Semua Bab Billionaire's Remorse: My CEO Ex-husband Wants Me Back : Bab 131 - Bab 140

SHANE I lay dejectedly on the bed, staring up at the ceiling of my hotel room as if it could swallow me whole. The duvet felt too heavy over my legs, the air too still, too suffocating. I’d come all the way to Denmark hoping…no, believing that seeing Carrie would give me clarity, would help me start fixing everything I had broken.Instead, her rejection burned so deep it felt carved into my bones.Her face when she’d opened the door kept replaying in my mind. The shock. The disbelief. The wall she immediately put up between us. Then the way she looked at me after I told her everything, like she didn’t recognize me anymore.Maybe she didn’t.I dragged a hand over my face and closed my eyes, letting the memories come the way they always did these days; sharp, uninvited, painful.Carrie’s laughter. Not the polite corporate smile she gave during strategy meetings. No. The real one. The one she had whenever we were together.God, I remembered everything about our short time as a couple.

SHANEI was still trying to breathe after Carrie’s final words, ‘I don’t love you anymore,’ when I heard her footsteps returning from down the hallway. Slow. Careful. Weighted, as if she were carrying something fragile.When she stepped back into the living room, my heart stopped.Because she was carrying something fragile.A little boy.He looked like a year old or less than that with thick dark hair and soft cheeks. His big eyes blinked up at me, wide and curious. His tiny hand gripped the collar of Carrie’s shirt.And in that instant, something inside me shattered so violently I felt it in my bones.He looked exactly like me.It was an uncanny resemblance.Like I was staring at a smaller version of my childhood photographs brought to life. My eyes. My brows. My mouth. Even the way he held his head, cautiously observant…felt so familiar.I went cold. Then hot. Then numb.My hands started shaking before I even realized I’d lifted them.“Carrie…” My voice cracked. “Carrie, is he mine…

CARRIE Two months laterI should have known better than to attend a wedding reception where half the staff felt entitled to my personal space. The lights were soft and warm, the room humming with chatter and laughter, glasses clinking, a live band crooning on stage. It was Emmett’s and his wife of ten years renewal of vow ceremony. It was supposed to be a joyful evening, and in many ways it was… until he cornered me again.David. The new senior editor.He had spent the whole night hovering; appearing beside me during cocktails, offering to refill my drink, telling stories I didn’t care to hear, laughing too loudly at his own jokes. Now he stood in front of me again, drink in hand, leaning in just a little too close.“So as I was saying, maybe next week we could grab dinner? There’s this new restaurant at the harbor. Very romantic. I think you’ll love it.” His eyes sparkled with confidence that wasn’t earned.I tried to smile politely. “David, that’s kind but I’ve been really busy an

ANDERSWhen Carrie opened the door, the air punched right out of my lungs. I thought I had seen her in every mood; frazzled at the office, exhausted from motherhood, calm and focused in meetings but I had never seen her like this. She was breathtaking. Her dress was soft and elegant, the color settling on her skin as though it had been made just for her. Her hair framed her face in gentle waves, nothing overly styled, just… beautifully natural. That was one of the things that endeared me to Carrie, she never tried to overdo anything. “You are beautiful,” I heard myself say, my voice embarrassingly breathless.She blinked shyly, her smile lifting something heavy inside me. “Thank you,” she murmured. “You look dapper yoursel.” Then she stepped aside. “Come in for just a minute. Let me grab my purse.”I walked into her apartment, trying not to stare but failing miserably. I had seen this place a hundred times; Leo’s toys, the warm lighting, the quiet peace Carrie always created around

SHANEFriday night settled over the house, dim and heavy. I sat in my study, the only source of light a single lamp on the desk. Spread before me were the things I had once dreamed of giving Carrie on our first wedding anniversary; the three different jewelry I got for her. Beside the jewelry boxes was the large brown envelope holding the documents to the two apartment units I had purchased for her. One overlooking the river. The second facing the city skyline. My fingers brushed the velvet lid of one of the jewelry boxes. That familiar ache twisted inside me again.I had planned so many things for us.And yet I had destroyed everything instead with my jealousy.Even now, I felt Carrie’s words echoing in my bones:“I don’t love you anymore, Shane, it's over between us.”I exhaled slowly and leaned back in my chair.I still needed to give her these things. They weren’t gifts anymore, they were what I owed her. A broken apology shaped in diamonds and property deeds. She would probably