All Chapters of After the Divorce, My Ex Husband Came Crawling Back: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

*DURRELL*The nurse is checking Ariana’s vitals when I step into the room.She doesn’t notice me at first. Her attention stays on the monitor, writing numbers on a chart while Ariana sleeps.“Vitals are stable,” the nurse says quietly when she finally notices me.I nod.“Doctor wants her resting today. No stress, no visitors.”“That won’t be a problem.” The nurse finishes adjusting the IV line and gives Ariana one last glance before leaving the room.I stay where I am for a moment, contemplating the coming funeral. Juliana will handle it fast and milk it for what it gives, I know that much. She'll want it done before anyone can ask too many questions. I’m already getting a bad feeling about it.Then my phone vibrates.I step outside the room before answering.“Morning,” Greg, my assistant says.“Clear my afternoon meetings.”“Already started.”“Good. I need someone at Ariana’s place.”“For?”“Funeral outfit, change of clothes, essentials, and any other items she’ll be needing.”He p

*SELENE*And I lean in.“Now the opportunity you’ve been waiting for your whole life has finally arrived, and yet you’re playing houseboy, loyal friend, still thinking being her friend will make her choose you. when you should be marking your territory, and showing her who’s boss.” I say mockingly.Then I decide to drive my knife into his open wound.“Or perhaps, you’re still that same boy, if daddy won’t look your way, maybe she will.”His gaze goes cold, and he grips my throat with his hand.I smile and continue, nonetheless.“You need to wake the hell up and take what’s yours.”My voice drop to a whisper. “Take her while you still can, or I’ll crush her just to prove that she bleeds.”My eyes hold his.“Is that a threat,” he asked quietly, when he finally speaks, “or a promise?”I smile slowly. “I always keep my promises.”For a second his grip tightens as we stare each other, then he lets goes suddenly.I breathe in deeply as I gently massage where his hand just left.“I know she’

The minister stepped forward and spoke about legacy, responsibility, and the discipline Theodore had carried throughout his life. His portrait stood beside the casket, that familiar stern expression preserved from years earlier when his authority over the company and family had still been unquestioned.Some listened while others simply waited.From the outside Ariana appeared calm with her hands resting together in her lap, and her gaze lowered toward the floor before the casket, but inside her chest, her emotions were in turmoil and her grief threatened to overwhelm her.Her father had never been a gentle man, he was more of the demanding, relentless, and often cold type. But he had always been certain, certain about the family, about the company, and about the world he had built.And now that certainty had vanished with him.Durrell became her steady rock throughout the entire service. He noticed the small things others might have missed - the slight tension in her shoulders wheneve

He grabbed Maxwell by the collar and pulled him up from his crouch.“Hey, what…”“Shut up and leave,” Durrell growled at him.Maxwell straightened slowly as he shoved Durrell’s hand away.“I’ll leave when I’m done.” He said as he took a deliberate step toward Durrell.Their faces just inches apart.“I see what you’re doing,” Maxwell continued quietly. “I know your game.”Durrell didn’t move.Maxwell’s gaze flicked toward Ariana sitting in the back seat.“If you think sleeping with her and playing the good guy is going to get you into her good books, you’re wrong.”His voice hardened.“She was mine first.” A pause. “And she always will be.”Durrell’s expression darkened.But Ariana spoke before he could respond.“I’m not a property.”Both men looked at her.Ariana had lowered the blood-stained cloth from her nose. Her voice was hoarse but steady.“I’m not something to be owned by anyone.”She looked directly at Maxwell.“And no one is currying my favor. I make my own decisions.”Her ga

It has been two weeks.Two weeks of nothing.Maxwell refreshed his email again and it still came up empty. The first report from HR said a business trip.His constant checking and the empty feeling the ‘no new mail’ gave him almost made him smash his phone against the wall.There was no urgent business trip in her work schedule, he kept close tabs on her work schedule. If truly it was a trip then it was an exit mask for her grief, meaning all that had happened in the lawyer's office had clearly hit harder than she let on.Still, nothing; no calls, no messages and no sightings elsewhere. All her meetings had been moved to virtual.And the part that was eating at him?She had no solid reason to be away with Durrell, meaning she chose to disappear where Maxwell couldn't see her, couldn't track her, couldn't...Maxwell shoved his chair back, stood and walked to the window.Durrell.The name sat in his chest like something rotting.He was too damn close, too quiet and too fucking involved