All Chapters of GUILTY DEVOTION: Chapter 131 - Chapter 134

The silence in the house was loud as we stared at each other. Mum’s face had gone pale with fury after Ryan’s poison had spilled into her ears.“Mum, please…” I followed her across the living room, hands trembling, and my voice cracking. “I’m sorry. I should have told you sooner, but.. but…”She stopped at my statement. She stood there stiff, her shoulders rising and falling like she could barely breathe. But she didn’t turn to face me even as I talked. She didn’t say a word with all that I had said.“Mum,” I tried again, tears burning my throat. “I didn’t betray you. I like him. I was the one that liked him first. Long before I even admitted it to myself, I couldn’t stop thinking about him and I found peace with him. You’ve seen me; you know how happy I’ve been in these past few months, you even confirmed it; do you remember? Doesn’t that matter anymore? Don’t you want me to be happy like I have been?”Her silence sliced sharper than any words could; she didn’t have any response to

I had never been good at hiding secrets, but this one sat inside me like a ticking bomb because I dared not spill it except I wanted my head rolling on the floor. Every morning I woke up, my hand went to my stomach as if to remind myself that it wasn’t a nightmare, that there really was a tiny life growing there. Nicholas’s life. My life and our life.And yet, the last thing I could do was tell my mother. Not when she still moved around the house like a typhoon waiting to take over the entire city.She had stopped ignoring me, but we weren’t us again. Her words came in clipped instructions, her gestures deliberate. The love was there with the tiny gestures like dinner cooked, laundry folded, and the occasional blanket tugged over me when I fell asleep on the couch, but it was silent love, unspoken, and very fragile.One afternoon, she appeared at the dining table where I was pushing food around my plate.“Cassandra,” she said, her voice firm but not unkind. She would only call me that