Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 91 - Chapitre 100

The house had never felt this quiet before,not even after my husband died. Back then, the silence was heavy and filled with grief. But it was shared. This silence? This was different. This silence felt… divided. I stood in the kitchen, my hands resting on the counter, staring at nothing in particular.The plates were still in the sink, untouched. No one had eaten properly since last night.Not Ethan.Not Ava.Not even Lila.And Mason… I exhaled deeply and closed my eyes briefly. I shouldn’t have let it get this far. That thought had been repeating in my head since yesterday.Over and over. I should have told them earlier, before now. I should have prepared them. I shouldn't have let it take me a whole year to—The sound of my phone ringing broke through my thoughts. I glanced down at the counter. Zanders. Of course it's him; who else cares this much to check up on me every single hour that passes? I hesitated just for a second because I know he will definitely pick out the sadness in

Waiting was the hardest part of any hard situation. It had always been. I stood by the window, my fingers lightly gripping the curtain as I stared out into the quiet street; nothing moved, nor did anything change. And yet, my chest refused to settle.Zanders should have called by now. Or maybe not; it's been quite a while since he said he was already at the hotel. Maybe I was expecting too much. I exhaled slowly, stepping away from the window.“You’re overthinking this.” I muttered it to myself. But it didn’t help, not even a bit.Because the truth was, I didn’t know what was happening over there, and that was worse than anything else. Different thoughts were running through my mind at the same time.What if Mason refused to listen?What if he walked away again?What if—“No.” I shook my head quickly. Let's just hope for a positive result. Zanders said he would handle it, and I trusted him. I did.But the trust didn’t erase the fear.The sound of footsteps pulled me out of my thoughts

Returning home is not something I thought would happen this soon. I didn’t plan to come back, not now, not this soon, and not after everything that had happened and all the shit I did. But somehow, I was already on the road even before I fully made the decision. The city lights blurred past as I drove with my hands steady on the wheel.My mind wandered back to minutes ago, and Zanders’ voice replayed in my head.“I’m not here to replace your father.”“I’m willing to earn your trust.”I exhaled slowly; that obviously wasn’t what I expected, not even close, and he noticed my surprised look. I thought he’d try to convince me, push me, or even try to defend himself, but he did none of that. Instead, he made me realize how I should have behaved instead of how I did without even making me feel bad. And somehow, that made it harder to stay angry.I tightened my grip on the wheel slightly and rolled my eyes. “This doesn’t mean I’m fine with it.” I muttered it out loud.Because I needed to hea

The house doesn't feel as warm as it used to since morning. Even when Mason and Ethan were around, it still felt like they were not, because they didn't come out of their room until they were called for dinner a while ago.We sat at the dining table with our meals right in front of us, but dinner didn’t feel like dinner. It felt like something we were all trying to survive. I sat at the table, my fingers lightly gripping the edge of my plate, staring down at the food in front of me like it might somehow explain what was going on. It didn’t. Nothing about tonight made sense. Not Mason coming back so suddenly and keeping quiet. Not Ethan walking past us like we didn’t exist.Not the way the air in the house felt like it could shift at any second. Everything felt fragile. Like one wrong word could undo everything.“Eat before it gets cold.” Mum’s soft voice. Cut through the silence.I glanced up at her. She was already watching us. Watching him. Mason sat at the head of the table, his po

He didn’t even look at me, not once.The door had barely closed behind me before the silence hit. Heavy and uncomfortable. But loud in a way that made my chest tighten. I stood exactly where I was, my fingers still loosely wrapped around the knob of the door, staring around the room like something might change if I just waited long enough. But it didn’t.“He just had a lot on his mind.” I mumbled to myself. Ava’s voice broke the silence. “Lila, are you in?” I cleared my throat and exhaled softly before moving away from the door. I didn’t respond immediately because I didn’t trust my voice. “Yeah, sure, you can come in."“Hey,” she said immediately she entered.“Yeah, what's up?” I said.“I'm good, just wanted to talk to you. I'm getting bored," she said with a funny smile.“Of course you can; I'm bored too,” I said.“So, have you talked to Ethan?" She asked. I was stunned for a second.“Yeah, sure. But he ignored me anyway." I muttered.Ava shifted slightly beside me. “I think he’s j