All Chapters of I HEARD HIM SAY " DADDY": Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

AIDEN “Oh, Aiden… how are you doing? Oh my, it has been so long.” Her voice floated to me, soft yet startling, and in that instant, recognition struck like a lightning bolt I hadn’t anticipated. For a moment, reality wavered, uncertain and fragile, as though the years themselves had bent, folding the past into the present. My chest tightened, my mind grasping at a memory I thought had been locked away. Sara. She stood before me with a presence that seemed both impossibly familiar and achingly distant, as though she were a memory made flesh. The years had touched her delicately—subtle traces of time lending her a quiet grace, a refined maturity—but she remained unmistakably herself. Her eyes still carried that gentle brightness that had once softened every harsh corner of my world. Seeing her again stirred a cocktail of emotions I struggled to name: nostalgia and a pang of restrained desire, all tangled into a single, overwhelming ache that pressed against my chest. “Yes,” I ans

SOPHIA “What do you have to say, Nicholas? I have a show to get back to…” I tried to keep my tone controlled, professional, but the tremor in my voice betrayed me. The fluorescent lights of the fashion studio reflected off the sleek surfaces around us, and the faint scent of perfume and hairspray hung in the air. I kept my gaze forward, forcing myself not to look at him, even though every fiber of me ached to. He stepped closer, his presence impossible to ignore. “Why are you avoiding me, Sophia? We used to be different,” he said softly, but there was a desperate edge underneath his calm. His words wrapped around me like a cold draft, pulling at corners of memories I wasn’t ready to face. I could feel the tension coil in my chest, a mixture of longing and anger that refused to untangle. “Yes, and all that is in the past, Nick. We are done,” I replied, my voice firmer this time, though it shook slightly. I could feel my heart pounding in my ribcage, every beat a reminder of what

ANNALISE/LISA Dinner passed in uneasy silence, the kind of silence that did not need words to feel heavy. It settled quietly over the table, yet inside my chest everything felt loud and restless. The soft clink of cutlery against porcelain sounded sharper than usual. Even the faint hum of the air conditioner seemed to press against my thoughts instead of fading into the background. I tried to focus on the food in front of me. I lifted my fork carefully, cut small pieces, and forced myself to chew slowly, as though normal movement alone could convince my mind that everything truly was normal. However, my thoughts refused to stay in the present moment. They kept drifting back to Aiden. I thought about the way he had left earlier, about the tension in his face, and about the questions that were waiting somewhere ahead of me. Those questions felt distant and close at the same time, like a storm gathering beyond the horizon while the air was already beginning to change. A quiet tight

ANNALISE /LISA “I will get it now,” Vera said, hurrying out of the kitchen. Her hands were still damp from washing the dishes, and she fumbled briefly with the small towel, drying them in quick, impatient swipes as she moved toward the door. There was a slight tension in her shoulders, the kind that only comes when someone is startled, though she tried to mask it. Behind her, Evelyn lifted her glass of wine with an almost serene elegance, tilting it to her lips in a slow, unhurried sip. She seemed completely at ease, unaware—or perhaps deliberately unconcerned—about anything out of the ordinary. The contrast made my chest tighten slightly; the casual confidence in Evelyn’s movements always carried a quiet edge, a reminder that she was never fully innocent in these moments. Moments earlier, I had been smiling, attempting to keep the evening light and peaceful. I had spoken of Sophia in a way that felt warm, honest even: she would love her, I believed that with all my heart. The hous

SOPHIE “Nicholas, don’t call me again—I swear!” The words tore out of my throat before I could soften them, sharp with anger I had been holding in for far too long. My fingers tightened around the phone as though I could crush the memories tied to his name along with it. Heat rushed through my chest, mixing with the dull exhaustion that had followed me for weeks, and for a moment all I could hear was the sound of my own breathing—unsteady, uneven, dangerously close to breaking. For a second, there was only silence on the other end of the line. I thought he had finally understood. I thought it was over. I thought this was the last time his voice would ever find its way into my life again. Then a different voice broke through—urgent, unfamiliar, and completely out of place. “Is this Sophia Blackwood?” My brows pulled together instantly. Confusion replaced the heat of my anger, though uneasiness crept in just as quickly, spreading through my chest like cold water. “Y