My Ex-husband Billion Dollar Mistakes のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 61 - チャプター 70

POV: NicholeThe night was a nice shade of cold and I really needed it. I kept my door shut all day and my mind made a maze of thoughts with the walls of my flat closing in, so I stepped out and stood on the tiny landing and just took a deep breath. The road down there was almost empty.One car was running by and somewhere two buildings was awayI was shutting the door again and then… I spotted him.I saw someone at the very end of the road, moving and staggering towards my budget building. He looked like a total mess with one shoulder lowered and one hand looking for the wall next to him.I observed for three seconds.After that something about the shoulders made me recognize him and I felt my stomach twisted.I was down the steps before I even thought of going. I could believe who I saw."Xavier."He lifted his head and made an effort to look at my face and his eyes were quite pale, slow and his tie was missing, his collar was open and from two feet away he smelled like whiskey."

POV: Xavier“You're the only thing that isn't a lie.”The words were still in my mouth when I stepped out of the building. I didn't know why I'd said that. The cold hit my face and I kept walking, not because I had somewhere to be but because standing still felt like something I couldn't afford right now.My phone had twelve missed calls already buzzing all through the night, by the time I reached the car.I sat in the driver's seat for a full minute without starting the engine. My hands weren't steady, pressed flat against my thighs and stared at the windshield until the blurring stopped.Then I drove off.The apartment was supposed to be empty. I heard him before I saw him. The low murmur of the television and the way a man settles into furniture that isn't his. I stepped through the door and there was Uncle Victor, seated at the far end of the living room with his one leg crossed over the other and a glass of whiskey already in his hand like he'd been there for hours.He looked up

POV: NicholeGoing out was not part of my plan. Elena left a list quite long on the kitchen counter before she left for home last night. Milk bread, fruit, crackers. She had specifically underlined crackers twice and besides that, the note was simply saying I should eat something real. So I grabbed my bag that Saturday morning, put on a hoodie and sunglasses and told myself I would be in and out in twenty minutes.I was not trying to appear like something. I had not slept well. My hair was loosely pulled back; no makeup, just me and whatever my face decided to do that morning. I moved through the aisles slowly, dropping things into the basket without really reading labels, just trying to get through the list and get back home.Anyway, I stood in the fruit section squeezing a mango, which I knew I was not going to buy, that was when I heard my name from behind. "Nichole?"I looked behind. A guy was standing about a couple of feet away holding a basket with one hand and looking at me

POV: NicholeThe test was on the bathroom counter reading two lines, clear and pink and not going anywhere no matter how many times I looked away and looked back.I sat on the cold bathroom floor with my back against the tub and my knees pulled to my chest and I sobbed greatly, more like a kind that takes over your whole body, and makes your ribs hurt and your throat burn with your hands shake so badly you have to press them between your knees just to keep them still.“Xavier is getting married next month.”And I was sitting on the bathroom floor with a positive pregnancy test and nobody to call except the one person who had already seen me fall apart twice this week, which was my friend Elena.I called Elena right away and she arrived in eleven minutes. She must have driven fast because she lived twenty minutes away. She let herself in with the spare key, walked straight to the bathroom and sat down on the floor beside me without saying a single word. She looked at the test on the c

(POV: Xavier)We arrived at the most anticipated engagement party ever. Mira and I were to be engaged today. The hall was full and every seat was taken, every corner was occupied by someone important.Chandeliers pushed warm gold light across the room and the air smelled of expensive perfume and catered food with the ambition that gathered whenever enough wealthy people stood in one place. My guests got so busy with conversation and many crystal glasses caught the light and different calibers of people laughed in their conversation with polished bursts from every direction. Honestly, by any measure, it was a perfect evening.But I was very calmly walking inside the hall. I moved through it with a champagne glass I had not touched and a smile I had been practicing since six o'clock.Precisely it's just to shake the hands of my guests and welcome them warmly and move on. I said to myself.I had done this a hundred times in different boardrooms, charity dinners and shareholder meetings.