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31. The Last Gala
تاريخ النشر:
2026-07-14 20:05:34
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The Wife He Chose Too Late 43. A Stranger
Damien's POVAs we reached the end of the corridor, my legs suddenly felt far heavier than they had only moments before.The room was right there.Just a few steps separated me from the woman I'd spent the past week believing I'd lost forever, yet every step toward that door seemed harder than the last. I had imagined this moment a thousand different ways since Dr. Reynolds told me Claire was alive, but now that it was finally here, I wasn't sure I was ready.Claire was on the other side of that door.My wife.The woman I'd already mourned.The woman I'd loved for so many years.The mother of our unborn child.My hands were shaking by the time I reached for the door handle.Before my fingers could close around it, Dr. Reynolds gently rested her hand on my arm."Mr. Laurent..."I turned to look at her."I want you to remember what we discussed. Mrs. Laurent may appear completely like herself. She can speak normally, answer questions, and carry on a conversation, but please don't mistak
The Wife He Chose Too Late 42. The Miracle
Damien's POVThe moment I pulled into Memorial Hospital's parking garage, I barely waited for the engine to stop before climbing out of the car.Olivia was already opening her door by the time I reached the front of the vehicle. We exchanged a brief look, but neither of us spoke. There wasn't anything either of us could say that would settle the storm inside me. Every question I wanted answered would have to wait until we found the doctor who had called.Together, we hurried across the parking garage and through the hospital's sliding glass doors.The familiar smell of antiseptic drifted through the lobby, mingling with the quiet murmur of conversations and the distant beeping of medical equipment. People moved around us in every direction—nurses pushing carts, visitors carrying flowers, doctors walking briskly through the corridors—but everything around me blurred into the background.My mind was somewhere else.For a week, I'd lived with the certainty that Claire was gone. There hadn
The Wife He Chose Too Late 41. The Phone Call
Damien's POVThree days had passed since Claire's memorial, but time had lost all meaning to me.I hadn't gone back to work. My inbox was overflowing with emails I couldn't bring myself to open, meetings had come and gone without me, and my phone buzzed often enough that I eventually stopped looking at it altogether. Somewhere beyond the walls of this penthouse, the Laurent Group was still running because Olivia and the board refused to let everything collapse, but I barely knew what day it was anymore. The company I'd once believed was the most important thing in my life suddenly felt so insignificant that I couldn't understand why I'd sacrificed so much for it.The penthouse had become a prison.Every room echoed with silence, but it wasn't the kind that brought peace. It was heavy. Suffocating. Every corner reminded me that Claire was gone, and with every passing hour the reality settled deeper into my chest until it became almost impossible to breathe.I wandered aimlessly from ro
The Wife He Chose Too Late 40. Broken
Third POVDamien didn't remember leaving the office. One moment he was standing in the hallway, Olivia's words still echoing inside his head and the next, he was sitting behind the wheel of his car.The city moved around him in a blur of traffic lights, impatient horns and pedestrians crossing busy intersections, but he barely noticed any of it. His hands rested on the steering wheel while his mind replayed the same sentence over and over again until it became impossible to think about anything else.Claire was pregnant.His chest tightened so painfully he had to pull the car to the side of the road. For several moments, he simply sat there. His forehead rested against the steering wheel as he struggled to draw a full breath.He had spent the past week believing he'd lost his wife and now he knew he'd lost his child too. A child who had never taken a single breath. A child who had never even known its father.His fingers curled so tightly around the steering wheel that his knuckles tu
The Wife He Chose Too Late 39. The Truth
Third POVDamien stared at Olivia as though he'd forgotten how to breathe.The hallway suddenly felt impossibly small.Employees continued walking past in the distance, phones rang somewhere on another floor, and the elevators opened and closed with their usual quiet chime, but every sound seemed muffled beneath the pounding of his own heartbeat."What do you mean?" His voice was barely audible.Olivia lowered her head for a moment, pressing trembling fingers against her forehead as if trying to steady herself before answering. She had spent an entire week holding this secret inside, waiting for the right moment, and now that it had finally arrived, the words refused to come.Behind them, the conference room door opened.Emma stepped into the hallway, intending to give them privacy, but the look on Olivia's face stopped her in her tracks.She knew something was terribly wrong and neither of them noticed she was there.Olivia slowly lifted her eyes to Damien and for several long moment
The Wife He Chose Too Late 38. The Memorial
One week had passed.The headlines had changed, but the story hadn't.Every news station in New York carried the same update, though the urgency that had consumed the city during those first desperate days had long since faded. The live broadcasts from the Hudson River had disappeared, the helicopters no longer circled overhead, and the rescue boats that had spent days combing the water had finally returned to their docks.The search was over.Authorities had searched every section of the collapsed Ferris wheel. Divers had descended beneath twisted steel until it became too dangerous to continue. The Coast Guard had expanded the search through the Hudson River, into New York Harbor, and along miles of surrounding shoreline. Every possible lead had been followed. Every recovered victim had been identified.Every family had been given answers except one. Claire Laurent remained the only passenger who had never been found.Officially, her status now read:Missing. Presumed dead.No body
The Wife He Chose Too Late 2. A Wife By Contract
Claire's POVDamien's words settled over the room with all the force of a collapsing building. "We will need to discuss the divorce arrangements this week."For a moment, I wasn't sure I had heard him correctly. The candles flickered softly between us. The meal I had spent hours preparing filled th
The Wife He Chose Too Late 1. Fourteen days
Claire's POVThe receptionist smiled as she handed me a small envelope. "Don't lose that," she said. "Most mothers end up keeping the first ultrasound forever."I looked down at the photograph tucked inside the envelope and felt something tighten in my chest.Forever.It was such a simple word, suc
The Wife He Chose Too Late 4. A Dinner for Two
Claire's POVThe message remained open on my phone long after I had finished reading it.Outside the penthouse windows, Manhattan glittered beneath the deepening evening sky, its countless lights stretching toward the horizon like stars scattered across black velvet. Normally I loved this view. The
The Wife He Chose Too Late 3. The Wife in Everything But Name
Claire's POVThe next morning, I left the penthouse before Damien not because I had an early meeting and not because my schedule demanded it but because I couldn't bear the thought of sitting across from him at breakfast while pretending his words from the night before hadn't lodged themselves bene
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