บททั้งหมดของ Shattered Vows: บทที่ 81 - บทที่ 90

Chapter 81 – One Last LetterAlthea POVI didn’t expect the letter to arrive the way it did.No courier in a crisp suit.No dramatic knock at the door.No warning.It was folded neatly inside a plain cream envelope, slipped beneath my apartment door sometime between midnight and dawn—quiet, almost apologetic in its arrival, as if even the paper itself feared disturbing the fragile balance I had built around my heart.I noticed it only because I nearly stepped on it.The envelope had my name written in handwriting I would recognize anywhere.Damian.My breath left me in a slow, uneven exhale. For a moment, I simply stood there in the narrow hallway, barefoot, still half-wrapped in sleep, staring down at the envelope like it might explode if I touched it.I hadn’t heard from him in weeks.Not since the last call from the hospital.Not since the doctors had begun using words like limited and prepare.I told myself I was ready.I told myself I had already mourned him in pieces—during slee

Chapter 83 – The Final GoodbyeAlthea POVI did not leave the hospital.Even when the nurses gently suggested rest.Even when dawn began to pale the windows.Even when my body trembled from exhaustion and grief.I stayed.Because some goodbyes are not meant to be rushed.Because some endings demand witnesses.I sat in the small family waiting room just outside the ICU, my back against the cold wall, knees drawn to my chest. The chair across from me remained empty. Darius had been notified, I knew that much, but he was still overseas—caught between flights, time zones, obligations that now felt unbearably trivial.For once, it was just me and Damian.The irony was not lost on me.After everything—after the marriage, the betrayal, the silence, the war between love and survival—it was me who sat closest to his final hours.Not as his wife.

Chapter 90 – Together, FinallyAlthea POVI woke up to the sound of quiet rain tapping against the roof. The kind of rain that didn’t rush, didn’t demand attention—it simply existed, falling steadily and soothingly. For the first time in what felt like forever, I didn’t have a schedule, an obligation, a phone buzzing with urgent calls. I didn’t have a list of crises to manage, or secrets to keep, or regrets to bury. I just had this morning, this moment, and the man sleeping beside me.Darius.I could feel the rise and fall of his chest, hear his soft, even breathing. The sunlight, muted by the clouds outside, cast a gentle glow across the room. I lay still, not wanting to disturb him, letting myself simply exist. Letting myself finally breathe.I’d never imagined this could happen. After all the years of chaos, betrayal, heartbreak, and impossible choices, we were here—together, finally. And yet, even with my hear

Chapter 86 – Rebuilding NavarroAlthea POVRebuilding is never as clean as destruction.That was the first truth I learned after Damian’s death.People think rebuilding means starting over—fresh walls, new paint, a clean foundation. But Navarro Enterprises wasn’t a collapsed building. It was a house still standing, its cracks hidden beneath polished marble floors and legacy portraits. The damage lived inside the structure, woven into decisions, contracts, and unspoken rules that had governed the company for decades.Darius and I inherited all of it.Not just the shares.Not just the power.But the weight.The first board meeting after the funeral was different from the ones before. No black suits this time. No public mourning. Just restrained tension, eyes watching us closely, measuring every breath we took.I could feel it the moment I stepped into the room.

Chapter 88 – The Confession RevisitedAlthea POVSome truths do not fade.They wait.They settle quietly beneath years of routine, beneath healed scars and steady breaths, beneath the illusion that time alone is enough. They wait until the moment you are strong enough to hear them without breaking.I didn’t wake up that morning expecting anything to change.That was the dangerous part.The day began like so many others had during the silent years—coffee cooling beside my laptop, sunlight slipping through the window, my phone vibrating with emails that no longer filled me with dread. My life had become something steady. Predictable in the best way.Free.When Darius texted, it wasn’t urgent.I’m back in the city. Are you free tonight?I stared at the message longer than necessary.He’d returned many times before. This shouldn’t have felt different.