All Chapters of THE DIVORCED WIFE RETURNS TO TAKE BACK WHAT’S HERS : Chapter 21 - Chapter 28

CATHY (ELENA’S MOTHER)The flames danced like memories refusing to die.From the back of the ambulance, I watched my house collapse into itself. Timber cracking, glass hissing under the weight of heat. I should have been trembling, I should have been sobbing for all I had lost.But I wasn’t.I sat perfectly still, hands folded in my lap, soot clinging to my palms. My wrists smelled faintly of kerosene. The firelight flickered across the ambulance’s interior, painting my face in gold and shadow. It felt strange, almost poetic how destruction could be so beautiful.And then I saw her. Elena, my daughter, the one I had last seen three years ago, when grief had hollowed out our home. She’s back, but she isn’t alone. Damian is with her. Is she back for him?Now Elena was running, hair dishevelled, heels snapping against the asphalt, her expression somewhere between disbelief and dread. My lips curved, not quite into a smile, but close. You shouldn’t have come back, my girl.Elena

ELENA It had been three years since I walked away from Damian, from everything. Three years since I left this city with nothing but a broken heart and a baby that never got the chance to breathe. I hadn’t taken a cent from him, not even a backwards glance. And yet here I was again, rebuilt, reborn, and walking beside the very man I’d sworn never to face again.The silence between us was heavy. Each step echoed with the ghosts of the past, and I could feel his gaze on me studying, questioning, doubting.He had every right to wonder. How had I managed to build the largest children’s Foundation from nothing? How had I risen from the ashes of what we were? I could feel his curiosity pulsing beside me like static in the air, though he said nothing. For once, I was grateful for his restraint.But something else tugged at my attention. My mother. The memory of her leaving the house late at night for the third time this week had gnawed at me all day. I was here tonight to find out why. My pu

ELENAI sat near the glass wall, knees pulled up, a cup of coffee cradled between my palms like it could steady my thoughts.But it couldn’t.My reflection in the glass looked exhausted like someone who hadn’t slept properly in days. Which was true. My mind wouldn’t stop replaying last night—the confrontation, Damian calling out to Mr. Blake, my mother’s face when I snapped at her… the way she walked home beside me in silence.A small part of me wanted to believe I had been right to be angry, but another part kept whispering that I’d gone too far. She was still my mother. I’d acted like a storm when maybe she just needed calm.I sighed, blowing lightly on my coffee, watching the swirl of steam vanish. Maybe an apology was overdue.Just as I lifted the cup to my lips, I heard her, “Good morning, sweetheart.”My mother waltzed into the living room as if last night’s disaster hadn’t happened, her robe tied neatly around her waist, hair brushed, face calm, composed, unreadable. I shot u

DAMIAN The meeting finally wrapped up, and I watched Elena talk to Lucas Baker with that calm, effortless authority she always had. I could see it, the way Lucas listened, hanging on her every word, nodding, laughing politely at the right moments. And there she was, three years gone, and suddenly she was… untouchable. She’d left everything behind after our divorce, walked away from me, from her life, from me and now she stood there like some untouchable queen of her own empire. How did she do it? How did she become this… woman? She couldn’t have done it alone. The foundation, the money, the connections, the sheer audacity to rise that high in just three years, there had to be a man behind her. Maybe Lucas, maybe someone else. I didn’t know. But I felt that familiar twist in my chest, the jealous ex’s irritation, and the uneasy prick of admiration all wrapped together. And that last name, Hart. Did she get married? Was he the man who gave her wings?