Too Late to Win Me Back, Mr. Ex! のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 131 - チャプター 140

Throughout the drive away from Anna’s apartment, Valencia sat silently in the back seat with both hands clasped tightly in her lap. The city at night moved beyond the window in blurred lines of light, but her thoughts were far louder than the traffic outside. For the first time in a long while, she was not thinking about herself.She was thinking about Auri.The face of her former daughter-in-law came to her again and again. The way Auri lowered her head when she was slandered. The way the girl tried to explain herself, only to be cut off by Valencia’s cold words. The way Auri remained polite even while being insulted. And worst of all, the memory of Auri leaving the Harrow house without saying much at all, as if she had grown too tired to defend herself anymore.Valencia closed her eyes. Her chest ached.“I was too cruel...” she whispered to herself.She thought of the baby in Auri’s womb too. Harrow blood. Their fami

Valencia looked at Auri with fragile hope. The faint smile on her former daughter-in-law’s face offered no warmth, but it did not shut the door either. She chose to take that as an opportunity, however small. After living so long inside the wrong certainty, she now clung to the silence of someone she had once wounded.“I know this sounds selfish,” she said slowly. “Coming here, asking to talk, and bringing up Ethan’s name. But I truly regret it, Auri.”Auri did not answer. She simply sat there, calm, one hand resting over her stomach. Her face was unreadable. In the corner of the room, Gia busied herself adjusting ribbons on a bouquet with deliberately noisy movements, making it clear she was still listening to every word.Valencia continued, her trembling voice turning softer, heavier. “Every time I think about the way I treated you, it feels like I’m remembering another woman. I don’t recognize myself. You came into our home as Ethan’s wife, as family, but I t

The drive home felt far quieter than the ride to Auri’s flower shop had been.The city was still alive beyond the car windows—streetlights glowing, rows of vehicles moving steadily, people returning home carrying the weight of their own exhaustion—but inside the car there was only the soft hum of the engine and the heavy sound of Valencia’s breathing.She sat staring straight ahead while every sentence Auri had spoken returned one by one, like echoes that refused to fade.The house that was supposed to be where I belonged began to feel like somewhere I was only staying.Valencia closed her eyes.I didn’t leave because Anna won. I left because I realized there wasn’t a single person in the Harrow house who truly saw me as family.Her hands tightened around the bag in her lap.She had never imagined that her coldness, her small cutting remarks, the way she always took someone else&rs

Morning arrived with soft light slipping through the front glass of the flower shop, glinting off clear vases and rose petals still damp from the morning mist spray. The street outside was not yet busy. Only the occasional sound of passing cars drifted through, faint and distant, as if the world itself were moving carefully so it would not disturb the peace of that hour.After a night full of tension, the inside of the shop felt like a new room, cleansed of everything heavy that had lingered there.Auri stood at the small table near the modest pantry, pouring warm tea into her favorite ceramic cup. Her body still carried traces of exhaustion, but her mind felt much lighter. There was a strange relief in finally letting out everything that had been buried for so long. Not every wound had healed, of course, but at least they were no longer rotting in silence.When the bell above the door rang, she turned.Lucas stepped inside carrying two paper bags from th

After leaving Ethan in the lobby, Lucas did not speak right away. He simply opened the car door for Auri, made sure she was seated comfortably, then closed it with quiet ease. But one thing had not changed since then, the faint smile on his face that refused to disappear.Auri watched him as the car moved through the night streets. City lights streaked like ribbons of gold across the windows while Lucas drove with one hand resting lazily on the wheel, the fingers of his other hand tapping lightly to the low music playing in the background.“You’re enjoying this far too much,” Auri said at last.Lucas glanced at her. “Am I?”“Yes.”“I’m trying very hard to look calm.”“You’re failing.”He laughed softly. The sound was low and light, like someone who had waited a long time for good news and had finally received it.The restaurant they were headed to sat