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{ FIFTY THREE }

Autor: Lara P
last update Data de publicação: 2026-08-31 00:05:41

ALICE 

The name hit me like a slap I hadn't seen coming. Wilberforce. Not even a stranger, not some competitors.

I didn't say anything for a moment. I let out the breath I'd been holding since the man first opened his mouth.

"We have to get him in front of the court," I said, my voice quieter than I meant it to be. "Today. I want this done before he has a single hour to build a defense."

Julius nodded once and I reached for my phone.

&mdas

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  • TOO LATE TO WANT ME BACK    { SIXTY NINE }

    VAYLENI didn't turn the key. I just sat there in the quiet of the Laurent Group parking garage, my hands still on the wheel, my fingers clamped down on the dark leather in the exact same grip I had used weeks ago when the first doubt had cracked my composure in this same slot.The engine remained dark, the low hum of the building's ventilation system filling the enclosed bay with a steady rattle that seemed to vibrate straight through my coat.Five years I had told myself a story to survive. That I imagined her face in a crowd. That grief had rewritten a stranger into my wife because I couldn't live with the alternative, that she was real and had simply chosen to disappear from me completely.Now I knew. She was real. She had been standing across from me for months, in boardrooms and elevators and now, finally, in the one room where the truth couldn't hide behind either of our comp

  • TOO LATE TO WANT ME BACK    { SIXTY EIGHT }

    ALICEHe was still kneeling on the floor, his hands open at his sides. I stood perfectly still near the window, my fingers resting motionless against the glass as a heavy silence settled over the room.I didn't say a word, and I didn't look away from his face.Looking down at him, I noticed a faint line near the corner of his left eye that hadn't been there five years ago.His frame looked smaller on the floor, stripped of the unyielding corporate armor he had worn into the boardroom that morning.Five years I had practiced this moment in my head. In every version, I stayed strong. I said it flat, like a fact, and walked away with my composure whole.Standing here with him on his knees in front of me, I understood none of that had ever been true. There was no strong version of this. There was only the truth, finally leaving me, w

  • TOO LATE TO WANT ME BACK    { SIXTY SEVEN }

    ALICEI stood in front of the vanity mirror in the corner of my office, my fingers stopped halfway to my hair.My breath caught completely in my throat, and I stared at my own reflection like it belonged to a total stranger.I had been rushing all morning, my mind entirely consumed by the frantic pace of the day. Between getting Diamond dressed, dropping her off safely at the gates of Eagles Bright Academy, and reaching the office before the team and our new international partners arrived, I had not once paused to look in a mirror.Because of that haste, I had worn mismatched earrings through the entire two-hour morning briefing, and then straight through a live television segment that was watched by half the state.A small gold hoop hung from my left ear, while a plain pearl stud sat on the right. I stared at the ridiculous mismatch in the glass and

  • TOO LATE TO WANT ME BACK    { SIXTY SIX }

    VAYLENThe boardroom thinned out in a slow stream of dark suits. Chairs scraped against the floorboards, leather folders clicked shut, and a few parting handshakes were exchanged near the exit as the partner representatives filed into the hallway.I remained seated at the middle of the long table, my hands resting against my thighs, deliberately waiting for the room to empty.I watched Alice from my seat as she collected her notes, her movements calm as she finished a conversation with the last staff director near the door.Once the director nodded and stepped into the corridor, the room dropped into an absolute quiet.Alice didn't look toward my chair. She picked up her binder, turned on her heel, and walked out of the hall.I stood up, walked down and stopped outside her door.I knocked once, waiting

  • TOO LATE TO WANT ME BACK    { SIXTY FIVE }

    VAYLENSince I left Eagle's Bright Academy on Monday, my mind hadn't been at rest. I endlessly reflected on everything Diamond had said to me on that playground bench, her soft voice turning the layout of my history into a complete, unresolved question.More than twice today, I had held my phone, staring at the contact number I copied from her backpack tag. Every instinct urged me to dial it, to hear her small voice, but I resisted.I didn't want to get the little girl into trouble. The last thing I wanted was for Alice to scold her daughter because of me.I spent forty-eight hours forcing my focus back to our shipping reports and port data accounts, trying to maintain a straight business composure while the weeks dropped away.My restraint had broken earlier in the week, on Wednesday. Alice had come into the temporary project office toward the evening, he

  • TOO LATE TO WANT ME BACK    { SIXTY FOUR }

    ALICEGerald's threat had been sitting on my chest since Monday. It had followed me through board meetings, through quiet elevator rides, through the last waking minutes before sleep. I'd tell myself it was nothing, another one of his manipulations designed to keep me circling back to him.It was Saturday, so I stayed in the living room of the penthouse, reviewing project progress and sorting through reports sent by the different teams. The afternoon light cast long, gray lines across the rug, the quiet of the apartment deep and completely undisturbed. Jessica had gone out to get her hair done, leaving the entire floor to the two of us.When I finally paused and looked around, I didn't see Diamond.She had been practicing her language skills on her iPad right beside me just moments ago, but the spot was empty. I'd bought her that iPad six months ago, after one too many nights of her

  • TOO LATE TO WANT ME BACK    { FIVE }

    VAYLEN I called her again. Still switched off. I lowered the phone from my ear slowly. Across the table, my lawyer kept talking, sliding another document toward me like this meeting was still happening normally. I hadn’t heard a word he’d said in the last minutes. My attention went back to the

  • TOO LATE TO WANT ME BACK    { FOUR }

    ALICEFor a full second, Monica’s name on the screen didn’t make sense.I grabbed the phone off the nightstand and stared at it, still half asleep, trying to understand why she would be calling me this early. Then the call ended.Morning light stretched across the bed in pale stripes. My ankle thro

  • TOO LATE TO WANT ME BACK    { THREE }

    ALICE“I’m not doing that.”The words came out flat and cold, putting distance back between us almost immediately. As if the evening had gone a little too far already.The music drifting from the ballroom slowed at the exact wrong moment — intimate enough to make everything more awkward. “You’re be

  • TOO LATE TO WANT ME BACK    { TWO }

    ALICESix days left of being Catherine Morgan. I lay awake in the dark counting them anyway. One by one. Turning each day over in my head like if I thought about it long enough, time might slow down a little.Vaylen didn’t come home that night. I moved through the penthouse the same way I’d moved t

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