All Chapters of The Woman He Never Chose: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

EMILIAThe sheets had turned cold beside me.I stared at the ceiling of Steven’s bedroom, counting the shadows the city lights made on the paint while trying to ignore the knots in my stomach.It was 2 am in the morning. I knew because I had been watching the clock on his nightstand for the past forty minutes.He had left right after we had sex.That wasn’t new. Steven had always needed space after sex. He would retreat into himself like he was scared that I would ask for something he couldn’t give. Usually, he’d go to his office or the kitchen. Usually, he came back after ten or twenty minutes.Tonight was different. It was almost an hour.I pulled up the sheet to my chin even though the room wasn’t cold. The air conditioner hummed with a subtle buzz. Everything in Steven’s penthouse was perfect and expensive. Even the silence had a price tag.I should go back to sleep. Pretend that I didn’t notice. That I didn’t care. After all, that was all I had been doing for the past five years.

EMILIAI didn’t get out of bed the next day until Sunny came over. She came by with groceries and coffee and the kind of tough love only a younger sister could deliver. She let herself in with the spare key I'd given her years ago and found me exactly where I'd been since Friday morning. In bed. Staring at the ceiling."Okay, that's enough," she said, pulling open the curtains. Sunlight flooded the room, and I threw my arm over my eyes. "You're getting up. You're eating. You're showering. In that order.""I'm fine," I groaned and rolled over to my side."You're not fine. You've sent me exactly three text messages in three days, and one of them was to tell me you're going to work for your ex. That's the opposite of fine."I didn't argue. She was right. I wasn't fine.Sunny sat on the edge of the bed and put her hand on my ankle through the blanket. "I know you're hurting. But you can't stay in this apartment and torture yourself. Come stay with me for a few days.”"I can't."She sigh

EMILIAIt’s been two weeks since I started the job, and I had settled into a routine.Despite the routine, I hadn’t stopped bothering about that text from that unknown number. I went to the café as instructed and waited the whole day, scanning the faces of every single person who walked in for a sign they were the one who I was waiting for, but no one came.I had been so frustrated, but when I tried to call the number, I was blocked. I even tried calling with Sunny’s number a few days later, but the phone number was out of service.I wondered if it was a prank call or if the person had backed out at the last minute. I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since then.The only thing that could take my mind off it was focusing on my work. I always arrived early before the cleaning crew finished and left late, making sure my work was perfectly done.I didn’t want to give anybody a reason to tell me I didn’t deserve the job I had been given. Perfection was the only armour I could aff

EMILIAThe nausea woke me up before my alarm.I curled on my side, breathing shallowly through my mouth, trying to wait for it to pass. Sweat prickled along my hairline even though the room was cold.“Not again," I moaned as I pressed my hand to my forehead. I didn’t have a fever, so why was my body acting up?I dragged myself from the bed to the bathroom and went through my morning routine. By the time I got to the subway, most of the nausea had disappeared, like it did yesterday.The morning crawled today. It was filled with answering boring phone calls, but every time I stood up too fast, my vision would black out for a few seconds. I knew it was stress, but there was no way I was taking a day off when I just started.When lunch came, I was practically singing thanks to the heavens. I slipped out of the office building and hurried towards the small café shop near the office. I had a feeling coffee might be the solution to my problem.I ordered an iced americano, and when the barist

EMILIAMy alarm buzzed at five-thirty, pulling me from a dream where everything had been pleasures and rough hands – Steven’s hands – before everything shattered.I slapped the alarm clock silent – don’t say why I still use a manual clock when I have my phone – and lay in bed for a moment, holding onto the last image in that dream before it faded away and I was forced back into my harsh, cold reality.My stomach twisted faintly, a reminder of yesterday’s nausea, but it wasn’t as bad. Maybe I didn’t need to go to the hospital today anymore like I had planned to.I got dressed quietly, trying to avoid waking up Sunny because she had stayed up late, marking some test scripts from school.I woke up earlier today because I wanted to avoid Bianca. Maybe if I got my work done on time, I could take an excuse from Alexander and leave work early before she showed up. Maybe use the hospital as an excuse before she showed.The Riorson building loomed dark against the pre-dawn sky when I arrived,