All Chapters of CEO Dante; The one for me : Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

Three days had passed since that heated outburst with Matcus. Three full days of echoing silence, of holding Abigail in my arms while my mind recapped over Marcus’s words, his tone, his expression—everything. I kept replaying it like some haunting Instagram reel I couldn’t turn off, trying to pause at different frames to find meaning. What did I do wrong? Did I say something to trigger him? Did I push too hard or ask too much?I sat in the corner of my bedroom, wrapped in my robe. The morning sun was shining extremely bright through the curtains. Abigail was sleeping peacefully beside me, her little chest rose and fell with quiet, content breaths. At least she was fine. At least she didn’t understand any of this yet.But me? I was exhausted.Not physically, emotionally. I had been through so much, and yet I still hadn’t hardened. I still let myself hope. I still let my heart believe that Marcus had changed and that we could make this work. That the little family I’d pictured late at n

I didn’t sleep much last night. I couldn't even sleep at all. My face was swollen and sore, but the ache in my heart was worse. It was deeper and relentless, like fire burning in the wind. I kept replaying the incident of the previous night over and over again. His hand, his voice, his anger, the sharp sting, the disbelief in my own eyes when I saw him standing there afterward, how he almost looked shocked himself, like he hadn’t fully registered what he had done, but he had and so had I.The silence in the apartment this morning was heavy. Abigail was still asleep, covered up in her blanket, unaware of the storm that had just begun in her mother’s world. I moved around quietly, unsure of what to do with myself. I wiped the same spot on the kitchen counter for nearly ten minutes before realizing my hand was shaking.I wasn't going to cry again. I was done crying over Marcus. He had crossed a line I didn’t even think he was capable of crossing. No matter how bad things had gotten betw

I had a meeting scheduled with my lawyer the next day. The first court hearing was in two weeks and we needed to get things straight before then. As I walked into Mr Lawson's office, I felt the walls closing in on me. The smell of expensive leather chairs, the cold, the serene but exquisite decor, and the way the lawyer was sitting across from me with his laptop in front of him, all made the room feel too big and too small at the same time. It felt like I was suffocating, and I had only just stepped into the battle.The lawyer, Mr. Lawson, was experienced—no doubt about that. He had worked on plenty of custody cases, but I wasn’t sure he understood what this one meant to me. He didn’t know the way Marcus had broken me and yet still had the audacity to come back and try to take my daughter from me.As I explained my ordeal with Marcus to Mr Lawson, I couldn't control myself from having a breakdown. It was all too much. Everything I had been through with Marcus was just one chapter aft

The door barely clicked shut behind Dante before I turned away, wiping the tears from my eyes as I walked back into the living room. My body was trembling with exhaustion, panic, and confusion all tangled into one tight, aching knot."Sienna," Dante's voice followed gently behind me. "Please… talk to me. What’s going on? Where’s Abigail? Your face looks all puffy and red and your eyes are swollen, why have you been crying?"I didn't respond. I didn't know how to respond. Where would I start from? How do I explain everything that has happened without melting again?He moved closer. "Sienna, talk to me. Let me help you. Please."I turned around sharply, bitterness bubbling over. "No! You don’t just get to show up after everything and act like my savior! Why are you even here now?"His eyes widened, lips parting to respond, but I didn’t stop."You walked away. You didn’t fight for me. You let me walk out of your life like I meant nothing. You stayed gone. And now you’re here, what? To sw

I sat curled up on the couch, hugging a pillow to my chest like it could keep the world from closing in on me. My eyes burned from crying, and my head pounded from overthinking, but my thoughts refused to give me a moment’s peace. Everything felt like a blur. Marcus taking Abigail, the way the police made me feel like I was overreacting, and the aching silence of this empty house.How did I get here?I glanced over at my phone on the table in front of me. Dante’s number was still pulled up. I’d been staring at it for the past fifteen minutes, my thumb hovering over the call button like it was some kind of emergency switch. And in a way, it was. He was the only person I could call now. The only person who might actually do something.But pride is a stubborn thing, and so is pain.I didn’t want to look desperate. I didn’t want him to think I was crawling back to him just because I couldn’t handle my problems alone. Even if that was partially true.Just as I finally sighed and whispered,