Share

A Week After

Author: Empi
last update publish date: 2026-08-17 20:26:26

CHAPTER SIXTY THREE

The Week After

Aria's POV

I did what Dr. Mensah told me to do.

I rested.

Monday and Tuesday I stayed home. Slept past seven for the first time in months. Sat in the south facing study in the morning light and drew things that had nothing to do with the collection. Let the house hold me the way it was learning to.

The reviews came in on Monday morning.

Alex brought his phone to me in the study without saying anything. Set it on the desk beside me and went back downstairs. Let
Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App
Locked Chapter

Latest chapter

  • Mr. CEO, You Lost Me Too Late   Guilty

    CHAPTER SEVENTYGuiltyAria's POVTuesday I went to the studio.Not because I could work. I knew I couldn't work. But the alternative was sitting in the house watching the clock and that was worse.Jerome said nothing when I arrived. Just nodded. Pointed at my desk. That was enough.I sat at my desk and opened the notebook and drew nothing in particular and watched my phone and tried not to watch my phone and watched it anyway.Alex was at the courthouse with Clara and David. Waiting for the jury to come back. He had texted at eight thirty.In court. Will call the moment we know.I know, I had written back. I'll be at the studio. Jerome is pretending to give me work to do.Jerome is a good man, he wrote.Don't tell him that, I wrote. He'll become impossible.That had been three hours ago.By eleven the studio had quietly reorganised itself around the waiting without anyone saying so. Adaeze was at the desk closest to me. Bisi had moved her cutting table slightly so she could see me fr

  • Mr. CEO, You Lost Me Too Late   Closing

    CHAPTER SIXTY NINEClosingAlex's POVMonday was closing arguments.The defense went first.They had built their case carefully over ten days and they delivered the closing the same way. Methodical. Measured. They spoke about a mother's love and the complexity of family and the distance between intention and consequence. They asked the jury to consider what Margaret had believed she was doing rather than what she had done.Alex sat through it.It was competent. He could see that. The defense had done what a defense was supposed to do with the material it had.The material was not strong.Ms. Afolabi stood for the prosecution closing at eleven fifteen.She did not raise her voice once.She went through the evidence the way you go through something that does not need emphasis to be devastating. The falsified clinic results. The payment trail. The financial crimes. The editorial interference. The private arrangement placed in a marriage contract without the knowledge of either party bein

  • Mr. CEO, You Lost Me Too Late   The Weekend

    CHAPTER SIXTY EIGHTThe WeekendAria's POVSaturday arrived like an exhale.No courthouse. No trial. No watching Alex come home carrying the weight of a day that had no good version of itself. Just the house and the morning and the particular quality of a weekend that had earned itself.I slept until eight.Alex was already up when I came downstairs. Standing at the kitchen window with his coffee. Looking at the garden the way he looked at things when he was thinking but not urgently. Just turning something over quietly."Morning," I said."Morning," he said. "How did you sleep?""Well," I said. And I meant it. "You?""Better than the rest of the week," he said.I poured coffee and stood beside him at the window. The garden in the Saturday morning. The tree. A bird on the fence that had opinions about something and was expressing them at length."Two more days," I said."Monday closing arguments," he said. "Tuesday the jury goes out.""And then?""And then we wait," he said. "David th

  • Mr. CEO, You Lost Me Too Late   The Stand

    CHAPTER SIXTY SEVENThe StandAlex's POVMargaret took the stand on Friday.The defense had not been required to call her. She had insisted. David had told Alex this the night before, quietly, over the phone, in the tone he used when information was significant and he wanted to make sure it landed properly."She wants to speak," David had said. "Her counsel advised against it. She overruled them."Alex had not been surprised.His mother had never in her life allowed a room to reach a conclusion about her without her participation.She walked to the stand the way she walked into every room. Upright. Deliberate. The particular pace of a woman who had decided long ago that how you entered a space was half of what the space thought of you.She took the oath.She sat.And for the first time since the trial began she looked directly at Alex.He held her gaze.He did not look away and he did not give her anything to read in his expression. Just held it. The way his father had taught him to h

  • Mr. CEO, You Lost Me Too Late   Clara

    CHAPTER SIXTY SIXClaraAlex's POVClara testified on Thursday.She had asked to. The prosecution had not needed to compel her. She had called David three months ago and said she wanted to testify and David had said he would make sure that happened and it had.Alex sat in the gallery and watched his sister walk to the witness stand.She wore something dark and simple. She had thought about it. He knew because she had texted him the night before asking whether the grey or the navy and he had said the navy and she had said she was already wearing the grey and he had said then why did you ask and she had said she wanted a second opinion on the grey.She looked composed.She looked like their father.The prosecution took her through the evidence carefully. The payment records she had found. The clinic documentation. The afternoon she had sat in the car outside the clinic for forty minutes before going in to ask for the records herself. The phone call she had made to Alex after.She answer

  • Mr. CEO, You Lost Me Too Late   The Witness

    CHAPTER SIXTY FIVEThe WitnessAlex's POVThe clinic witness took the stand on Tuesday morning.Her name was Dr. Adaora Mensah Cole. Not the same Dr. Mensah who saw Aria. A different one entirely. She had worked at the fertility clinic for eleven years before resigning. She had been the one who processed the falsified results.She had not known they were falsified at the time.That was what she said first, quietly and clearly, before the prosecution had asked her anything. The judge let it stand.Alex sat in the gallery beside Clara and watched her take the oath and settle in the witness chair and fold her hands in her lap with the particular composure of someone who had been carrying something heavy for a long time and had finally put it down.The prosecution took her through it methodically.The results that had come through the internal system already amended. The payment trail that had appeared weeks later when she was reviewing billing discrepancies. The name attached to the acco

  • Mr. CEO, You Lost Me Too Late   Starting Again

    Chapter Six – Starting AgainAria’s POVBy the time I arrived at Nina’s apartment, it was already dark outside.I stood quietly in front of her door for a few seconds, trying to calm myself down, but the moment she opened it and saw my face, her expression changed immediately.“Aria…”Her voice bec

  • Mr. CEO, You Lost Me Too Late   Our Decision

    Chapter Five – Our DecisionAria’s POV I stayed in the hospital room long after the doctor left. The white walls, the faint smell of antiseptic, the distant sounds of footsteps outside… everything blurred into one dull background as my mind kept circling the same word. Pregnant, I was pregnant an

  • Mr. CEO, You Lost Me Too Late   Back To Them

    Chapter Four _ Back To ThemAria’s POVI returned back to the table, I forced myself to act normal, to act as if nothing had happened between me and Alex.I sat quietly among them like nothing had happened earlier, like the words Alex had said at the back of the hotel meant nothing.But I was falli

  • Mr. CEO, You Lost Me Too Late   At The Back Of The Hall

    Chapter Three – At The Back Of The HallAria’s POV“Let me go” I said, after he had dragged me into the back.My heart was hammering so loudly, I was sure people at the back could hear that clearly.His grip around my arm tightened, not enough to break skin, but enough to remind me he could.Not be

More Chapters
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status