Semua Bab I LEFT WHEN HIS EX CAME BACK WITH HIS SON: Bab 51 - Bab 60

CLARAI smirked at Thalia one last time before turning away and heading back toward Bailey, who was still standing near the entrance with her arms folded tightly across her chest.The moment I got close enough, she grabbed my arm and pulled me toward her.“How in God’s name is that girl a speaker here?” she hissed. “Who even allowed this?”I scoffed immediately. “Please. You really think Thalia got here honestly? She definitely bribed her way in somehow.”Bailey gave me a look. “The only person she’d need to bribe is Dr. Carter, and we both know that woman doesn’t bend for anybody.”I glanced across the room automatically at the mention of Dr. Carter’s name.The woman was surrounded by people already, speaking to a few guests while some students hovered nearby, looking nervous just standing close to her.Then an idea formed in my head.I slowly turned back to Bailey and smiled.“Do you trust me?” I asked.Bailey snorted instantly. “Absolutely not.”I rolled my eyes. “Very funny.”“I’m

BRANDONI had started spending more time at home ever since Thalia left.Before, weekends like this barely kept me in one place for long. I would find an excuse to leave, burying myself in work, meetings, dinners, anything that kept me away from the house.Now, I found myself staying.Lingering.Every now and then, I caught myself glancing toward the entrance whenever I heard movement outside, like some part of me still expected the front door to open.Like she would walk back in eventually.I was still sitting at the dining area with my coffee untouched beside me when the loud ringing of the doorbell cut through the house repeatedly.My brows pulled together immediately.Who the hell was pressing it like that?The bell rang again.And again.I exhaled sharply and looked toward the hallway.“Open the door,” I called out to the maid.A few seconds later, Bailey stormed inside like a hurricane.She nearly slammed into the poor woman opening the door and snapped, “Is it until I injure my

THALIABy the time I got to work the next morning, I was still irritated from Brandon showing up at my apartment the night before like he had lost every remaining ounce of sense he possessed.The nerve of that man still annoyed me.I walked into the lab with my coffee in one hand and my laptop bag hanging off my shoulder while trying very hard not to replay the entire argument in my head again. Thankfully, the moment work started piling up in front of me, my brain slowly shifted focus.For the next two hours, I stayed buried in reports, formulation notes, and trial comparisons while one of the interns kept asking me questions every five minutes.“No,” I said without looking up from my screen, “if you increase the dosage concentration without recalculating the absorption ratio, the entire thing becomes unstable.”The intern blinked at me. “Oh.”“Yes,” I replied dryly. “Oh.”A quiet laugh came from one of the other researchers nearby while the intern awkwardly took his notes and escape

BRANDONBy eight in the morning, Clara had already succeeded in exhausting every remaining ounce of patience I had left.She sat across from me in my office dressed like she was headed for champagne brunch , while I had barely gone through half my emails because every few minutes she somehow found a way to drag the conversation back to Thalia again.“And then she walked away like she had done nothing wrong,” Clara said angrily while throwing both hands into the air. “Do you even understand how humiliating that was for me? In front of Leo too.”I leaned back against my chair and rubbed slowly at my jaw while trying very hard not to lose my temper.“Clara,” I said flatly, “you’ve been talking about this for almost thirty minutes.”“Because you’re not listening.”“No,” I corrected calmly, “I am listening. I’m just trying to understand why exactly this became my problem.”Her mouth fell open immediately.“What is that supposed to mean?”“It means,” I said while gesturing around the office

THALIABy the time the clock on the lab wall passed eight in the evening, almost everyone on the research floor had already gone home, leaving only the low hum of machines and the occasional sound of glass equipment to fill the silence around me while I worked through another set of recovery simulation results on my computer.We’d passed the preliminary stage already, but that only made me more obsessed with getting the final presentation perfect.I adjusted my gloves, stared at the data on the monitor again, and immediately frowned when the recovery response failed to stabilize the way I wanted.“No,” I muttered quietly while typing another adjustment into the system. “That timing is still too slow.”Ever since Adrian handed me the Ravens Elite project, my brain had refused to slow down because every part of me wanted this partnership badly. I wasn’t about to spend months proving myself only to fail now that the finish line was finally close enough to touch.I was still focused on re