Chapter One Hundred and Thirty -one: Eleanor Arrives

Callum's POV:Eleanor arrived on a Sunday afternoon with two large bags that suggested a longer stay than the one month she'd originally mentioned and I helped her carry them up to the guest room we'd prepared.She took over the kitchen within four hours in a way that was entirely benevolent and efficient and which I found to my genuine surprise a relief rather than an intrusion.I'd expected to feel managed or like she was overstepping boundaries but instead I felt like something had been handled that I didn't know I needed handled.She organized the pantry and restocked things we'd been running low on and made a grocery list of items we'd need once the baby came and did it all without asking permission or making it feel like criticism of how we'd been managing.Rosie was ecstatic about having her grandmother staying with us and followed Eleanor from room to room like a very small and very verbal shadow."Grandma what are you doing now?" Rosie asked."Making a lasagna for the freezer

Chapter One Hundred and Thirty -Two: Alexander

Callum's POV:Two hours of pushing and I held Isla's hand through all of it and did not look at the monitor and did not do any of the things the fear in me wanted to do.The fear wanted me to leave the room and be somewhere that was not here and not watching the woman I loved in this much pain.The fear wanted me to demand interventions and ask for constant updates and spiral into panic about everything that could go wrong.But I stayed and I breathed when she breathed and I said the things the childbirth class had told me to say and I meant them which turned out to matter."You're so strong," I said. "You can do this.""One more push," I encouraged. "You're almost there."The fear that had been sitting in my chest since the moment Isla told me she was pregnant was a specific and familiar shape and it had Sarah's name written all over it.I didn't push it away because I'd learned that pushing it away gave it more room than acknowledging it did.I held the fear alongside everything els

Chapter One Hundred and Thirty -Three : First Moments

Isla's POV:Alexander was warm against my chest and heavier than I'd expected for such a tiny person and his eyes were searching in the unfocused way of someone encountering light for the first time.I held him with both arms and looked at his small face and the feeling was not like anything I had a word for in my vocabulary.Not love in the way I'd understood love before with Callum or Rosie or even my mother, this was something older and more instinctive and so large it sat slightly outside the boundaries of language.It was protective and fierce and consuming in a way that felt like it had always existed somewhere deep inside me just waiting for this moment to emerge."He's perfect," I whispered and my voice was rough from crying and exhaustion.Callum was beside me laughing and crying at the same time and kissing my face and saying things I caught in pieces."You did it," he said. "You were so strong.""We have a son," I said still marveling at the reality of it."We have a son,"

All Chapters of The Rise Of The Betrayed Wife: Chapter 131 - Chapter 133

Chapter One Hundred and Thirty -one: Eleanor Arrives

Chapter One Hundred and Thirty -Two: Alexander

Chapter One Hundred and Thirty -Three : First Moments