All Chapters of After The Divorce: Ex-Husband Regrets And Begs Me: Chapter 201 - Chapter 210

218 Chapters

The Trap Is Set

12 Years Later... CELESTINE'S POV: Twelve years have passed. Twelve years of peace. Twelve years of love. Twelve years of watching my family grow and change and become something I never dared to imagine. I am in my forties now and I am not the woman who stood in that bathroom staring at a positive pregnancy test, hoping that a baby would fix a broken marriage. I am not the woman who walked out of that penthouse at three in the morning with nothing but an old coat and a shattered heart. I am someone else entirely. Someone stronger. Someone loved. Someone home. The house is always full of noise and chaos and laughter. That is always the first thing I notice every morning when I wake up. The sound of footsteps on the stairs. The sound of voices arguing over breakfast. The sound of life, real life, the kind of life that I used to dream about when I was sitting alone in that penthouse, waiting for a husband who never came home. Alistair is twelve now. A certified genius, his tu

A Voice from the Past

ELARA'S POV: I sit alone in my room. The walls are pink, the same pink they were when I first arrived here twelve years ago. The bed is covered in soft blankets. The bookshelf is full of stories that I have read a hundred times. The window looks out over the garden, over the roses that Lysander planted for Celestine, over the valley that separates our estate from the one next door. This is my room. This has been my room for twelve years. This is the only home I have ever known. But I am not sure it is my home anymore. I have been waiting for this moment for three years. Three years of wondering, of doubting, of trying to figure out who I really am. Three years of pretending that everything is fine, that I am happy, that I belong here. I reach under my mattress and pull out the letter. The paper is worn, creased from being folded and unfolded plenty and a hundred times. The handwriting is shaky, the letters cramped and uneven. It was given to me at the end of the school year, tu

The Poison Seed

VLADIMIR'S POV: I have been waiting for this call for twelve years. Twelve years of patience. Twelve years of planning. Twelve years of watching from the shadows, waiting for the moment when Kier Thornwell's daughter would be old enough to understand, old enough to act, old enough to do what her father planned for her to do. And now she has called me. She has taken the bait. The seed that Kier planted in that letter has finally taken root. I sit in my safe house, the phone pressed to my ear, and I listen to her voice. She sounds young. Vulnerable. Confused. The perfect target for the lies I am about to feed her. "Elara," I say, and I let my voice soften, let it sound kind, let it sound like the voice of a man who cares about her, who wants to help her, who is on her side. "I know this is hard. I know you have been raised by people who have filled your head with lies. But I am going to tell you the truth. The real truth. The truth that your father wanted you to know." She is sile

The Enemy Within

ELARA'S POV:I hang up the phone and I cannot breathe.My hands are shaking. My heart is pounding. My whole body feels like it is vibrating with a fear that I cannot name. I sit on the edge of my bed and I stare at the wall and I try to make sense of everything I have just heard.Celestine killed my mother. Lysander killed my father. They lied to me. They manipulated me. They have been using me since the day I arrived.I want to believe it is not true. I want to believe that Vladimir Drakon is lying, that he is manipulating me, that he has his own reasons for saying what he said. But the letter from my father is in my hands. The words are burned into my memory. And Vladimir sounded so convincing.I think about Celestine. About the way she looks at me when she thinks I am not watching. About the way she holds me when I am sad. About the way she tells me she loves me, over and over again, as if she is trying to convince herself as much as she is trying to convince me.I think about Lysa

The First Lie

ELARA'S POV:The stairs are steep. I have walked up and down them a thousand times. I know exactly where the loose board creaks a bit. I know exactly where the railing wobbles. I know exactly how to fall to make it look real.I stand at the top of the stairs and I look down at the long wooden staircase that leads to the foyer. The house is silent. Celestine is in the kitchen, preparing dinner. Alistair is in his room, doing his homework. Lysander is in London for a business meeting. I am alone.Vladimir's voice echoes in my head. Start small. Plant doubts. Create chaos. They will never suspect you.This is my first move. My first step toward avenging my real family. My first chance to make them pay for what they did.I took a breath and my thoughts went back to my father. Kier Thornwell. The man I never met. The man who wrote me a letter before he died, telling me the truth, telling me to trust no one. I think about my mother. The woman who was murdered by the people I now call my fam

Fractured Bonds

ELARA'S POV: CELESTINE'S POV I look at my son and I do not know what to believe. Alistair is standing at the top of the stairs, his face pale, his hands shaking. He looks like a boy who has been accused of something he did not do. He looks like a boy who is terrified. But Elara is on the floor at my feet, sobbing, clutching her ankle, her face contorted with pain. She looks like a girl who has been hurt. She looks like a girl who needs her mother. "Alistair," I say. "Tell me what happened." "I was in my room," he says. His voice is steady, but I can hear the tremor underneath. "I heard a scream and I came out and she was already on the floor. I did not push her. I swear I did not." I look at him. My son. My brilliant, kind, gentle son. He has never lied to me. Not once. Not ever. I know he is telling the truth. But then I look at Elara. My daughter. My adopted daughter. The girl who has been through so much, who has struggled so hard to find her place in this family. She is cr

The Daughter's Deception

ELARA'S POV:I watch Alistair in the back seat. He is silent, his face is empty and his eyes are hollow.I feel something twist in my chest. Guilt? Shame? Remorse? I am not so sure which one it was.I do not want to hurt Alistair. I love Alistair. He is my brother. He has always been my brother. But Vladimir said to trust no one. Vladimir said that the Ashcrofts and Valancourts are liars and murderers. Vladimir said that Alistair is part of the lie, part of the manipulation, part of the family that destroyed my real parents.I push away the guilt away, I push away the shame away and I push away the love away.I think about my father. Kier Thornwell. The man who had wrote me a letter before he died. The man who told me the truth. The man who asked me to avenge him.I think about the life that was stolen from me. The life I should have had with my real family. The family I should have known. I close my eyes and I let the tears fall and I let Celestine hold my hand.This is the first lie

The Growing Rift

ALISTAIR'S POV:I still cannot believe my mother did not believe me.That is the thought that has now been circling through my head over and over again after we got back, a loop that will not stop, a record that keeps skipping back to the same moment. The stairs. The fall. Elara on the floor, crying, accusing me. And my mother, standing there, looking at me with those brown eyes, hesitating.She hesitated.She did not say she believed me. She did not say she knew I would never hurt anyone. She just looked at me, and I saw the doubt in her eyes, the uncertainty, the fear that maybe, just maybe, I had done something terrible.I have never lied to her. Not once. Not ever. I am twelve years old. I am a genius, everyone says so. I take advanced classes and argue with my tutors about mathematics and show signs of my father's business acumen. I am supposed to be the smart one, the responsible one, the one who does not cause trouble.But none of that mattered. None of it mattered because Elar

A Mother's Regret

LYSANDER'S POV: I watch my family fall apart and I do not know how to stop it. Alistair is avoiding everyone. Celestine is drowning in guilt. Elara is quiet, too quiet, hiding in her room, barely speaking. The house that used to be full of noise and laughter and chaos is now silent and cold and wrong. I need to fix this. I need to bring my family back together. I need to find out what is really going on. I find Alistair in his room. He is sitting at his desk, staring at a book that he is not reading. His gray eyes are hollow, his face is pale, his shoulders are hunched. "Alistair," I say. "Can we talk?" He looks up at me. There is something in his eyes that I have never seen before. Something that looks like betrayal. "About what?" he asks. "About what happened, about Elara and about your mother." "I do not want to talk about it." I walk over and sit on the edge of his bed. I keep my voice calm. I keep my expression steady. I do not want to push him away the way Celestine di

The Second Attack

ELARA'S POV: Isabelle is eight years old and she adores me which is the first thing I noticed about her when she started coming to the house with her mother, Athena. She follows me everywhere. She sits beside me at dinner. She asks me questions about my books and my life and my thoughts. She wants to be just like her older cousin. She is sweet, she is innocent and she trusts me completely. That is exactly why I chose her. Vladimir's voice echoes in my head. Start small. Plant doubts. Create chaos. They will never suspect you. I have already planted the first seed with Alistair. Now I need to spread the poison further. I need to make sure that everyone in this family starts to doubt each other. I need to make sure that the Ashcrofts and Valancourts fall apart from the inside. Athena is visiting today. She came to see Celestine, to catch up, to spend time with her sister-in-law. She brought Isabelle with her, the little girl with the bright eyes and the eagre smile who follows me e

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