Lahat ng Kabanata ng Divorced By My Cold Husband, I Returned As A CEO: Kabanata 31 - Kabanata 40

The Weight of PaperElara felt trapped. The room seemed to close in around her the walls, the desk, the air itself pressing against her chest like a fist. She rose from her chair slowly, as though her body hadn’t yet decided whether to believe what her eyes had just read.This can’t be true.She moved without thinking, pacing the length of her office, back and forth, back and forth, the rhythm of it the only thing keeping her upright. And then she stopped. She turned to look at Victor, who sat with the particular stillness of a man who had prepared himself for exactly this moment.“Do you think” she began, but her voice fractured at the edges. She steadied herself. “I don’t believe you. Not a single word of this. This is bullshit, Victor, and I want you to know that I intend to call my lawyer.”Victor looked at her with an expression so composed it bordered on infuriating.“Call him,” he said simply.She crossed to her desk. Her fingers moved on their own opening the drawer, retrie

JulianHe didn’t sit when she told him. He stood with his arms crossed and his jaw tight, the way he stood when he was working very hard not to say the first thing that came to mind.“Why, Elara.” It wasn’t quite a question. “Why are you allowing this? You can say no. You can still file you can sign the papers yourself and contest the whole thing, there are lawyers who handle exactly this”“Julian.” She stood. Her voice wasn’t sharp, but it was final. “I know. I know everything you’re saying and you’re not wrong about any of it.” She paused, gathering the words carefully. “But right now my hands are tied. I can’t turn Mr. Alaric away. I can’t. He is nothing like his son nothing. He is kind, and he is good, and when I was at my absolute lowest, when there was no one” She stopped. Started again, quieter. “He was there. He was the only one who was there. If I have the chance now to give something back to him, I won’t waste it.”Julian looked at her for a long moment. The frustration was

Before Elara could reply, Alaric slowly made his way up the stairs.“What’s happening, my children?” he asked gently. “Are you having an argument? It’s not good for you to keep going like this…”Elara flinched. In that moment, she wanted nothing more than to strangle Victor—but instead, she forced a smile onto her face.“No, Father… we weren’t arguing. You misunderstood.”“Really?” the old man asked, not fully convinced.“Yes,” she insisted. “You got it all wrong.”Alaric stepped closer, studying them carefully. Then he nodded slowly.“Alright then… to show me that everything is fine, hug each other.”Elara froze.“Uh… Father, there’s no need for that. We’re fine—”“Elara, my child,” he interrupted softly, “please. I need to see it.”She smiled awkwardly, her patience thinning.Reluctantly, she stepped forward… and hugged Victor.It was stiff. Unnatural.They had never hugged like this before.Victor’s heart began to beat faster, the sudden closeness catching him off guard.Elara, on

Elara paced the hospital corridor like a caged animal, her heels clicking against the polished floor in frantic rhythm. Her dress white this morning, now stained deep crimson clung to her as she pressed the phone to her ear for the second time.Pick up. Please pick up.“Where are you?” she breathed the moment the line connected. “Victor, Father is in the hospital. Come quickly please.” Her voice cracked on the last word, tears spilling freely down her cheeks.She sank into one of the plastic waiting chairs and pressed her hands together.God, please. Don’t let him die. Not tonight. Not like this.Victor arrived twelve minutes later, slightly breathless, eyes scanning the corridor until they landed on her on the blood soaking through her dress.“Elara.” He crossed to her quickly. “What happened? Where is he?”She stood, steadying herself. “I found him at the bottom of the stairs. He must have fallen — I don’t know, I just—”“That’s a lie.”The words cut through the air like a blade.

Victor woke slowly.For a moment he simply stared at the ceiling, gathering the pieces of where he was and why. Then he turned and found the blanket. Draped carefully over him, tucked at the edges.He sat up and looked across the room.Elara was asleep in the opposite chair, her head resting against her hand, her breathing slow and even. She’d come back. Sometime in the night, without a word to anyone, she’d come back covered him, taken her place beside his father, and stayed.She hates me, he thought, watching her. But she never hated him.He’d known that, somewhere beneath the noise of Martin’s voice and his own momentary doubt. He’d known it and had nearly let it slip from his grasp anyway.He rose quietly, lifted his blanket, and crossed the room. He laid it over her with the same care she’d shown him gently, so as not to disturb her and stood for a moment looking at her face, softened in sleep, all the tension of the past day finally gone from it.I wonder if Daniel is with Jul