Semua Bab Goodbye Ex, I Married Your Uncle!: Bab 21 - Bab 30

ADRIAN’S POVBy the time I got Lila out of the cameras and into the car, the city had already begun to do what it did best.Talk.I could practically feel it spreading through the streets, through office lobbies, group chats, and family dinner tables. My marriage. My wife. Her face. My hand on her waist. That single word I had given the media so calmly.Yes.Now the city would chew on it for days.Good.Let them.The driver took the longer route out of town, heading toward my house on the outskirts, where the roads widened, and the buildings thinned, and the noise dropped away. Lila sat beside me in silence, one hand wrapped around her phone, the other resting in her lap. She wasn’t panicking exactly, but I could see the tightness in her shoulders.The public reveal had been necessary… but that didn’t make it any easier on her. When the gates opened, and the car rolled inside, I glanced at her for the first time since we left the media frenzy.“It’s quiet here,” she observed, her vo

LILA’S POVThe next morning, Adrian brought in lawyers.Not one or two… a whole army. By ten o’clock, the formal sitting room at his house had been transformed into something that looked halfway between a war room and a board meeting. Dark folders covered the table. Tablets glowed. Coffee appeared and disappeared. Luca moved in and out of the room with the same silent efficiency as always, and Monica sat among the lawyers like she had belonged there all along.For a strange second, I just stood in the doorway and stared.All these people.All this seriousness.All this… for me.Adrian noticed me first. He stood from his chair at once, crossed the room, and guided me to the empty seat beside his with one hand lightly at my back.“Sit,” he said quietly. “Just listen first.”Monica looked at me, her expression calm and steady. “You okay?” “I think so,” I said.One of the lawyers, a sharp woman in cream with a severe ponytail, opened a file and got right to it.“Publicly, their statemen

JASON’S POVAfter the call with Chloe, I stood in the middle of my penthouse with my phone in one hand and a drink in the other, trying very hard not to throw both across the room.The city sprawled beneath me in glittering silence. Glass towers. Red taillights. Pools of gold streetlight. The kind of view people paid stupid money for because it was supposed to make them feel powerful.Tonight, it just made me feel tired.I took a long drink.What the hell had I done, tying myself to this complete shitshow?Chloe had always been dramatic. I knew that. She liked attention, liked being watched, liked the little performance of being admired. But lately, it felt like that was all she was. Every thought led back to social media, appearances, who was talking, who was watching, and what people were saying.My life was public enough already. The one thing I wanted from a partner was quiet. Chloe had never been capable of that.Lila had.The thought came so naturally that it made me angry.I lo

ADRIAN’S POVWhen Lila’s phone rang, I picked it up without thinking.Her phone had been left on the arm of the sofa while she went upstairs to change, and the name on the screen wasn’t saved. Just a number.Normally, I would have let it ring out.But something made me answer. “Hello?”A pause. “Lil?”A man’s voice. Intimate in a way that irritated me instantly.I straightened in my seat.“Lila’s not here right now,” I said, keeping my voice even while wondering who, exactly, had the audacity to call my wife Lil.Silence.Then, on the other end, I heard the faint shift of someone breathing harder than before. And just like that, a name clicked.“Jason,” I said calmly.More silence.Then, “Put her on.”I leaned back slightly, the phone cool against my ear. “She blocked you, so you’re using someone else’s phone to call her? Are you really that pathetic?”His voice sharpened immediately. “I have a right to speak to her.”“Oh, I’d love to hear this,” I laughed.“She and I have history,”

LILA’S POVSome days later, I sat cross-legged on the sofa in Adrian’s living room with a spread of college brochures on fashion design all around me.A few private institutes, some proper universities, and one program abroad that I wasn’t brave enough to seriously consider yet. I had spent the past week visiting campuses, speaking to staff, asking nervous questions, and pretending not to notice how strange it felt to plan a future that belonged to me.I was so busy comparing course structures that I didn’t hear Adrian come in until his shadow fell across the coffee table.I looked up.“What’s all this?” he asked.I glanced back down at the brochures and felt unexpectedly shy. “Nothing…” He raised an eyebrow.I exhaled. “Fashion design courses,” I admitted. “I know it probably sounds silly. I’m too old for college now, and everything happened so late, but…” I ran a hand over one of the glossy pamphlets. “I’ve always liked fashion design.”He didn’t laugh. He didn’t dismiss me or look