บททั้งหมดของ He Wants Me More After Divorce: บทที่ 101 - บทที่ 110

Harrison’s POVThe room went dead quiet.Mrs. Falcon glanced between us, clearly sensing she’d stepped into something complicated. “It’s perfectly normal for children to—”“Well, that’s a bit inappropriate, isn’t it?” Lyndsey interrupted sharply, uncrossing her legs and sitting up straighter. “Talking about our family matters like this? I mean, given everything that’s been…going around lately, you’d think a teacher would address that kind of confusion instead of—”“Lyndsey,” I warned quietly.“I’m just saying,” she continued, ignoring me entirely, “it sends a strange message to the other children. Especially when certain…situations…are already public knowledge.”Mrs. Falcon’s polite smile had frozen into something much cooler. She looked at Lyndsey directly and said, very calmly, “Ms.…?”“Lyndsey.”“Lyndsey. In my classroom, children are free to express themselves creatively without judgment. Lucas writes about the people who matter to him. That’s healthy and encouraged.” She paused.

Estelle’s POVI was reviewing patient files at the clinic when Amy knocked on my office door.“Dr. Estelle, can I ask you something?” she said hesitantly, hovering in the doorway, not quite coming in.“Of course.” I didn’t look up from my notes.“Someone’s been saying you had an affair with Dr. Stevens too?”My pen stopped moving. I looked up slowly. “What?”Amy shifted her weight from one foot to the other, her fingers twisting the lanyard around her neck.“Yeah, there’s a rumor going around that you’ve been…involved with multiple colleagues. Dr. Stevens specifically.”Dr. Stevens was sixty years old. He’d been married for thirty-five years to a woman named Dorothy who brought homemade cookies to the clinic every Christmas. He had never once said anything inappropriate to me or anyone else.“That’s completely false,” I said tightly.“I know! I told them it was ridiculous. But people are talking and I thought you should know.” Amy looked genuinely apologetic, her brow furrowed, her mou

Karl’s POVI got to the office at eight-fifteen and the first person I passed in the hallway was Tom from sales, who clapped me on the shoulder and said, “Karl, saw you at the showcase last night. Rough crowd.”“It was fine,” I said shortly, not slowing down.“I heard someone gave you a hard time about the separation.”The gossip had already made the rounds. Of course it had. “It’s handled.”“Well, for what it’s worth,” Tom said earnestly, falling into step beside me, “I think you’re handling this whole situation really well. Very mature.”I stopped walking. Tom nearly crashed into me.“Thanks,” I said tightly, and turned down the corridor toward my office before he could say anything else kind, because if one more person praised my maturity I was going to put my fist through a wall.I wasn’t mature. I was a liar who was keeping a woman’s stolen son from her while everyone patted me on the back for being the bigger person.The morning video call with suppliers was worse. We were twenty

Harrison’s POVLucas found me in the kitchen after dinner, his notebook tucked under one arm, his face arranged into that careful serious look he wore when he wanted something and was trying to figure out the best way to ask for it.“Dad, can I talk to you about something?”“Always, buddy.” I set my glass down and turned to face him fully. “What’s going on?”He climbed onto the stool across from me and opened his notebook to a page covered in colored pencil diagrams and his uneven handwriting.“So me and Chloe have this school project. It’s about ecosystems and we picked coral reefs because Chloe said they’re pretty and I said they’re also really interesting scientifically, and Mrs. Falcon said we have to build a model together and do a presentation—”“That sounds great, Lucas.”“—and we need time to work on it because it’s due next Friday and we haven’t even started the model part yet, and Chloe says she has all the craft supplies at her place but I have the books about coral reefs he

Harrison’s POVI sat at the breakfast table the next morning gripping my coffee cup and watching Lyndsey butter a piece of toast while she chattered about needing to pick up dry cleaning.“Oh, and I saw the cutest little café near the shopping center yesterday,” she said brightly, licking butter off her thumb. “We should go sometime, Claire. They do those little French pastry things you like.”“Hmm,” Mother said from behind her newspaper, turning a page with one hand and reaching for her coffee with the other. “What were they called?”“I don’t remember. Something with almonds? They looked gorgeous though.”Perfectly normal. Perfectly innocent. Two women having a perfectly ordinary morning conversation while I sat three feet away knowing exactly what they did in their spare time.“Dad?”I blinked. Lucas was watching me from across the table, his spoon frozen halfway to his mouth, his brow furrowed.“Yeah, buddy?”“Are you okay? You look really…angry about something.”I forced my face in