Todos os capítulos de Oops.. I Fell for My Ex Again: Capítulo 31 - Capítulo 40

Two weeks after the ruling, the world had resumed its shape.Catherine woke at six thirty. Demanded milk. Threw a spoon. Laughed when it clattered against tile. Declared “No!” to everything from oatmeal to socks. Learned to say “shoe” and applied it indiscriminately to any object within reach.To her, life was uninterrupted.To Alex, life had become surveillance layered over routine.She checked the door lock twice before breakfast. Reviewed the security feed while Catherine ate banana slices. Scanned the sidewalk from the living room window before stepping outside.Marcus swept the apartment every Sunday. No devices. No signal anomalies. No hidden transmitters.The new security firm reported nothing unusual.But Alex knew.They were being watched.The Syndicate had promised patience. Patience implied presence.On her calendar, a reminder blinked: Quarterly Cardiac Report – Due Friday.Judge Morrison’s condition. Three years of monitoring. Twelve reports proving Catherine did not requi

Three weeks later, Catherine was nineteen months old and negotiating everything.“Want cookie please.”“Go outside now.”“No thank you,” she said with solemn politeness when rejecting vegetables.Alex filed the third quarterly cardiac report from her laptop at the kitchen table while Catherine lined up plastic animals in rigid formation across the floor.Height: thirty-two inches.Weight: twenty-four pounds.Resting heart rate: ninety-five beats per minute.QT interval: 420 milliseconds.Assessment: asymptomatic. Stable. No intervention indicated.The court clerk’s automated response arrived within the hour.Filed. Received. No concerns.Three reports down.Nine to go.Catherine laughed when a plastic giraffe toppled. “Fall down!”Alex smiled automatically.But underneath the routine was something hollow.She wasn’t just protecting Catherine.There were eight children.Eight families.And she was the only one who knew about the Syndicate.Or at least she had been.Mrs. Chen had asked

Two months passed.Not quietly. Not peacefully. But without catastrophe.The coalition chat remained active, a steady pulse across five countries.Beijing: Emma slight cold. Day two. Fever 100.1°F. Heart rate 98. QT stable.San Francisco: Catherine had similar last month. Broke in three days. Keep fluids up.Dublin: Liam ear infection. Antibiotics started. Heart fine.Rome: Sofia completely healthy since RSV. Running nonstop.Berlin: Benjamin stomach virus. Twenty-four hours. Already better.Normal childhood illnesses. The kind pediatricians shrugged at. The kind that resolved.Nothing critical.Nothing that triggered Phase Four.Still, everyone knew the timeline. Three to six months, the Syndicate had said. It had been two.Every fever was documented. Every appointment logged. Every irregular heartbeat, even minor, discussed and dissected.Alex filed the fifth quarterly court report.Catherine, twenty-two and a half months. Stable. Asymptomatic. QT interval unchanged.She shared the

“Her QT interval is…”Alex couldn’t breathe.Catherine hummed softly behind her, peeling at a sticker, the small ordinary sound stretching the silence thinner and thinner.“…prolonged,” Dr. Park finished. “Not severely. But measurably longer than her baseline.”The word landed like something physical.Prolonged.Alex heard the rest as if through water.“…increased from 420 to 445 milliseconds…”“…borderline to mild prolongation…”“…not immediate danger but clinically significant…”“Say that again,” she managed. “Slowly.”Dr. Park pulled his stool closer, bringing himself to her eye level.“Catherine’s QT interval has increased from her baseline of 420 milliseconds to 445 milliseconds today. That’s a twenty-five millisecond change. In cardiology, that’s significant.”Significant.Alex gripped the edge of the exam table to steady herself.“What does that mean?” she asked, her voice distant to her own ears.“Let me show you.”He laid the EKG strip flat on the desk, smoothing it with care

Day fifteen arrived like a verdict Alex wasn’t ready to hear.Her alarm was set for six, but she had been awake since four-thirty, staring at the ceiling and counting heartbeats she couldn’t actually hear from the next room.Fifteen days.Fifteen days of watching Catherine move slower, sleep deeper, and live with a quiet weight that hadn’t existed before the medication.Today they would learn if the trade-off meant something.If the tiredness had bought protection.Or if they had changed Catherine for nothing.Alex slipped quietly from bed and walked down the hallway.Catherine’s room was dim and warm.She stood beside the crib, watching the slow rise and fall of her daughter’s chest.The beta-blockers had changed her sleep too.Deeper.Longer.Peaceful in a way that sometimes reassured Alex—and sometimes frightened her.She rested her hand lightly on the crib rail.“Please be working,” she whispered.Her phone buzzed softly in her pocket.Coalition chat.Beijing – Mrs. Chen:Today is