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Chapter 14
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My Mate Chose Her. I Left With His Baby. Chapter 15
Serafina’s POVBy Clara’s first birthday, Northlight had six trucks and a dispatch office with a window that actually opened.We still had difficult months. Fuel prices rose. A refrigerated load failed inspection, and we absorbed the loss rather than deliver spoiled food. Once, I went home convinced I had made a disastrous hiring decision and returned the next morning to find the new dispatcher had solved a scheduling problem that had defeated all of us.Being responsible for something did not mean being right all the time.I was learning that, too.I worked four days a week. When I needed a fifth, I arranged it instead of quietly surrendering every hour that belonged to me.One morning, a driver named Beth knocked on my office door with a resignation letter folded in her hand.Her son was ill. She had missed two departures in a month and assumed a third would cost her the job.“I don’t want to leave you short,” she said. “You gave me a chance.”I recognized the apology before she fini
My Mate Chose Her. I Left With His Baby. Chapter 14
Serafina’s POVClara was born on a rainy morning near the end of summer.There was nothing graceful about labor. I sweated, swore, gripped my mother’s hand, and told Helen several times that I had changed my mind about the entire process.Helen assured me I was not the first woman to say so.My father stayed outside with a bag he had packed three weeks earlier. It contained baby clothes, a blanket, two books, and enough food for a small expedition.No one needed to send for him.No one had to convince my mother to stay.When Clara finally cried, I made a sound that seemed to come from somewhere deeper than breath.Helen placed her against my chest.She was warm and furious, her little face scrunched with indignation. One hand opened against my skin, then closed again.“Hello,” I whispered.It was all I could manage.Ayla pressed close in my mind, quiet with wonder.For months, I had been afraid that every sharp pain, every frightened night, every moment I failed to protect myself would
My Mate Chose Her. I Left With His Baby. Chapter 13
Serafina’s POVThe first trial delivery nearly failed before a truck left the yard.Snow had closed the lower bridge overnight. The alternative road crossed a steep ridge, and the drivers wanted a decision before they loaded the medicine crates.For a moment, everyone looked toward the quartermaster.Then he looked at me.I had spent years making choices and letting Julian announce them. Standing in a room where people waited for my answer felt stranger than it should have.I spread the map across the table.“We don’t take the ridge.”“The pass adds four hours,” one driver said.“It does. But there’s a covered depot before the turn. We can divide the load there, keep the medicines warm, and use the smaller vehicles for the final stretch.”“The return cargo won’t be ready.”“Then we pay for an extra night rather than ask anyone to drive exhausted.”I recalculated the cost while they watched.We would make less on the trial. We would still cover wages and arrive safely.The quartermaster
My Mate Chose Her. I Left With His Baby. Chapter 12
Serafina’s POVMia’s case concluded a month later.The panel found that she had knowingly published false accusations and arranged the confrontation that led to my injuries. She received a custodial sentence and was ordered to pay restitution. The people who had assaulted me were held responsible for their own actions.The decision included an order barring further contact with me.I read the summary at my parents’ kitchen table.My mother waited until I finished before asking how I felt.“I thought I’d feel happier.”“Would you like to?”I considered that.“No. I think I’d like to stop thinking about her.”The criminal proceedings against the men responsible for the fire continued separately. I received updates through Vittorio, but I no longer checked for news every morning.The final document from Mia’s case was an application to make a personal apology before the contact restriction took effect.I declined the meeting.There was nothing I needed to ask her.Her statement came throu
My Mate Chose Her. I Left With His Baby. Chapter 11
Serafina’s POVThe financial records arrived in three sealed boxes.I had expected ledgers. I hadn’t expected the sight of my own handwriting to make me cry.There it was on the first page, small and hurried, squeezed around a coffee stain. A list of replacement tires, fuel estimates, and wages for six people we had been terrified of disappointing.My work had existed before anyone called me Mrs. Marchetti.It was still there after the name stopped being mine.The accountant Vittorio recommended was a woman named Nora who wore reading glasses on a chain and had no patience for vague answers.“What did you contribute at the start?” she asked.“Cash from bookkeeping jobs. Then my work.”“Do you have records of the cash?”“Yes.”“Good. We’ll establish that first. Then the ownership agreements, unpaid compensation, and profits.”I had assumed I would need to defend every year I had spent at a desk instead of on the road.Nora simply opened another folder.“Work doesn’t become a gift becaus
My Mate Chose Her. I Left With His Baby. Chapter 10
Serafina’s POVThe public correction appeared eleven days after I left Blackpine.Vittorio showed it to me before it went live. Julian’s representative had sent the draft, asking whether I wanted my pregnancy or my parents’ names included.“No,” I said. “Neither is relevant.”The final statement was brief.Serafina and I were bonded for six years. Mia was never my mate. My conduct allowed a false account of our relationship to spread. Serafina did not start the apartment fire, and the allegations against her are false. She has the right to leave me. Do not contact or harass her.Beneath it was a photograph of the registry entry, with private information concealed.There was no mention of grief making me unstable. No suggestion that I had misunderstood his generosity.I read it twice.“I wish he had said that at the infirmary.”“So do I,” Vittorio said.The statement traveled farther than the original post. Some people apologized. Others deleted what they had written and pretended they
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