LOGINShare
CHAPTER FIVE
publish date:
2026-08-05 15:20:41Brian's POV
I couldn't speak or even wrap my head around what the hell I was seeing. For a moment, I actually thought my mind was playing tricks on me. I hadn't seen her in a year, and maybe... this was just my subconscious getting the best of me. But as she moved through the crowd, greeting guests one after the other, I realized this was real.
Her smile was bright. Her eyes were filled with so much light. It felt like my legs were actually glued to the ground because I could not move. My heart was racing so fast. How exactly was this possible?
It made no sense.
Jolene, the same woman I had been married to for three years.
No.
I shook my head, still trying to convince myself that I wasn't seeing what was clearly before me. It was stupid, but I was still in so much denial.
She greeted most of the guests, carrying herself with so much grace, so much elegance. And when she got to where I was, I almost reached for her but quickly lowered my hands.
"Jolene," I called her name, and she just turned, smiled at me, and kept walking.
For a moment, I wondered if she actually recognized me, or maybe she thought I was just one of the guests. I didn't know what to think anymore.
I followed behind her like a desperate puppy seeking attention.
"Jolene."
I tapped her gently.
She turned around again.
"We need to talk about..." I couldn't even bring myself to form a proper sentence. I kept stuttering over my words.
"The partnership," I finally said. That was the only thing that came to my head. I had so much I wanted to talk to her about, but that was the only thing that left my mouth.
She smiled.
"My assistant will make sure to get back to you," she said before walking away again.
She acted like today was the first time she was seeing me, like she had never set her eyes on me in her entire life.
Maybe she didn't recognize me.
That was what I kept telling myself.
But I knew she did, and that was the worst part.
A lot of other people walked up to me, but I couldn't register one single conversation I had with anyone. It felt like I was slowly losing my mind. If this was a bad dream, I needed to wake up because I was going crazy.
She disappeared for a complete year only to turn up as the daughter of the man that owned a company that, without their partnership, my company—everything I had worked for, everything my father had worked for—was going to crash.
My life was literally in her hands right now. My palms were sweating, and I knew I needed to get out of this place. I moved through the crowd like a ghost. Chit-chat filled the air, and usually this was my kind of scenery. I would have been talking to new investors by now.
But tonight... I had no words to describe it. When I got back home that night, I just lay in bed staring at the ceiling. Sophia was fast asleep, and my heart wouldn't stop racing.
Jolene looked... exquisite because beautiful wouldn't even start to describe what that woman looked like. It was like I was seeing her for the first time, and she was magnificent.
I tossed and turned on the bed. My company was literally hanging by a thread, and the only hope I had was this partnership. And I knew it. Jolene was never going to give it to me.
———
Morning came sooner than expected. I wasn't sure I even slept. My entire body felt sore, and my heart wouldn't stop racing even after last night. For a moment, I didn't move. I just lay on the bed, hoping and praying that everything that happened last night was a dream, a very horrible nightmare.
"Oh my God!"
I heard a scream coming from the entrance of my room. Sophia walked in, her phone in hand and her face pale, like all the blood was drained out.
"Brian," she said my name in a panic. "What is this?" She pointed her phone to me. I stared at the screen. Every headline was talking about Jolene.
"Please tell me this is a fucking joke," she said as she paced restlessly.
I didn't say a word. I just kept staring at the ceiling, hoping she would shut up and let me think.
"Brian, say something!" she yelled at me.
I covered my face with my hands, trying so hard not to yell at her. It took every ounce of restraint in me not to tell the mother of my child to shut the fuck up.
When I couldn't tolerate it anymore, I just got out of bed, headed straight into the bathroom, took my bath, got dressed, and left the house. I didn't bother having breakfast. The car ride to the office felt like ages. Everything was a complete mess, and Sophia... God, she was making my life even more miserable than it already was.
When I got to the office, I canceled every meeting and every appointment that I was supposed to have that day.
I couldn't lose this partnership. Hell no. I was trying to think of anything, come up with the quickest solution to this problem.
Once upon a time, Jolene had loved me, and I knew she still did. No one gets over someone they've been in love with that easily. It doesn't just happen, and that was exactly what I planned on exploiting.
She might be the heiress, but she was once my wife. Even calling her that felt... weird.
I knew if there was any hope of saving my company, it depended on how right I played my cards from now on, but the good thing was I wasn't new to the game, and that was going to be my advantage.
Latest chapter
Obsessing Over My Ex-Wife CHAPTER ONE-FORTY-EIGHT
Jolene’s POVJason came home four days later, and the house got louder.Grace carried him through the front door with his blanket over her shoulder. Dad walked beside her with one hand near the Jason’s head, as if the doorframe might hurt him. Vincent had hung a banner in the hall that said WELCOME HOME in crooked letters, and Lily had made him take down the glitter. Jason ignored all of it. He looked around with his serious dark eyes, found the stairs, and shouted at them.“He’s completely himself,” Dr. Adam said from the doorway, smiling.I laughed, and it surprised me. It had been so long that I had forgotten how it felt.For one whole afternoon I let myself believe it was over. I sat on the nursery floor while Jason pulled himself up on the edge of the crib, wobbling and furious with his own legs. He ate. He slept. He grabbed my hair and wouldn’t let go.Then evening came, and with it the quiet, and I started to think.Brian had left the hospital the morning after the transfusion.
Obsessing Over My Ex-Wife CHAPTER ONE-FORTY-SEVEN
Brian’s POVI don’t remember much of the next hour. Dr. Carter talked fast, a nurse pushed a clipboard into my hands, and my signature on it looked like someone else’s.They took me into a small room with a chair that tilted back. A nurse tied a band around my arm and drew three tubes of blood.“How long until you know?” I asked.“We’ve put yours first in the lab,” Dr. Carter said. “I have to ask, have you eaten today?”“Not really.”“Then someone will bring you juice. You can’t give blood on an empty stomach.”I almost laughed. A week ago I had sat in a lawyer’s office thinking I was ready for anything, and now a doctor was worried about my breakfast.“Can I see him before the results come?” I said. “Just to look.”She hesitated, then nodded. “Through the glass. Not in the room yet.”Jolene walked me down the hall without a word. Richard Beaumont and Vincent were outside the room, and Grace sat on a bench nearby with her hands in her lap. Vincent stepped aside so I could reach the wi
Obsessing Over My Ex-Wife CHAPTER ONE-FORTY-SIX
Jolene’s POVI sent the message and then sat holding the phone in my lap.Nothing in the room had changed. The monitor kept up its slow beeping, and Jason lay on his back with one small hand open on the sheet, the way he had lain for two days. Dr. Carter had come early that morning and told me the number. It was lower again, below the mark she had drawn on her tablet.“We can keep him stable until tomorrow,” she had said. “After that, I can’t promise anything.”I had nodded and not cried. For five days I had tried every other way, and every one had ended with someone kindly telling me no. Isaac had texted twice to say he had asked every doctor and registry he knew. The nearest match was in another country, and the blood would arrive too late.Dad sat in the corner chair. Vincent stood by the window. Lily had gone to find water.“You sent it,” Vincent said quietly.“How do you know?”“You looked at your phone, then at Jason, and you haven’t looked at the phone since.”I glanced at the
Obsessing Over My Ex-Wife CHAPTER ONE-FORTY-FIVE
Brian’s POVDeborah Bennett was buried on a gray Saturday morning, in a small cemetery at the edge of the city. The grass was wet, and the wind came straight across the open ground.I had arranged most of it myself. Sophia had signed where I pointed and nodded at every question, and by the end I had stopped asking her anything. The funeral home found a priest. Emma ordered white flowers, and she said nothing when I told her to keep the bill away from Sophia.About thirty people came. Most were strangers to me, neighbors and women from the church where Deborah once sang in the choir. They looked at Sophia with a mix of pity and curiosity. Sophia stood at the front in a plain black dress with Zoe on her hip and Matilda close behind her. She didn’t cry. She stared at the coffin like she was waiting for it to say something.My mother came in a black coat and a hat with a short veil. She stood beside me, and her hand rested on my arm for the whole service, light and warm, as if we were an
Obsessing Over My Ex-Wife CHAPTER ONE-FORTY-FOUR
Tiffany’s POVI stood outside Sophia’s door for a long time before I knocked.Yesterday I had walked past this same door and heard her crying inside. I didn’t knock then. I kept walking, and I felt bad about it all night. So today I came back.Matilda had let me in through the side door of Brian’s wing. She didn’t ask why I was there. She only looked down the hall to make sure nobody was watching and waved me through.My hands wouldn’t stay still. I knocked.“Go away, Matilda,” Sophia called from inside.“It’s Tiffany.”She didn’t answer for a while. I almost turned around. Then the lock clicked and the door opened a few inches.Sophia stood there in a black dress she had clearly slept in. Her hair was messy and her lips were dry. She looked at me like she didn’t trust me.“If your mother sent you, tell her I’m not ready to talk.”“She didn’t send me. She doesn’t know I’m here.”“Are you sure?”“Yes.”“Say it again.”I said it again, and she watched my face for a moment. Then she step
Obsessing Over My Ex-Wife CHAPTER ONE-FORTY-THREE
Vincent’s POVDad’s text came at a quarter past nine. Come to the hospital. Bring Lily if she’s with you.She was. We had been in the mansion’s sitting room with a takeout box between us, neither of us eating. Lily had her jacket on before I finished reading. She didn’t ask anything. She only said she would drive, because she had seen my hands.By the time we reached the third floor, the corridor outside Jason’s room was crowded with people being quiet. Dr. Carter stood against the wall with her arms folded. Dr. Adam was speaking low to a nurse. Dad sat in a plastic chair with his hands hanging between his knees, and he looked up at me like a man who had been handed something he couldn’t set down.“Two days,” he said.That was all I needed. I sat beside him and put my arm around his shoulders, and he let me, which he rarely did.Jolene was inside. Through the glass I could see her at the head of the bed with her back to us, one hand on the rail and the other on Jason’s chest, as if sh
You May Also Like
To Be Yours Again
Taylor1.0M viewsCan't Win Me Back
Ginger Sue3.0M viewsThe Breaking Point of Love
Cloudsearcher4.8M viewsWicked Cravings
The Book Magician596.0K viewsThe Billionaire Behind My Husband's Mistress Wants Me
Yui Ismutomo24 viewsI’M MARRIED TO THE DEVIL IN A SUIT
GLORY O.OY62 viewsGABRIEL VINCENT — My Protector Senator
Mitha Souza33 viewsTHE BILLIONAIRES 31-DAY CHRISTMAS CONTRACT
Steven star29 views
