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CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIVE
Last Updated:
2025-05-16 09:05:39
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TAKE ME BACK EX WIFE CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SEVEN
137 JOANA'S POV We settled into a calm and secluded place in a restaurant only a short distance from the office. I asked for an omelette along with black coffee. His meal included pancakes, together with two additional sides, topped off with orange juice. “I hadn’t realised you eat this much,” I said quietly when the plates came. He replied, nudging the salt towards me, "And I forgot how little you seem to do. Instead of truly living, you simply get by.” I kept my eyes on my food and didn’t glance in his direction. He suddenly looked at me and asked, “Don’t you remember that breakfast spot in Barcelona?” I looked up, startled. “What?” “There was a small café just outside the Gothic Quarter. You made us walk over half a mile to have churros.” “I was carrying a child,” it slipped out of my mouth before I realised what I’d said. “And hormonal.” He froze. In that second, the room seemed to narrow around us. I regretted the words instantly. He lowered his eyes to hi
TAKE ME BACK EX WIFE CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIX
136 JOANA'S POV Her voice echoed in my head – her innocent mask, desperate face, and warning laced with venom. I grinned back, looking collected while burning inside. At last, I saw her for who she really was. It was no longer a choice for her to front gentleness or indifference. Still, I couldn’t stop thinking, just a bit... awkward. Such intervals leave you feeling empty. The kind of depletion, nothing, not even coffee, can really calm. The kind that bleeds itself into your very existence, wanting nothing but a peaceful glimpse into the ocean and an escape to sleep for a week. But that wasn’t the option for me. Certainly not, when a jewel bidding contract was ready to run, sitting on my desk and bearing the weight of the entire international expansion of my company. I entered the lobby, propagating my heels across the lustrous stone floor ever so softly. Her warm smile blinked and then quickly went back to her keyboard when she greeted me. But then I saw him. Cli
TAKE ME BACK EX WIFE CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIVE
135 JOANA'S POV A part of me felt that I would refuse the ride altogether as we drove towards the prison. But I was done running. Done bottling things up. The opportunity had presented itself for me to face the monster in my life – this hurdle force hell-bent on breaking what meant the most to me. Anita. The one who stared into my eyes and did her best to kidnap my daughter. Then, later, pretend nothing had happened. The lady who almost stole everything from me. And for what? Solely because of love That’s what I needed to find out. — As I entered this small visitation room, I saw her already seated, now strapped to the table, but with blunt irony in her position. Her once immaculate hair, now dull and just tied up at the back with a loose band. Her bearing had not changed: she carried herself straight and proud, her chin held high, and her lips had that tincture that comes from knowing you cannot be trusted. I didn’t sit immediately. I stood at the doorway and star
TAKE ME BACK EX WIFE CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FOUR
134JOANA'S POV“I don’t know any longer,” admitted my voice, barely audible. “Perhaps I do not wish to know”.“Why?” he stepped closer.“Because if I begin to unravel this, I am not sure if I will be able to stop. I’m already hanging by threads, Clinton”.“Then let go.”“I can’t!” I yelled, finally blatant, looking him in the eye. “I can not jump into something with you again and then risk destroying everything I have built. Caleb—he’s been here. He was my stand-by when you weren’t. He did a clean-up after your absence!”Clinton’s face fell with disgrace, but he did not move.“He’s not a rebound,” I added shakily, too. “He’s real. And he gave me a future.”“Did you say yes?” Clinton asked, voice strained.“I haven’t decided.”“That’s because part of you knows he isn’t the one”.“And perhaps the other part knows you ruined it all!” I snapped. “You left me. You left them. You did have your reasons, yes, but not by trust amount did you confide. You didn’t come back sooner. You leave fir
TAKE ME BACK EX WIFE CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THREE
133JOANA'S POVThe words struck like a thunderclap.I stared at him. "What?"“I mean it”, he said, and his voice was steady now. "Marry me, Joana. I love you. I cherish those kids like they were my own. And I will defend all of you forever. I can give you the peace that Clinton has never given.”My mouth opened, then closed. I blinked slowly and tried to process."Caleb..."“I am not saying this to pressure you,” he added. “But I want you to know that I mean it. I’m not here simply to get things back together for the time being. Here, let me have a life with you.”I sighed a quivering breath and stroked my hand through my hair. “You have no idea what you’re asking for.”He stepped closer. "I know it’ll be hard. But we’ll face it together.""You think they’ll understand? That the kids will just take it for granted on waking up one day and learning their mom is marrying their uncle?” I scoffed. "They just started settling in. If we do it now, we’ll dig them up all over again.”Caleb lo
TAKE ME BACK EX WIFE CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-TWO
132JOANA'S POVJapheth stood now as well, in that knotting of his brows, which always brought to the front of my mind, Clinton. “Why can’t we stay here?”The question was like a slap to me.I swallowed. “This isn’t how this works. You live with me. I’m your mother.”‘But we have both of you here, ’ Mirabel said in wide, pleading eyes. “Please, Mommy.”I was losing this battle.“Sweetheart…” I cupped her face. “This was never permanent. We had to stay there as some nasty people were trying to injure us. That’s over now. We are going back to a time when things had a certain quality.“But I don’t want things to return,” Jake mumbled.“You’ll have your rooms” – I tried again. ‘We’ll get ice cream tomorrow, and you can have sleepovers.’ Everything will be okay.”Japheth folded his arms. “But, it’s not just about stuff, Mom. ”Caleb finally stepped forward. “Hey,” he said gently. “You’re not leaving your father with your mother. She’s only bringing you home for a while. You’ll still visit
TAKE ME BACK EX WIFE CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-ONE
131JOANA'S POV The words hurt me harder than I thought they would. I turned. “What do you think? Don’t you think that I can boast when people lie?”“I think,” he said carefully, “you choose not to sometimes."My jaw clenched. “Is that what this is? A lecture?”“No,” he said, stepping closer. “It’s me telling you that you are allowed to break. That is, you don’t have to carry everything on your own.”“I’m not broken,” I said.“I didn’t say you were.”I looked at the water again. This time, I had a lower voice. “She attempted to kill my daughter, Caleb. Anita… she almost tried to kidnap Mirabel away from me.“I know”, he said, and his voice hardened. “And she paid for it.”“She did it for Clinton. Because she loved him. Just like Louisa did.” I laughed bitterly. “And somehow I’m always collateral damage”.Silence between Caleb and me grew thick and knowing.“Maybe it’s me,” I whispered. “I guess I am the common denominator in all this. Why do men keep disappointing me, and why do wome
TAKE ME BACK EX WIFE CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY
130JOANA'S POVLouisa laughed.A little too loudly. “Don’t flatter yourself, Joana. You’re not that interesting. But I’ll admit—it’s satisfying. Seeing you, look, and burn when you have played the cloth so well.I raised a brow. “Victim?”“You always wore that role like a crown, ” she said, venom now dripping from every word. “The wretched wife betrayed by the man she loved, ripped apart by the wicked mistress. Please. You weren’t a victim. You were just boring. Predictable. Clinton matured beyond you, and you hated this. So you painted me as the villain because it was a lot easier than confronting the truth.”I stared at her. And I let the silence make her uncomfortable, stretching long enough to do so.Then I leaned in slightly. “You’re right.”She blinked. “What?”“You’re right,” I repeated. “I was predictable. I was loyal, trusting. I believed in forever. And when you slithered in and burned everything down, I allowed myself to feel that it was my fault for not being… enough”.Lo
TAKE ME BACK EX WIFE CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE
129JOANA'S POVMy heart clenched.But I couldn't allow it. I wouldn't.“Undo it?” I laughed faintly. “Do you believe that apologies and wishful thinking will erase the nights I have not slept?”“How can they heal the fear that I see in Mirabel’s eyes whenever a stranger gets close? And wonder which of your admirers will try to finish what Anita did?”As he opened his mouth, nothing came out.I shook my head. “It was long that I shut myself up. Through and through, I did not want to hurt my kids, and so I allowed it deep inside. But this isn’t love, Clinton. It’s survival. And I can’t do both.”His eyes searched mine. “I never stopped loving you.”I let the silence hang. I wish it would dig into my skin, like nails. Because I loved him too. But that was the most dangerous truth of them all.“You think love is enough?” I whispered. “It wasn’t love that saved us from saying goodbye to Louisa. It’s not armour, Clinton. It’s a wound we can’t stop reopening in the name of making this work.
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