All Chapters of DON'T BEG ME NOW, MR. ARMSTRONG : Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

I lay in bed for a moment, staring at the ceiling, my thoughts slow to gather but heavy once they did. The conversation in the kitchen lingered in fragments—his voice, my words, the things I hadn’t said. It wasn’t regret. Not entirely. But it wasn’t ease either.Just… something unsettled.I exhaled slowly and pushed the covers off, sitting up. There wasn’t much point lingering in bed. There never was.Kai would be up soon.The thought grounded me immediately, shifting my focus into something more familiar, more structured. Routine. Responsibility. The parts of my life that had always made sense, no matter what else didn’t.I got dressed quickly, tying my hair back loosely before stepping out of my room and into the hallway. The house was quiet, but not in the same heavy way it had been the night before. This was normal quiet. Morning quiet. The kind that usually came before small footsteps and sleepy voices.I walked toward Kai’s room, already reaching for the door before I pushed it

By the time Kai finished eating, whatever quiet weight had lingered in the room was long gone—replaced by something lighter, something louder.Something that sounded a lot like chaos.“Ready?” I asked, pushing my chair back as I stood.He jumped down from his seat immediately, nearly tripping over his own feet in his excitement. “Yes!”I huffed out a quiet laugh, shaking my head as I looked down at him. “Alright. First rule—no running into walls.”He nodded seriously.Then took off running.“—Kai.”He giggled as he skidded to a stop halfway across the room, turning back to look at me with zero remorse. “I didn’t hit anything!”I pinched the bridge of my nose briefly before dropping my hand. This was going to be a long day.“Hide and seek,” I said finally. “You hide first.”His entire face lit up like I’d just handed him the best idea in the world.“I’m going to win,” he declared.“We’ll see about that,” I replied.He didn’t waste another second. He spun around and sprinted off, his sm

I let out a quiet breath as I moved deeper into the boutique, my fingers trailing lightly over fabrics that felt far too delicate for everyday use. The racks were arranged with a kind of effortless precision, colors blending into each other in soft gradients that made it difficult to focus on just one piece at a time. Pink, yellow, lilac—Victor’s instructions echoed faintly in my mind, and though I still wasn’t entirely pleased with the way I’d been maneuvered into this, I found myself paying attention to those shades anyway. It was easier to do that than to think about the fact that I’d just allowed Brandon to take Kai out. That thought lingered somewhere at the back of my mind, quiet but persistent, like something waiting for the right moment to be acknowledged.I paused in front of a rack, pulling out a dress just slightly to inspect it, though my attention wasn’t fully on it. My mind drifted—back to Victor’s voice, to the way he’d said I wouldn’t be alone, to the implication that

~~Joan~~I push the door open and step into the diner without looking back, even though every instinct in me is telling me to. The bell above the door chimes softly, far too cheerful for the way my chest feels tight and unsettled, and I tell myself it’s ridiculous to feel this way—embarrassed over something as small as a message. Still, the warmth that had crept into my cheeks outside refuses to fade, and I’m painfully aware of how quickly I walked away from him, how abrupt it must have seemed. A part of me wants to turn around, to fix it, to say something—anything—but I don’t. I keep walking, shoulders straight, expression composed, as though nothing happened at all.Caleb and Cassie both look up the moment I approach the table, their attention snapping to me in a way that makes me instantly aware that I’m alone. Caleb’s gaze is the first thing I register—sharp, knowing, like he’s already pieced together more than I’d like him to—and then it shifts, flicking past me as though expecti

I don’t realize how much time has passed until the light outside my window shifts from bright afternoon to something softer, quieter, the kind that settles gently over everything without asking for permission. Hours. I’ve spent hours in this room, moving between sitting on the edge of the bed, lying beside Kai as he played on the floor, standing by the window pretending to be occupied with nothing in particular—all of it carefully structured around one very obvious fact.I’m avoiding him.The realization should bother me more than it does, but instead, it sits somewhere between irritation and reluctant amusement. At some point, Kai had asked for food, and I’d found myself sneaking out of the room—actually sneaking—pausing by the door to listen for any sound before slipping into the hallway like I was doing something I wasn’t supposed to. I’d gone to the kitchen, fixed him something quick, and returned the same way, quiet and cautious, my heart beating just a little faster than it shou