บททั้งหมดของ The Single Dad Next Door Loves Me: บทที่ 21 - บทที่ 30

I didn't announce my leaving.There was no moment where I stood in the middle of the room and decided it. It happened the way erosion happens.. slow and deliberate. Invisible to the usual eye until the damage was severely done.The morning after the dinner, I woke before dawn and lay still, listening to the house breathe. The familiar creak of wood. The low hum of the heater. Ethan’s footsteps moving somewhere down the hall, careful not to wake Lily.I stayed where I was.Not because I was afraid of him. Because I needed the quiet before he entered my thoughts again.When I finally got up, I dressed without rushing. Jeans. Sweater. Boots. I packed my bag methodically, folding clothes the way I always did when I was trying not to feel anything.I added things I didn't immediately need. Books. A notebook. Chargers and proof that I was preparing not reacting.In the kitchen, Ethan stood by the counter, pouring coffee.“Morning.” He said. “Morning.”He glanced at my bag. “Going somewhere?

Nora's POV.I didn't plan to go up the mountain that day.That's the lie I kept telling myself as I locked the cafe early, as I slid into my car, as I took the familiar turn that led away from town and towards Ethan's cabin.I told myself it was about Lily, about how long it had been since she came in for cocoa, about how Ethan hasn't stopped by in weeks, I told myself it was concern.But it wasn't, the truth was much heavier than that.Lucas looked at me differently that morning. He was careful, tight around the mouth, like someone holding back words they weren't allowed to share.I knew that look, I had lived here so long I knew when something was wrong.And somewhere in the middle of that knowing was Mia.I didn't like that she was still there, that she stayed for too long, that she was becoming part of the family.How naturally her name started to slip off Lily's lips. How easily she was pulled into the conversation when it didn't include her.I especially didn't like how Ethan ne

With all that was going on, I decided to take more walks. I started walking because staying felt like suffocating.Not dramatically. Not in the way movies make it look, where someone throws on a coat and runs into a storm.It was much quieter than that. I would wait until Ethan was distracted… maybe splitting wood, on the phone with Lucas or sitting too still in the kitchen. I would slip my boots on and step outside like I was just stretching my legs.At first, I told myself it was about air. Then I admitted it was about space The cabin had begun to feel smaller since the case reopened. Every room held something unspoken. Every silence had weight.Ethan moved through the house like a man bracing for impact, and I didn't know where to stand anymore without feeling like I was in the way of his grief.He talked to me. That was the confusing part.He sat across from me at night and confessed things he didn't tell anyone. Things like how he smelled smoke sometime when there wasn't any. He

I told myself it didn't matter. A lie I held onto while I sanded the edge of the half-carved wooden horse in my hands. I was smoothing the save curve that was already smooth for the tenth time in a row I knew Ben. A chatty fellow with a handsome smile that charmed a lot of women in our commute. He had a way with his tongue too.I saw how easily they fell for him.Even Mia of all people.“Snap out of it.” I whispered to myself. I tried to tell myself it didn't matter who drove her home. It didn't matter that she'd stood outside in the cold, smiling softly at another man.It didn't even matter that I'd watched him lean in and kiss her cheek like he already had plans to do it again.I kept repeating it to myself that it didn't matter… because it shouldn't have.But the problem was that…bathe wood had splintered under my grip and that ached a lot.Lily sat across from my chair, her legs stretched out on the rug near the fireplace, lining up her stuffed animals in a perfect row.“Daddy?

I thought choosing her publicly would quiet it. The jealousy.The sharp, restless thing in my chest that woke up every time Ben’s name existed in the same space as hers. It didn't.If anything, it got worse. Because now I had something to lose. It started small.Her phone lit up on the counter while she was washing dishes. I wasn't trying to look. I wasn't. But I did Ben— I meant what I said. I respect your decision. I just hope he deserves it.My jaw tightened. Deserves it.I stepped away before she turned around. I didn't want her to see it on my face. I didn't want to be that man– insecure, territorial, threatened by a text.She cried her hands and picked up her phone. I watched her expression carefully.Not guilty or. Flustered.“You okay?” She asked. “Fine.”The word felt stale The moment it left my mouth. She studied me for a second ljnehr than necessary. “He just said he hopes he deserves me.”That did it. Something low and simmering shifted under my ribs. “And?” I asked even