All Chapters of After The Divorce: Ex-Husband Regrets And Begs Me: Chapter 241 - Chapter 250

280 Chapters

A Broken Prodigy

ALISTAIR'S POV:"Come eat," she says. "Just for a few minutes."I close my laptop. I take the plate from her and eat the food but it tastes like cardboard in my mouth but I did not say anything.My mother sits on the edge of my bed. She watches me eat."Alistair," she says. "I know things have been hard. I know you are still angry about what happened. But you cannot keep pushing yourself like this.""I am fine.""Are you?"I do not answer."Your father and I are worried about you. Elara is worried about you.""Elara can worry about herself."My mother sighs. She reaches out and touches my hand."Alistair, I know you are hurting. I know you are angry. But shutting everyone out is not going to help.""I am not shutting everyone out. I am just... focusing.""On what?""On the competition. On my project. On something that matters."My mother looks at me for a long moment. Her eyes are wet."Alistair, you matter. To me. To your father. To Elara. To all of us. You matter."I look away. I ca

The Genius Rival

ALISTAIR'S POV:The morning of the competition is cold and gray which is the type of London morning that makes you want to stay in bed and pretend the world does not exist. But I am not in bed. I am standing in front of the mirror in my room, adjusting my tie, trying to convince myself that I am ready for this.I am nervous.That is the truth. I do not want to admit it, even to myself, but I am nervous. My hands are shaking. My stomach is churning. My heart is pounding in my chest like a drum.I have been preparing for this for months. I have built a robot that can perform surgeries with precision. I have coded algorithms that would make most adults weep with envy. I have spent every waking moment working on this project, perfecting it, making sure that it is ready.But standing here, looking at my reflection in the mirror, I feel like a fraud. I feel like I am going to walk into that auditorium and everyone is going to see that I am just a kid, just a scared kid who does not know wha

A Battle of Brilliant Minds

ALISTAIR'S POV:I do not know why she gets under my skin.Maybe it is the way she smiled at me, like she already knew she was going to win. Maybe it is the way she said my name, like she had been waiting for this moment. Maybe it is the way her project looked, nice and advanced and almost as good as mine.Almost.I am better. I know I am better. I have been working on this for months, pouring every ounce of my energy into this robot, perfecting every line of code, every joint, every algorithm. I have sacrificed sleep and food and anything that resembled a normal life to make this project perfect.And she thinks she can beat me.The first round of the competition is a presentation. Each contestant stands in front of a panel of judges and explains their project. The judges are serious, their faces unreadable, their pens poised over their clipboards.I am called first. I walk to the center of the stage. The lights are bright, hot on my face. The audience is silent, waiting.I take a brea

When Genius Meets Genius

MIRA'S POV: The second round is a demonstration. Each contestant must show their project in action. The judges circulate, asking questions, evaluating performance. I watch Alistair's demonstration. He is good. His robot is precise, smooth, perfect. It performs the simulated surgery with flawless accuracy. But it is rigid. It can only do what it is programmed to do. It cannot adapt. It cannot learn. That is where mine is different. My demonstration is next. I stand beside my robot and I show the judges what it can do. It performs the surgery perfectly. And then I show them the AI, the learning system that allows it to adapt to different procedures. The judges are impressed. They ask questions. I answer them with confidence. When I finish, I look at Alistair. He is watching me with an expression that I cannot read and I smile at him once again. * * ALISTAIR'S POV: * * The third round is a practical test. Each contestant must solve a problem in real time. A malfunction. A co

Beyond My Father's Shadow

ELARA'S POV:I have been dancing ballet since I was six years old and let me tell you, that is not an exaggeration. I remember the first time I walked into a dance studio, the smell of rosin and sweat and polished wood, the mirrors on the walls reflecting a thousand versions of myself. I was small and scared and I did not know what I was doing. But the moment the music started, the moment I moved my body to the rhythm, I felt something shift inside me which felt like peace.Ballet is my escape. My passion. My everything.When I am dancing, I do not think about the letter. I do not think about Vladimir Drakon. I do not think about the fire or the almost destruction of my family. I do not think about the lies I believed or the people I hurt or the trust I shattered.I just move. I just feel. I just exist in the music.That is why I have been accepted into a prestigious ballet academy. That is why I am standing in front of the building right now, my heart pounding, my hands sweating, my

The Designer Within

ELARA'S POV:Ballet is not the only thing I love.That is something I have only recently admitted to myself. For so long, I thought dance was my only escape, my only passion, my only reason to keep going. But there is something else too. Something that has been with me since I was a child, something that I have kept hidden away like a secret.I love fashion.I have been designing clothes since I was old enough to hold a pencil. I used to sketch dresses on scraps of paper, imagining the way they would move, the way they would flow, the way they would make someone feel beautiful. I would cut up old fabric and sew them together with clumsy stitches, creating things that were imperfect but mine.My mother Celestine found my sketches once. I was twelve years old and I had left them on my desk, scattered across the wood like fallen leaves. She picked one up and looked at it, her eyes soft, her lips curved into a smile."These are beautiful, Elara," she said. "You are so talented."I felt my

Code, Secrets, and Feelings

ALISTAIR'S POV:I do not know when she stopped being just my rival.It happened slowly, I think, between the arguments about code and the late nights spent in the competition common room and between the shared meals and the stupid jokes that made me forget why I was supposed to hate her.Mira Patel is brilliant. That much I knew from the moment I saw her project. But she is also something else. Something I did not expect.She is funny. She is kind. She is the first person I have talked to about my family in a long time.We are sitting in the common room of the competition venue, our laptops open in front of us, the glow of the screens casting blue light across our faces. It is past midnight. The building is quiet. Everyone else has gone to bed."You need to optimize this algorithm," Mira says, pointing at my screen. "It is too slow. It is going to cost you valuable time in the final round.""It is not too slow at all, but efficient.""Nope I have to disagree with you there, it is not

A Victory of My Own

ELARA'S POV:The letter arrived on a Tuesday afternoon when I went to check our mail.I am in my room, sitting on my bed, staring at the wall. My feet are wrapped in bandages from yesterday's practice. My muscles ache. My body is exhausted. I have been pushing myself harder than ever, trying to prove that I belong at the ballet academy, trying to prove that I am more than my father's daughter.But I do not feel like I am making progress at all, in fact I feel like I am standing still.The envelope is on my desk. I have been staring at it for twenty minutes. I am too scared to open it.My name is written on the front in neat handwriting. The return address is the boutique where I submitted my design. I have been waiting for this for weeks, hoping and praying and trying not to get my hopes up.But now that it is here, I am terrified.What if I did not win? What if my design was not good enough? What if I am not good enough?I poured everything in me into that dress. Everything and now I

Beyond Victory

ALISTAIR'S POV:The final day of the competition arrives faster than I expected.It feels like just yesterday I was standing in this auditorium for the first time, nervous and uncertain, watching Mira Patel walk up to me with that confident smile and tell me she was going to beat me. Now, weeks later, we are standing on the same stage, our projects on display, the judges watching us with sharp eyes.The auditorium is packed. Students from all over the country are in the audience, their faces a mix of excitement and exhaustion. The lights are bright and hot on my skin. The air is thick with anticipation.I look at my robot. It is sitting on the table beside me, polished and white and covered in blinking lights. I have spent months on this project, pouring every ounce of my energy into perfecting it. I have sacrificed sleep and food and anything that resembled a normal life.But I have also added something new. Something that I have been working on in secret, late at night, when no one

A Winner and a Friend

ALISTAIR'S POV:I need to prove something. To myself. To my family. To everyone who thinks that I am just the angry kid who cannot let go of the past.But I also do not want to win. Not if it means beating Mira or if it means watching her lose.I do not understand why I feel this way. She is my rival. She is the one standing between me and victory. I should want to beat her. I should want to crush her.But I do not.I think about the nights we spent together, working on our projects, arguing about code, laughing at stupid things. I think about the way she looked at me when I told her about my family, about Elara, about the anger that I cannot let go. I think about the way she told me that forgiveness is hard, but holding onto anger is harder.She is not just my rival. She is my friend and maybe more.*The judges finish their examination. They walk back to their seats. The head judge stands up."The winner of this year's national science and technology competition," she says, "is Alis

...

23 24 25 26 27 28

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP