Alle Kapitel von His Choice Wasn't Me: Kapitel 171 – Kapitel 180

The morning traffic had been unusually stubborn, long lines of cars crawling forward under a sky that threatened rain but refused to release it. By the time Sarah pulled up in front of Melissa’s school, she had checked the time three times already.She was late. Not fashionably late. Properly late.Melissa unbuckled her seatbelt slowly, her movements quieter than usual.“Aunty Sarah,” she called gently.Sarah turned from the steering wheel to look at her. “Yes, sweetheart?”Melissa’s eyes were fixed straight ahead through the windshield. For a moment, she didn’t speak. Her fingers twisted the edge of her school bag, knuckles pale.“Mel sweetheart, what’s it?” Sarah asked, her tone softening.Melissa blinked, like someone returning from far away. “Aunty Sarah, I know you said you’ve forgiven Daddy. But—” She paused, swallowing.Sarah’s heart skipped at the direction of that sentence. She kept her face calm.“But if he proves himself worthy of you again,” Melissa continued carefully, “w

Tiana lay still on the narrow hospital bed, her eyes fixed on the white ceiling above her as though the cracks in it could tell her what would happen next.The steady beeping of the monitor beside her was the only sound in the room. She was healing faster than the doctors had predicted. The stitches had been removed.The bruises were fading. In a few days, they would move her back to prison.The thought made her jaw tighten.The door opened.She turned lazily at first, expecting a nurse.Then she saw James.And beside him was Melissa.For a second, her heart stopped. The little girl was no longer little.She stood taller now, her hair neatly packed, her posture straighter, her expression guarded in a way that did not belong to a child. The last time Tiana had seen her, she had barely reached her waist. That was three years ago. Three long years.Melissa had asked to see her several times when the sentence first began.Tiana had refused.She told herself it was pride. Told herself she

The next evening, the bar lights were dim enough to hide shame but bright enough to expose loneliness.James sat at the far end of the counter, away from the crowd, away from the kind of noise that had nothing to do with him. He had chosen the spot deliberately, tucked into the corner where the light barely reached and no one had reason to look twice.The third glass of whiskey rested in his hand, half full, his fingers gripping it the way a drowning man grips something that cannot actually save him.He stared at the ceiling as though Sarah's face was written across it as though if he looked long enough and hard enough, something up there might give him an answer he hadn't already turned over a hundred times in his own mind."Sarah, how else do you want me to prove myself?" he muttered, his voice low but trembling with emotion he had no other outlet for.The bartender glanced at him briefly, caught the look in his eyes, and said nothing. Some men you leave alone. James was clearly one

The news broke just before noon.“Convicted Businesswoman Escapes Police Custody.”The headline flashed across every major platform. Within minutes, the story was trending. Photos of Tiana from court appearances resurfaced. Old footage of the warehouse incident was recycled. Analysts dissected the timeline. Speculation exploded.In her office, Sarah stood frozen in front of the mounted television screen.The news anchor spoke rapidly, summarizing what little information authorities had released. Hospital transfer. Police escort scheduled. Empty room discovered. Investigation ongoing.Sarah’s fingers tightened around the remote.She lowered herself slowly into her chair, eyes fixed on the screen.Tiana had escaped.Her mind moved quickly—security, children, media, reputation.James.She reached for her phone but stopped herself. Her office door knocked lightly.“Ma’am?” her assistant peeked in. “The board meeting in fifteen minutes.”Sarah straightened, her expression already composed.

“Okay, now you need to calm down,” Sarah said, tightening her grip on the phone as she stepped away from the kitchen counter. She could hear the tension in James’ breathing from the other end of the line. “Melissa is fine and she’s getting ready for school. What’s going on?”James released a breath, long, heavy, shaky. The kind that carried too much inside it. He began narrating what just happened at his apartment. About the police visits and Tiana’s escape case.Sarah listened without interrupting. She walked slowly toward the living room window, pulling the curtain slightly aside and staring out at the quiet compound. Her face remained composed, but her mind was alert.When he finished, there was a brief silence.“That’s not my concern,” she said, brushing it off as though she was discussing a distant news story.“It becomes your concern if she shows up there,” James said quickly. His voice sharpened. “Tiana is dangerous and can be unpredictable. You should get security for yourself