Lahat ng Kabanata ng Ricochet My Love: Kabanata 31 - Kabanata 40

Time flew fast, but I was still stuck on the same damn thought. That was my curse. My brain liked to replay things until they rotted.Adriana and I had already settled on the “no lying” rule in the house, and we both felt freer than ever. Lighter with less tiptoeing. But I knew that even so, she still had things she kept tucked away.Like hoping she could go see her father. A man who had never once thought of dropping by after the "incident". Not for me. Not even for her.I would’ve called it good riddance before. Slam the door, lock it, throw away the key. But as the days passed, something kept pressing against my chest. Not pain exactly. Just… pressure.Especially now that I was working around Queens.Yes, Betty had squeezed me into a big real estate company and had been working for four days straight.Four days of smiling at screens, memorizing property details, pretending I belonged there. No contacts yet. No clients. No closed deals. Just me and a swivel chair that squeaked every

"Something's bothering you," Martin said, pulling me out of my thoughts.Everything came back to my senses the moment I heard his voice. The aromas mixing in the air, expensive perfumes practically fighting each other over who smelled wealthier in this place, and somewhere between all that were my thoughts, floating uselessly around this very room.The restaurant was calm. Low-volume chatter drifted between tables, faint clinks of utensils tapping against plates, and occasional toasts being cheered somewhere nearby.Relaxation was the ambience of the place.The only catastrophe here was me.I tried blending in with my most decent maroon sheath dress, smoothing the fabric over my lap like that might magically make me belong here, yet it was too simple for this fancy place.But what really wasn't blending in were my emotions."I'm... fine," I quietly murmured, lifting my glass of wine and pressing it to my lips for a quick sip, mostly just to avoid his eyes."Are you sure? Because you s

My eyes were stuck on the window, watching everything we passed by blur into streaks of light. But I wasn’t really looking at the road.My mind was somewhere else, somewhere between holding myself together and replaying the same damn thoughts in my head.Sharon’s words didn’t hurt me that much. I was used to her mouth. I’d heard worse things from her before.What made me feel weak like I couldn’t process life again was what she revealed.It reopened something in my chest. My scarred heart felt ripped open again while I stood there trying to patch it up with cheap little band-aids.My eyes drifted to the faint reflection staring back at me from the glass. I looked lost, blank, and completely burned out.Tonight, this very moment, felt more exhausting than my entire week.But it wasn’t my business anymore. None of Ricochet’s life was. Not since I divorced him.Yet here I was… knocking myself crazy, torturing myself with the same stupid, piling questions inside my head.“Martin?” I choke

My eyes were glued to him.The very reason I was miserable. The reason my weakness kept clawing its way out of my chest no matter how hard I tried to shove it back in.And there he was. Standing right in front of me, inside my own damn house, like half of it was his.Well… technically, maybe it was since he bought it back for me. Bought the bank for me—No. That wasn’t right. Not for me. For some unknown reason, actually.“Hi,” he greeted.His voice was careful and low, like he was stepping lightly, like he didn’t want to force himself to be welcomed.Good.Because I was about two seconds away from kicking his ass straight out the door.“Mom, I didn’t expect you’d let Dad come by and look after me,” Adriana said happily. “He did really well. He cooked us dinner and snacks. And then we watched movies together.”My gaze dropped to her.A part felt the worst at the thought of ruining this moment for her… of wiping that excitement right off her face.None of this was in my plan.I didn’t p

One taste of his lips and I felt renewed. All the tears I’d cried for him, all the pain I’d endured because of him were gone, just like that.All I felt was him.He pulled away with a soft, wet sound, his breath brushing my lips. The kiss was there, the answer was there, but it still didn’t satisfy my hunger.I needed more.My throat felt dry, like a desert had formed there, and somehow Ricochet was the only one who could quench it.“Rick…” I moaned, chasing his lips when he leaned back, putting a small but deliberate distance between us.“How about we take things slow?” he muttered, like he was trying to convince himself as much as me. His thumb hovered near my cheek but didn’t touch. “We don’t have to—”Slow?As if time was something we actually had. As if someday he wouldn’t be standing at an altar exchanging vows with someone who wasn’t me.I shook my head.“Why should we?” My fingers slid into his hair, gently combing through the strands. I felt the tension there, felt the way hi