All Chapters of Winning Her Back: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

It was Ethan at the door. But this Ethan was an Ethan I had never seen. Gone was the charming, sometimes moody man. This was stone carved into fury. His jaw was clenched so hard I could see the muscle twitching under his skin. His eyes, usually stormy grey, were ice chips from a glacier, fixed on me with a power that took my breath away. He said nothing. He just moved, the library entrance a wave of storm pouring past a dam.My instincts screamed a warning. I retreated a step, the old Persian carpet crunching under my slippered feet. For every calculated step he took towards me, I took two back, my heart pounding a frenzied drumbeat against my ribcage. The aroma of his cologne, usually a comfort now hung heavy and suffocating above me, threatening. The atmosphere was electric, thick with unspoken violence and that revolting, unwanted undertone of raw lust that battled with my fear. His proximity, even angry, was a perilous jolt to me, a visceral recall of other proximities that made

The cold smooth wood of Ethan's study door seared against the flush on my cheek. My heart wasn't merely pounding; it was like a frantic bird slamming against my ribcage, wings battering against bone. Each muffled syllable within was a shard of glass scraped against my nerves.Ethan's tone was low and threatening so I could only catch pieces of the conversation: “…..played me, manipulated every damn step."A crisp, feminine voice which could only be Claire's replied”….wanted us….only ever wanted us together, Ethan!"A choked, despairing cry “….you loved me! Remember Venice? Remember how it felt?"Venice. It was a physical blow. My breath caught, shallow and useless. My hands, palms pressed against the wall beside the doorway, were wet with sweat.The battle within raged harder. The furniture groaned. A splintering crash, glass shattering? Claire's voice rose, high, bereft of its usual honeyed inflection, revealing the poison beneath.“….I’m not the villain here!" she shrieked, the soun

The mansion felt less like a gilded cage and more like a vast, echoing tomb. Four days. Four days of meticulously navigating through the halls to avoid interacting with him. Four days of meals taken silently in the kitchen at odd hours, of burying myself in the library until the shelves blurred, of locking my bedroom door with a click that felt both defiant and pathetic. Every creak of the floorboards, every distant murmur from the staff, sent my heart into a frantic gallop. The weight of his presence, his anger, his betrayal, pressed down on me, a constant, suffocating fog.He’d been ominously quiet too. No demands, no confrontations. Just a simmering silence that felt more dangerous than any shout. It coiled in the air, thick and expectant, like the charged stillness before a lightning strike. I should have known it wouldn’t last.I was in my room, the late afternoon sun painting long, accusing shadows across the floor, trying and failing to focus on a book. The words swam meaningle

The antiseptic smell still lingered on my clothing, a haunting echo of the fluorescent-lit limbo that had been my world for days. The soft, steady beep… beep… beep of the cardiac monitor felt seared into my brain, a metronome for worry. Time grew meaningless within the pale green walls, marked only by the slow expansion and contraction of Mom's lungs and the steady stream of doctor updates.And then, the decision: discharge. It hit me like a punch, but one that opened a dam. Relief, profound and convulsive, surged through me so forcefully my knees buckled. I had to grab the arm of the sturdy hospital chair. Mom, propped up on pillows, was still pale, her smile faint, but it was her smile. Dad stood beside her, his hand a boulder on her shoulder, his own exhaustion etched deep but overlaid by a fierce, protective love. They were my beacon in the tempest, worn but standing. "Sweetheart," Mom's voice was papery, thin, but filled with that same familiar, stubborn strength that would take

The sound wasn't just loud; it was an act of violence. An explosion of splintering wood and shattering peace that ripped through the sanctified silence of my room like a grenade. Not a hesitant knock. Not the polite turn of a key.My bedroom door was slammed open with brutal, unrestrained force. It crashed against the wall with a sickening, reverberating THUD that shook the floorboards beneath my feet, vibrating up through the legs of the chair I sat in and rattling the windows in their frames. My sanctuary wasn't just invaded; it was obliterated.I jolted upright, the book flying from my hands and thudding to the carpet. My heart didn't just pound; it launched itself against my ribs like a frantic, trapped animal trying to escape its cage. A choked, ragged gasp tore from my throat, raw with terror. My eyes flew open, wide and unseeing for a terrifying second, pupils dilated, struggling frantically to adjust from the soft lamplight to the sudden, harsh, invasive glare flooding in from