บททั้งหมดของ No Second Chances, Ex-husband: บทที่ 181 - บทที่ 190

LAUREN'S POV We had gotten everything we needed for the decorations. The trunk of my car was filled with colorful balloons, ribbons, confetti, and banners that read Happy Birthday Aria. The whole idea of creating something special for my daughter filled me with excitement, yet, beneath that excitement, there was an uneasiness I couldn’t shake off. As I drove back home, my right hand stayed on the steering wheel while my left kept drifting toward my phone beside me. I’d been checking it every few minutes, waiting for Tessa’s message. She was supposed to text me once she and Aria arrived at the mall. But there was still nothing. No new notifications, no message, just the last read text from earlier this morning. “Relax,” Roman said from the passenger seat, his voice calm but firm, the kind that carried reassurance. I glanced at him for a moment before returning my gaze to the road. “Am sure they’re just held up in traffic or something,” he added, turning slightly toward me. “Yeah,

LAUREN'S POV Holding a glass of water and a pack of ice in my hands, I walked back into the living room, my chest feeling tight from everything that had happened. The house was too painfully quiet for a place that used to be filled with Aria’s laughter. Each step I took sounded heavy, echoing faintly off the walls as if reminding me how empty the house suddenly felt. Tessa was sitting on the couch, looking pale and exhausted. Her hair was a little disheveled, her blouse slightly wrinkled, and a thin line of dried blood trailed down the side of her temple. I swallowed the lump in my throat as I handed her the ice pack. “Here,” I said softly, lowering myself into the armchair across from her. “Hold this against your head. It’ll help.” She gave a faint nod and pressed the icepack to her injury, wincing slightly from the sting of the cold. I placed the glass of water on the table beside her and waited. I didn’t want to rush her, but every second that passed without her speaking ma

ETHAN'S POV “Where’s my mummy?” the little voice asked, fragile and innocent, and for a moment I let the sound sit in the room. I looked down at her, at the tiny face that carried more of Lauren than any headline ever could and I felt nothing but a curious distance. She looked like Lauren, yes. The curl of her lip when she frowned, the way she blinked at the unfamiliar ceiling above her bed. But there was no mirror of me in her features, and that fact steadied something dark inside me. “Keep quiet,” I said, flatly, and guided her to the small bedroom we’d arranged for her. This was to be temporary, I reminded myself: a holding place until Sophia and I decided the next step. I set her down on the bed and started to turn away. She jumped up as if sensing an opening and sprinted from the room. I moved faster. Caught her by the arm and dragged her back, the motion abrupt enough to make her little legs wobble. “If you do that again, bad things are going to happen to you,” I said, lettin

LAUREN'S POV Today felt like a crushing, endless failure. The whole day had slipped through our fingers and with it any hope of finding Aria. Ethan was nowhere to be found. Aria was nowhere. I lay flat across the backseat of the car as if it were my bed, the leather cool beneath my cheek. The tears I had been holding so tightly all day began to leak out anyway, slow and relentless. There was nothing I could do to stop it. The pain sat in my chest like a weight I hadn’t felt since Elena died. That grief had been a raw, jagged thing — a bright, unbearable wound and today that old ache came back, ugly and familiar. Only now it was mixed with a fear so sharp I could hardly breathe, what if Aria wasn’t alive? The thought looped through my mind, relentless. He could have taken her somewhere and killed her, then disappeared. The silence of the last few hours did nothing to soothe that fear; if Ethan wanted to get back at me, I expected a call by now, a ransom demand, a taunt, anything. Ins

LAUREN'S POV After I finished eating, I sat back in silence for a moment, my eyes lingering on the now empty plates. The maids had left some time ago, but the smell of pancakes and syrup still hung faintly in the air. Letting out a quiet breath, I pushed the tray aside and got up. The soft carpet muffled my steps as I walked into the bathroom. The large mirror greeted me with a reflection I barely recognized. I stared at myself for a moment longer before turning on the shower. Warm water rushed down my body, washing away the dirt, the exhaustion, and maybe a small fraction of the pain that had clung to me since yesterday. My thoughts ran wild as the water hit my skin, flashes of Aria’s smile, the sound of her laughter, the way she’d reach out her small hands for a hug whenever she saw me. Where was she now? Was she safe? Was she crying for me? By the time I turned off the shower and stepped out, my mind was heavy again. I grabbed a towel, drying myself slowly, almost absent