood there… frozen… as Drake turned and walked away.And with every step he took, something inside me cracked a little more.When he disappeared around the corner, my knees gave out.I lowered myself to the cold hospital floor, burying my face in my hands, crying silently.The pain wasn’t loud. It wasn’t messy. It just spilled out quietly like a wound that had been bleeding for far too long.All I could think about was how things used to be.How Drake used to wake Eva up by tickling her tiny feet.How we’d make pancakes on Sundays while she danced on the kitchen stool.The laughter.The warmth.The way I used to believe that nothing could ever tear us apart.But it did.And now here I was…sitting in the hallway of a hospital, torn between two men. One I had built memories with, and one who had saved my daughter without a second thought.My phone buzzed beside me.I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, sniffing as I picked it up.Xavie

  • ISABELLA (The Night that ruined me)   I'M NOT LETTING GO

    DRAKE’S POVOur eyes locked.For a moment, the entire world stood still.And all I could see..feel….was her.Isabella.The woman I had loved, lost, hurt, and somehow… still couldn’t let go of.She looked like a ghost from a life I used to live. Same soft eyes, same trembling lips, but none of the warmth I used to see when she smiled at me. That smile was mine once.But now…Now her lips looked like they belonged to someone else.I didn’t want to show it. The ache. The weakness.But my eyes failed me.My fists clenched. My throat tightened. Every step I’d taken to come here was fueled by desperation, confusion… and fear.And now that she was standing in front of me, all of it erupted in one broken breath.“You kissed him,” I muttered.It came out low. Bitter. Not an accusation, just raw disbelief.Her mouth opened. Then closed. No words.None.That silence tore deeper than a thousand screams.I dragged my hand through my hair in frustration, unable to stop the storm inside me. I stared

  • ISABELLA (The Night that ruined me)   TO CHOOSE

    ISABELLA'S POVI hadn’t slept.Even after Camille took Eva home and the doctors said Xavier would be fine, I couldn’t close my eyes.I sat in the sterile hospital room, my back aching from the plastic chair, my eyes fixed on Xavier’s sleeping form. Tubes in his arm. Bandages across his ribs. His skin pale, lips slightly parted.And the memory of the fire still clung to me like smoke.I should have smelled it sooner. Heard it. Noticed something. I should have protected Eva.But he did.Xavier ran through fire. For her. For us.And when I kissed him..God.My fingers trembled now just remembering the feel of his mouth on mine. The heat. The desperation. How easily I had melted into him. Like I’d been starving for that kind of touch.And maybe I had.But that scared me more than the fire ever could.I rubbed my palms over my knees, trying to steady my breath.A soft knock on the door broke the silence.Camille slipped in, her eyes going straight to Xavier, then to me. She looked tired, w

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