All Chapters of THE BARREN EX-WIFE WHO CAME BACK: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

VANESSA'S POV The club was packed when I walked in, and bodies pressed together on the dance floor while bass pounded so loud I could feel it vibrating in my bones. Colored lights flashed in disorienting patterns, and the smell of alcohol and sweat hung heavy in the air. I pushed my way through the crowd and started dancing. I began moving to the music, letting my body sway. I was trying to lose myself in the rhythm and forget about Nicholas and Olivia and everything that had happened today. But I couldn't. The thought of Nicholas not being jealous that I was going out with a guy tonight made me extremely bummed. I danced harder, more aggressively, trying to drown out the thoughts with movement and noise. Men approached me—hands on my waist, bodies pressing close—but I pushed them all away. I didn't want random strangers, and I didn't want meaningless touching. I wanted... No! I wasn't going to think about what I wanted. After thirty minutes of forcing myself to have fun I wasn

SEBASTIAN'S POV I paced the length of my mansion like a caged animal, my phone clutched in my hand as I checked it for the hundredth time in the past hour. Still nothing from Adrian. The private investigator had promised me preliminary findings within seventy-two hours, and I was already losing my mind because he hadn't sent anything yet. I needed information on Nicholas and Vanessa—every secret, every lie, and every piece of evidence that would prove that Elijah was my son. But waiting was torture. I couldn't focus on work, couldn't think about anything except that little boy with my eyes and my face, being raised by my brother like he was his own. My brother who'd stolen everything from me. My ex-wife who'd hidden my son from me for years. I walked over to the bar and poured myself a drink—expensive scotch that burned going down but did nothing to calm the storm inside me. The TV was on in the corner, playing some news channel I wasn't paying attention to, just background noi

VANESSA'S POV I woke to the steady beeping of hospital machines and the antiseptic smell that always reminded me of death and sickness. My head felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it, and when I tried to move, pain shot through my skull so intensely I had to bite back a whimper. Then I remembered what happened last night. I'd been attacked by that man from the club. He'd almost raped and killed me. Fortunately, Nicholas was there to save me. "Don't move too quickly..." Nicholas's voice suddenly came from somewhere to my right, low and rough like he hadn't slept at all. I turned my head carefully and found him sitting in the chair beside my hospital bed. He looked disoriented—his expensive suit wrinkled beyond recognition, his jaw covered in dark stubble, his hair messy like he'd been running his hands through it repeatedly. And his hand was also wrapped around mine on the bed. The moment our eyes met, he quickly pulled his hand away like I'd burned him, his expression

SEBASTIAN'S POV Nicholas stood in my mansion like a caged animal ready to tear through anything in his path, his chest heaving with barely controlled rage. My security guards had their hands on him, but I could see the strain in their faces—they knew he was dangerous. I didn't care. It wouldn't change anything. "Give me Elijah!" Nicholas repeated, his voice low and controlled now, which somehow made it more threatening than when he'd been shouting. "Right now, Sebastian!" "Or what?" I descended the last few steps, stopping a safe distance away. "You'll destroy me? You'll take everything from me? You've already tried that once, brother. It didn't work out so well for you, did it?" Nicholas's jaw clenched, but he didn't take the bait. "I'm not leaving without him." "Then I hope you're comfortable standing in my mansion indefinitely," I replied coolly. "Because Elijah isn't going anywhere with you." "He's six years old and scared. He wants his mother—" "Then where is she?" I inte

SEBASTIAN'S POV Three days had passed since I'd taken Elijah into my home. Three days of the boy living under my roof, sleeping in the guest room next to Maya's, slowly adjusting to the reality that his mother wasn't coming for him. Three days of building a case that would ensure he stayed mine forever. Now, standing on the courthouse steps on a crisp Monday morning, I felt the satisfaction of a man who'd already won. The emergency custody hearing had been scheduled at my lawyer's insistence—while Vanessa was still hospitalized and unable to fight back. She wasn't going to be at the court today. "The key to getting Elijah for yourself is her absence," Richard was saying beside me, adjusting his expensive briefcase. "When Judge Sydney sees that Vanessa couldn't even be bothered to show up for her own custody hearing, he'll know she's unfit to be a mother and he'll hand you custody of the boy." I nodded, satisfaction settling warm in my chest. Everything had fallen into place perf