All Chapters of Second Choice: Wife by contract: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

Life is rude.It doesn’t slow down because your heart is tired.The café still opens at seven. Coffee still needs grinding. Milk still spills. Customers still want extra foam like their day depends on it.And maybe it does.So I show up.Every morning.Smile. Unlock the doors. Check stock. Nod at suppliers. Laugh when someone tells a bad joke across the counter.I am very good at pretending now.Too good.The café smells like cinnamon and coffee and paper from new books. My books. Our library section is full almost every day now. Students curled up in corners. Office people pretending to read while scrolling through their phones. Couples whispering like the world outside doesn’t exist.I built this.I did.Sometimes pride rises in my chest so suddenly it scares me.Then the door opens and my stupid heart still jumps like it expects Ethan.It never is.I hate that part of me.I wipe the counter again.And again.And again.“Solene.”Mara’s voice cuts through my thoughts.I blink. She’s

The café doesn’t need me anymore.That realization hits sometime between the third latte order and Mara arguing with a pastry supplier over the phone. Everything runs smoothly. Staff moving like they know what they’re doing. Orders going out right. Customers laughing softly in the reading corners.No fires to put out.No chaos needing my hands.Just… function.And somehow, that leaves me feeling unnecessary.I sit at one of the corner tables pretending to answer emails. My laptop open. Inbox half read. My mind somewhere else entirely.London.It keeps drifting there.To cold mornings and Ethan walking too fast because he always does. To the way he sounds on the phone now. Softer. Less guarded. Like distance peeled something heavy off him.I hate how easily my thoughts go there.I try to focus. Inventory spreadsheets. Event proposals. Partnership requests.Nothing sticks.My chest feels restless. Like something unfinished keeps pacing inside me.Someone laughs near the bookshelf. A kid

I wake up before him.At first I don’t move. I just lie there, staring at the ceiling, trying to understand where I am without panicking. The light is different. Softer. Grey in a quiet way.Then I feel his arm around my waist.And everything comes back at once.London. Him. Last night.I swallow.Careful. Don’t overthink. Not yet.His arm isn’t tight. He isn’t holding me like I’ll disappear. It’s just resting there. Warm. Familiar in a way that feels dangerous.I turn my head a little.Ethan is still asleep.He looks… younger like this. Or maybe just less guarded. His face isn’t doing that controlled thing it always used to do. No tension in his jaw. No thinking ahead.Just… him.My chest tightens.I don’t know what to do with that version of him.Or with the fact that I stayed.I didn’t run. I didn’t wake up in the middle of the night and panic my way back to the airport. I didn’t choose distance again.I stayed.And now it’s morning.Morning feels real in a way nights don’t.My fin

I wake up before him and for a second I don’t remember why my chest already feels full.Then I turn my head.Ethan.It hits all at once. Not gently. Just there. Sitting heavy in my ribs like it never left.He’s asleep. Properly asleep. Not that restless half thing he used to do when his mind wouldn’t shut up. His face is softer like this. Younger, almost. Like the version of him that didn’t have to hold everything together all the time.I stare too long.It feels intrusive. Intimate in a way that makes my stomach twist.This man used to be mine.Not in a cute way. Not in a romantic sentence. In a real way. Papers. Promises. Silence. Everything.And now I’m standing in his kitchen wearing his shirt like I didn’t leave him.I look away first.Coward.I push myself out of bed quietly. My body feels strange. Like I slept but didn’t rest. Like something inside me stayed awake all night thinking thoughts I didn’t agree to.The floor is cold. The air is colder. London cold is different. It d

Sunny wakes up before me.I know this because something wet drags across my cheek and I jerk awake like I’ve been caught doing something illegal.“Stop,” I mumble, voice thick with sleep, trying to turn my face away.He follows.Of course he does.Another lick. This time my nose.“Oh my God,” I groan, pushing his head gently. “You’re obsessed with me.”He wags his tail harder.No shame. No apology. Just vibes.I sit up slowly, hair everywhere, eyes barely open, and he immediately climbs into my lap like I didn’t just complain about him.“You’re too attached,” I tell him.He sneezes.I take that as disagreement.—Mornings used to feel… heavier.Like something was always waiting for me. A thought. A person. A conversation I didn’t want to have.Now it’s just this.A dog that thinks my face is breakfast.A quiet apartment.Coffee I make myself.It should feel small.It doesn’t.It feels earned.I carry Sunny into the kitchen like a child because if I drop him, he screams like I’ve aband