บททั้งหมดของ After The Divorce: Ex-husband's Regret: บทที่ 31 - บทที่ 40

The folder felt heavier than it should have. Ava stood behind Matthew’s desk, the leather chair nudging the back of her knees, her fingers curled around the tab like it might bite her if she loosened her grip. Hamilton & Rhodes Legal Associates. Why would he need a lawyer? Her mouth went dry. She told herself it could be anything. Corporate restructuring. Asset protection. Something complicated and boring and entirely unrelated to her. Still… her hands were shaking. She lowered herself slowly into his chair. The room felt different now. She stared at the folder for a long time. Long enough for the clock on the wall to tick three full rotations of the second hand. Long enough for her breathing to grow shallow without her noticing. “Don’t be dramatic,” she whispered to herself. But the whisper didn’t help. Her thumb slid under the edge of the folder. She stopped, closed her eyes, and opened them again. And then she lifted the flap. The first page stared back at her in stark

Morning came slowly.Gray light slipped through the curtains, quiet and indifferent, spreading across the bedroom like it had no idea what the night had done to her.Ava did not remember when she finally fell asleep.She only knew it had been sometime after three, maybe four.Her eyes burned when they opened.Her body felt heavy. Not the pleasant kind of heavy that comes after deep rest. This was different, the kind that sits in your bones after hours of crying. After thinking too much.Her head throbbed faintly. For a long moment, she did not move.She just lay there, staring at the ceiling.The room was silent.Matthew’s side of the bed was empty and cold.Her eyes drifted slowly to the side. The file was still there.Sitting on the bed beside her like something alive. Like it had been watching her all night.Ava’s stomach twisted. She looked away immediately.“No,” she murmured to herself.Her voice sounded rough, sleepy, and worn.She pushed the blanket aside and slowly sat up. He

Matthew lowered the phone slowly, and the faint click of the call ended still echoing in his ear.For a moment, he stared at the dark screen. Then, a grin crept across his mouth.Across the room, Isabella leaned against the bathroom doorway, one shoulder resting against the frame. A white towel clung loosely around her body, damp strands of dark hair falling over her bare shoulders. Steam drifted behind her from the shower, softening the light.She had been listening the whole time.The second Matthew placed the phone on the nightstand, the tension broke.They burst into laughter.Isabella pressed a hand to her stomach as she laughed, shaking her head. “God, that woman is unbelievable.”Matthew leaned back against the headboard, his laughter low and satisfied. “Did you hear the way she said thank you?”“She sounded grateful,” Isabella said, mocking sweetness curling around the word.Matthew wiped the corner of his eye. “The necklace did its job.”Isabella pushed herself away from the

Matthew stepped away from the car. The door closed behind him with a soft, solid sound that carried faintly across the quiet street. For a moment, Ava simply watched him. There was something deeply familiar in the way he moved, one hand pushing through his hair as he glanced briefly toward the spa entrance, the slight roll of his shoulders as though shaking off a long day. The same small habits she had watched for years without thinking about them. Her breath sat high in her chest. “What are you doing here?” she whispered under her breath. Of course, he couldn’t hear her. Across the street, Matthew walked around the front of the car. Ava’s fingers tightened against the inside of her door. He stopped at the passenger side. His hand rested on the handle and pulled. The door opened. For a moment, Ava told herself it could be anything. A colleague. A business associate. Someone he had offered a ride to. The passenger door swung wider. A pair of heels appeared fir

The spa hallway carried the faint murmur of water and distant voices—low, careful tones people used in places built for quiet. Matthew sat in the waiting lounge with one ankle resting over his knee, a magazine open in his hands that he hadn’t read for the last fifteen minutes.The pages remained frozen beneath his fingers.Across the room, candles burned in shallow glass bowls, their flames wavering each time someone passed through the corridor. A woman in a white robe drifted past with slow steps, her hair damp from the steam room.Matthew barely noticed.His attention lingered on the hallway Sophie had disappeared into almost an hour earlier.The massage doors had closed softly behind her, leaving him alone with the quiet.He shifted in the chair and glanced at his watch.“You take your time,” he muttered under his breath.The receptionist looked up briefly and smiled politely.Matthew returned a distracted nod before letting his gaze drift back toward the corridor.Strange, he thou