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CHAPTER 80
Last Updated:
2025-04-14 23:00:06
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RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE EX-HUSBAND CHASED ME BACK CHAPTER 81
The following week unfolded like a delicate dance, each step measured, each movement tentative. Jeff and I continued our cautious re-engagement, sharing brief lunches, exchanging playlists, and occasionally walking together after work. It was comfortable, familiar, yet tinged with the uncertainty of uncharted territory.One evening, as we strolled through the park near our office, Jeff turned to me with a thoughtful expression.“Demi,” he began, “there's something I've been meaning to tell you.”I glanced at him, curiosity piqued. “What is it?”He hesitated, then continued, “Stella reached out to me last week. She wanted to talk about some unresolved matters.”A chill ran down my spine. The name alone was enough to stir a whirlwind of emotions.“What did she want?” I asked, striving for composure.“She apologized for everything,” Jeff said. “She admitted to her mistakes and wanted closure.”I nodded slowly, processing his words. “And how did you feel about that?”Jeff sighed. “It was
Last Updated : 2025-04-14RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE EX-HUSBAND CHASED ME BACK CHAPTER 82
I didn’t realize how much tension I’d been holding in my body until Jeff wrapped his arms around me that evening.It was late. The office had long emptied, and the moon had risen, casting silver shadows over my apartment. I’d just stepped out of the shower when he texted:“Can I come over? Just to talk.”I almost said no.But something inside me—a quieter part, the part that still remembered how his voice sounded when he whispered goodnight—nudged me toward yes.So I said okay.And now, here he was. Standing barefoot in my living room, hands tucked into his pockets, looking like the same man who used to hum while making pancakes on Sunday mornings… and yet entirely different. Changed. Softer, maybe. Or just more real.“I’m sorry about yesterday,” he said, breaking the quiet. “About everything, really.”I stood near the kitchen counter, arms crossed—not out of anger, but instinct. A shield.“I know,” I replied. “And I shouldn’t have brought up Stella the way I did. That was unfair.”He
Last Updated : 2025-04-15RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE EX-HUSBAND CHASED ME BACK CHAPTER 83
The next few days passed in a blur.Not the chaotic kind that leaves you dizzy, but the kind that feels like you're holding your breath underwater—waiting for the surface to come back into view, but not sure how long your lungs will last.I kept busy. Overly busy. Back-to-back meetings, inbox zero by noon, editing pitch decks like my life depended on it. Chelsea noticed, of course.“You’re doing that thing again,” she said one afternoon, arms crossed as she leaned against my office door.“What thing?”She gave me a look. “The ‘I’m fine because I’m drowning in productivity’ thing.”I sighed and rubbed my temples. “What else am I supposed to do, Chels? Sit at home and overanalyze every word Jeff’s ever said?”“Maybe not every word. Just the recent ones.” She paused, then added softly, “Did he try to explain more?”I nodded. “He texted. Called once. I didn’t answer.”“Demi…”“I know.” I cut her off before the lecture could begin. “I’m just... trying to figure out if this is something I w
Last Updated : 2025-04-15RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE EX-HUSBAND CHASED ME BACK CHAPTER 84
When Demi fell asleep on the couch, her hand still wrapped in mine, I sat there for a long time just watching her breathe. The tension that had weighed on my chest for days—hell, maybe weeks—finally cracked. Not disappeared, but cracked. Enough for me to feel like maybe, just maybe, we were moving in the right direction again. But I knew better than to believe the battle was over. Because peace, especially with Demi, wasn’t something you stumbled into. It was something you built—brick by brick, truth by truth. The next morning, I cooked her breakfast. Nothing fancy, just scrambled eggs, avocado toast, and the coffee she liked. She looked surprised when she came into the kitchen wearing my shirt, rubbing sleep from her eyes. “You made coffee?” she mumbled, hair a soft mess of curls. “You deserve more than just coffee,” I said with a smile. “But yeah. It’s a start.” She blinked at me like she didn’t expect gentleness. And that? That broke something in me. “You okay?” I asked
Last Updated : 2025-04-16RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE EX-HUSBAND CHASED ME BACK CHAPTER 85
I wasn’t expecting to find the photo.It was wedged between the pages of a book on Jeff’s shelf—one I had given him for his birthday three years ago. I hadn’t been snooping. I was just looking for something to read while he took a call in the other room. My fingers slipped, the spine cracked open, and there it was.A picture of Jeff and Stella.Not just any picture.They were in Paris.Smiling. Kissing. Happy.The background was the Eiffel Tower, but it wasn’t a tourist snapshot. It looked… intimate. Like someone had captured them mid-moment, mid-laughter, mid-love.I froze, the book dangling in my hands.When Jeff walked back into the room, phone still pressed to his ear, his smile faltered the second he saw my face.“What’s wrong?”I held up the photo without a word.He stopped in his tracks. “Where did you…?”“In your book. My book.”He ran a hand through his hair. “Shit. Demi, I didn’t even know that was there.”“It was in a book I gave you,” I said, my voice low and tight. “Was t
Last Updated : 2025-04-16RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE EX-HUSBAND CHASED ME BACK CHAPTER 86
The following morning, I woke up before the sun. It wasn’t something I did often, but the weight in my chest from the night before hadn’t quite lifted. Jeff was still asleep, one arm draped lazily across the space between us, his breathing soft and even. For a moment, I just lay there and watched him—the peacefulness of his face, the tiny furrow between his brows that never quite disappeared, even in rest.It was hard not to remember how things used to be. How mornings like these once felt effortless, warm. Back then, I’d wake up wrapped in his arms, and we’d talk about everything and nothing until we had to rush out the door, usually late. But this was different. Now there was a thin veil of fragility hanging between us. Like we were both afraid to move too fast, afraid it would all crack and shatter again.I slipped out of bed and made my way to the kitchen. I needed coffee—and space to think.By the time Jeff woke up, the apartment smelled like hazelnut roast and toasted bagels. He
Last Updated : 2025-04-17RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE EX-HUSBAND CHASED ME BACK CHAPTER 87
The next morning arrived with a grey drizzle tapping lightly against the windows, like the sky was trying to tiptoe around my mood.I barely slept the night before.Jeff hadn’t knocked. He hadn’t tried to come in. And I was grateful for that. But when I emerged from the bedroom, bleary-eyed and bracing for awkward silence, I found the apartment empty.He was gone.No note this time. No text.The sting of that absence clung to me longer than I cared to admit.At work, Chelsea hovered by my desk with one of her signature lattes, trying to act casual. “Saw the blog post. You okay?”I shrugged. “Define ‘okay.’”She sat on the edge of the desk. “Want me to make a voodoo doll? I’m pretty crafty with yarn and petty rage.”That got a small laugh from me, even if it was weak. “No voodoo. Not yet.”“You believe him?” she asked gently.“I want to,” I said honestly. “I just… I don’t know. It’s like every time I let myself lean in, something happens and I’m reminded why I pulled away in the first
Last Updated : 2025-04-17RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE EX-HUSBAND CHASED ME BACK CHAPTER 88
The next morning, I woke up to the soft golden light bleeding through my blinds and the faint hum of the city coming to life. It should’ve been peaceful. But instead, my mind was already restless.The text.The rumors.The way my heart had stuttered in my chest when Jeff told me Stella was still talking about us like we were a plot point in her drama.I rolled over and stared at my nightstand.The charm bracelet still sat there. I hadn’t worn it again.Not because I didn’t want to.But because… I wasn’t sure if I could. Not yet.My phone buzzed with a notification. A photo.From Jeff.It was of the café where we used to get Sunday breakfast—the tiny one with chipped tile floors and the grumpy barista who somehow always gave us an extra croissant.Jeff: They’re repainting the windows. Looks like they’re trying to be all… modern now. Kinda weird without you here to roll your eyes at it.I stared at the message longer than I needed to. My fingers hovered over the keyboard.Me: Change is
Last Updated : 2025-04-18
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RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE EX-HUSBAND CHASED ME BACK CHAPTER 105
It was raining again.Not the soft, romantic kind of rain. The soak you through your bones, make you late to everything, gray-for-days kind.Jeff hated the rain.Which was why I was surprised when I got a text that afternoon:"Be ready in 15. Wear something you can get muddy in."I stared at the message like it had come from an alien.Then again, Jeff had been… different lately.Softer.Less guarded.Like he was trying. Really trying.So, I tugged on my oldest jeans, shoved my hair into a messy braid, and waited.Fifteen minutes later, his truck pulled up, tires hissing against the wet pavement. I ran out, ducking into the passenger seat with a yelp as a sheet of rain chased me inside.“You look like a drowned cat,” he said with a grin.“You look like someone who’s about to explain what we’re doing driving into a storm.”He just handed me a thermos of coffee and said, “Trust me.”We drove for over an hour. Through back roads and winding trails that made my stomach flip. The farther we
RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE EX-HUSBAND CHASED ME BACK CHAPTER 104
It had been two days since the photo.Two days since the box. Since the kiss. Since we sat in the middle of his living room floor, surrounded by scraps of his past, and decided—quietly, stubbornly—that we were worth salvaging.And for a little while, it felt like we were okay.Better than okay, even.He made coffee just the way I liked it. I left a playlist on repeat that I knew he secretly loved but pretended to hate. He kissed the side of my neck when he thought I was asleep. I pretended not to notice, because pretending was easier than admitting I still melted when he did that.But under it all, something buzzed.Something unsaid.A wordless ache living in the spaces between our sentences.That’s the thing about relationships—we talk about the fights, the makeup sex, the milestones. But no one talks about maintenance. No one talks about how hard it is to just keep showing up.And maybe we were showing up for each other now.But what if one of us stopped again?The unease really sta
RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE EX-HUSBAND CHASED ME BACK CHAPTER 103
The next few weeks were a dance of small things.Late night conversations. Little confessions. Fighting over what movie to watch. Laughing until my stomach hurt. Crying when the weight got too heavy and letting him hold me through it.It wasn’t perfect.Sometimes I still flinched.Sometimes he still said the wrong thing.But we were learning.Learning how to be us without pretending the past didn’t exist.Learning that love isn’t about erasing scars—it’s about tracing them with reverence.One night, months later, after too much wine and too much laughter, Jeff pulled me close and said against my hair:“I don’t want a clean slate with you, Demi. I want the messy one. The one with mistakes and lessons and a thousand second chances. I want the real thing.”I smiled, my heart aching with something fierce and beautiful.“You already have it,” I whispered back.And for the first time in what felt like forever, I knew it was true.Love wasn’t a single moment of forgiveness.It was a thousand
RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE EX-HUSBAND CHASED ME BACK CHAPTER 102
The evening air hit me like a slap the second I stepped out of Jeff’s condo.Sharp. Cold. Unforgiving.I kept walking, barely aware of the streets, the familiar cracks in the sidewalks, the faint hum of the city coming alive for the night. I walked because standing still meant feeling everything at once, and right now, that felt unbearable.The photo burned in my mind. Stella's hand in his. Her smile. His.Closure, he had said. But how many versions of closure could one person have before it stopped being closure and started being something else entirely?I found myself at the small park three blocks away without realizing it. I collapsed onto a bench, wrapping my arms around myself, willing the tightness in my chest to ease.It didn’t.Because this wasn’t just about a photograph.It was about the small cracks in the foundation we were trying to rebuild. Tiny fractures that, left ignored, would one day split wide open and swallow us whole.And God, I was so tired of trying to be the o
RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE EX-HUSBAND CHASED ME BACK CHAPTER 101
Around noon, I found a note taped to my computer monitor. Simple, clean handwriting. I didn’t need to ask who it was from."Dinner. Your place. 7PM. You don’t have to say anything. Just let me try. –J"I stared at it for a long time.It wasn’t a plea. It wasn’t a demand.It was... a hope.A quiet one. One I hadn’t earned yet. One I wasn’t sure I could accept.But when seven o’clock rolled around, I was home. I had lit candles. Put on soft music. Worn something that wasn’t just lounge clothes.And I waited.At 7:02, there was a knock.I opened the door, and there he was—holding a bag of takeout from my favorite Thai place, rain in his hair, uncertainty in his eyes.“Hi,” he said softly.“Hi,” I replied.He stepped inside, and we moved through the motions like a dance we hadn’t forgotten. Plates. Chopsticks. Steam curling from cartons. But the real heat in the room wasn’t from the food.It was the tension.I finally broke it.“Who was that message from?” I asked, voice even but my heart
RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE EX-HUSBAND CHASED ME BACK CHAPTER 100
I didn’t go far. Just to the small park down the block from Jeff’s condo unit—the one with the crooked benches and a fountain that hadn’t worked since spring. I sat there, my coat tight around me, watching the early evening swallow the sky whole.I didn’t cry. Not really.I was too tired for tears. Too wrung out from constantly stitching together the pieces of us, only to watch them come loose again.I pulled my phone out, stared at the blank screen. No texts. No calls. And maybe that was the point. Jeff had said he wouldn’t stop trying, but he hadn’t come after me. Not this time.Maybe he was learning to give me space. Or maybe he was just as exhausted as I was.A gust of wind tore through the branches above, scattering brittle leaves across my boots.Why does love feel like this sometimes?Not soft and soothing, but raw. Like walking barefoot on broken glass, hoping every step doesn’t cut too deep. Hoping the bleeding stops before the next fight.But despite everything, I didn’t wan
RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE EX-HUSBAND CHASED ME BACK CHAPTER 99
Around noon, I found a note taped to my computer monitor. Simple, clean handwriting. I didn’t need to ask who it was from."Dinner. Your place. 7PM. You don’t have to say anything. Just let me try. –J"I stared at it for a long time.It wasn’t a plea. It wasn’t a demand.It was... a hope.A quiet one. One I hadn’t earned yet. One I wasn’t sure I could accept.But when seven o’clock rolled around, I was home. I had lit candles. Put on soft music. Worn something that wasn’t just lounge clothes.And I waited.At 7:02, there was a knock.I opened the door, and there he was—holding a bag of takeout from my favorite Thai place, rain in his hair, uncertainty in his eyes.“Hi,” he said softly.“Hi,” I replied.He stepped inside, and we moved through the motions like a dance we hadn’t forgotten. Plates. Chopsticks. Steam curling from cartons. But the real heat in the room wasn’t from the food.It was the tension.I finally broke it.“Who was that message from?” I asked, voice even but my heart
RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE EX-HUSBAND CHASED ME BACK CHAPTER 98
By Monday, we were back in the city.Jeff dropped me off at my place, and though we kissed goodbye with a promise to see each other soon, something lingered between us—something unspoken and tense, like a storm hovering just beyond the horizon.I tried to shake it off as I stepped into my apartment. I unpacked slowly, letting the quiet settle around me. But my thoughts refused to sit still.Why now? Why was Stella suddenly trying to reappear? And why did Jeff hesitate before telling me?It wasn’t fair—he’d done so much to regain my trust. He’d been showing up, loving me in all the right ways. But one whisper from the past, and the walls I’d slowly let fall started climbing back up.I turned on some music, something soft, just to quiet the noise inside my head. And that’s when my phone buzzed.It was a message. From an unknown number.Unknown: "You can believe him if you want. But you should know he came back to me once before. Right after the first time you left."I stared at the scre
RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE EX-HUSBAND CHASED ME BACK CHAPTER 97
There’s something strangely intimate about folding laundry with someone you love. Not the kind of love that’s still wrapped in red ribbons and candlelit dinners, but the kind that shows up in the quiet domesticity of Sunday afternoons—barefoot, soft music in the background, mismatched socks everywhere.Jeff held up one of my oversized sweaters, the sleeves drooping like tired arms. “This still smells like that coconut shampoo you use.”I glanced up from the pile of towels. “I haven’t used that shampoo in months.”“Must be haunted,” he smirked, then tossed it gently to my side of the bed.I laughed, but it came with a soft ache. This was good. Easy. Comfortable. Almost too comfortable.Maybe that’s why it blindsided me when the tension returned—sharp and unexpected like stepping on glass in a room you thought was safe.It happened that evening.We were cleaning out the hallway closet when Jeff’s phone buzzed on the console table. Once. Twice. Three times.He didn’t reach for it.I woul
