Semua Bab Shattered Vows : Bab 71 - Bab 80

ElenaThe court date was set.Two weeks.Two weeks until I stood across from Daniel for the custody hearing that would determine everything—not just where Noah would live, but how the world would perceive me. Whether I was the composed, capable mother I had always been… or the vindictive ex-wife his lawyers were hellbent on painting me as.Lucas had already started prepping me.Every answer was rehearsed. Every reaction sharpened.We were building a case that wasn’t just about Daniel’s lies, but about his danger—emotional, psychological, and financial. Everything I had endured in silence would finally be heard out loud.But there was a part of me that still hesitated.Not out of fear.But out of exhaustion.“What if I lose?” I whispered late one night, sitting beside Lucas as he reviewed more deposition transcripts.He looked up at me, the dim light casting shadows over his face. “You won’t.”“You don’t know that.”“I know who you

ElenaThere’s a strange kind of calm that comes after chaos.Not the peaceful kind, but the hollow, cautious quiet that follows a storm—when everything looks still, but you can still hear the wind whispering what’s coming next.That’s what it felt like waking up the morning after the letter.Lucas had slept on the couch, under the pretense of “just in case,” but neither of us really believed this was about safety anymore. This was personal. Intentional. Psychological warfare.And whoever was playing wanted me to know the rules had changed.Again.I dropped Noah off at school. Kissed his forehead a little longer than usual. Watched him walk away with his little backpack bouncing behind him.Then I drove to the address scrawled on the back of the envelope. Not the clinic—we’d already been there. This was a second location. A townhouse in an older part of the city, tucked between art galleries and antique shops.I didn’t call Lucas.I needed to d

ElenaBlood.I hadn’t seen this much blood since residency, and back then it had been on other people’s watch. Now it was soaking into the hardwood floor of my foyer, trickling from a man I once promised forever to.Daniel.My ex-husband.My betrayer.And now, my unexpected liability.“Call 911!” Lucas shouted, already kneeling beside him, applying pressure to the wound just below Daniel’s ribcage.I stood frozen. Not in fear, but in disbelief. Because the man I once thought I knew was staring at me now—not with smugness, not with deceit—but with desperation.“Elena,” he gasped. “They tried to—”“Save your breath,” Lucas snapped, his fingers slick with blood. “You punctured something. If you’re lucky, it’s not the liver.”Daniel’s hand found mine.I didn’t pull away.“Jason… he knows Miriam ran the story… He sent Sophie. She’s not who you think. She’s—she’s part of it. Always was. I didn’t know until it was too late.”I stared

ElenaSome women break quietly.Others burn everything to the ground on their way out.And then… There's Sophie Lane.She didn’t just want destruction.She wanted possession.Of my family.My identity.My peace.And I knew—after everything I’d taken from her—she would come for me in the only way that still mattered.Through Noah.It began with a note slipped under the door.No signature. Just four words.“You’re not finished yet.”Daniel found it first. He was staying in the guest room again—closer to Noah since the threats escalated.He handed it to me without a word.My throat went dry. “Security didn’t catch anything?”“Cameras glitched. Just for ten minutes.”“Of course they did,” I whispered.This was her calling card.Not brute force. Not bullets.But psychological warfare.Sophie always preferred chaos over clarity.I tightened my grip on the note.“I want Noah to move.”“To wh

ElenaFreedom doesn’t come with fireworks.It comes with silence.The kind that crawls into your bones when the noise fades—after the chaos, after the screaming, after the final confrontation ends not with bloodshed, but with someone walking away and someone else being dragged into a police car.I stood in the hallway of my house—my house now—while the sun filtered through gauzy curtains, illuminating the dust motes in the air like ghost particles.Sophie was gone. Daniel, too.And for the first time in years, there was no one watching me. No one is tracking my moods. No one is calculating my next move.There was just me.And the echo of who I used to be.Noah was upstairs, asleep. I’d tucked him in myself. He didn’t ask about Daniel tonight. Maybe he sensed the finality in the air. Children, despite their innocence, carry a kind of ancient wisdom—like they can smell endings before they’re spoken.I walked through the house barefoot, letting m