All Chapters of After Divorce; I Married My Husband’s Brother : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Gwen’s povThe meeting adjourned the way storms ended not with resolution but with exhaustion and the unspoken agreement that everyone needed to step away before something irreversible was said.The council members filed out in ones and twos and the displeasure in the room didn't leave with them it just redistributed itself into the way they moved which was stiff backed and tight jawed and careful not to look at me directly on their way out.They had more to say but Xavier was still seated and nobody was going to say it in front of him.I sat with my hands folded and watched them go.Cole was the last one still standing. He had pushed back his chair but hadn't moved toward the door yet and I felt his eyes on the side of my face the way you felt something cold pressing against your skin. I turned and looked at him because I refused to be the one in this room who looked away first and what was on his face when our eyes met was ugly, a sneer pulling at his mouth and six different things

Gwen’s pov“I didn’t intend to make a mess.”My voice came out raspier than I intended.Xavier didn’t answer immediately, he kept watching me with the attention of a man who was calculating his next move.It should have made me feel uneasy, but it only fueled me. I liked the attention.I sat with my knees pulled together between his open legs, fingers still hovering near the wetness of my saliva from where I had lapped the ice-cream off his chest.“Aren’t you offended?”His face finally had some sort of reaction and his eyes deepened on me. With a slow curve of his lips, he reached out to grab my hand that was still hovering, barely an inch away from his chest with the tip of my nails scraping against his skin at unplanned intervals.With a force I didn’t expect, he jerked me forward then leaned his face closer until the tips of our nostrils were touching.“You made a mess, and then you cleaned it. I don’t see what the problem is.”My brows raised at that, and I stared searchingly at

Gwen’s povBy the time I stepped into Xavier’s office, the sun had already risen high in the sky.I hesitated for a moment before slowly lifting my hand to knock.“Come in.” I heard him say and I pushed the door open.He was seated behind the large mahogany desk in his office. Even though he was home, he was dressed in a shirt but had the sleeves rolled all the way up, exposing the bulging muscles of his arms.His entire attention was on whatever file lay open before him and when I walked in, he looked up from it.“You didn’t go to work?” I asked, walking further into the room.“No,” he shook his head and leaned back in his seat.“There’s not much to be done at the office.”He stared at me a moment.“To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?” He asked, gathering the files on his table and carefully arranging them to one side.“Can’t I come in here?” I retorted before I caught the teasing light in his eyes.“Of course, you can. You don’t need my permission to do anything.”The way h

Xavier’s pov She paused when she opened it and something about that pause, the way her hand stopped moving and her body became motionless like the paper had reached out and grabbed her made me walk towards her without even thinking about it. I took the letter from her fingers gently and read it and the words I saw in the letter had a kind of clarity that wasn’t surprising but it still made my blood boil. Cole was filing for custody of Josie. I read it twice because the first time felt like something my brain was refusing to process correctly and the second time confirmed that yes, this was real and yes, he had actually done this. The man who had stood in a hospital corridor and called his daughter a dead end. The man who had used a sick five year old as leverage to extract a signature from her mother. The man whose neglect had nearly killed this child was now standing in front of a legal document claiming he wanted her. Cole had always been useless but I never knew he was

Gwen’s pov I woke up later than I usually did, stirring in bed for a long minute before finally sitting up.The bed beside me was empty, of course it was.Xavier would never wallow in bed for so long.After freshening up, I headed downstairs, still feeling the weight of exhaustion in my bones.It was the kind that sleep couldn’t fix and I kept stretching as I walked down the stairs.Greta sighted me the minute I reached the bottom step. She walked closer, smiling at me.“Good morning Ma’am. Breakfast's set up in the dining room for you.”“Good morning, Greta,” I smiled back at her. “Thank you.”“Did Josie have breakfast?” I enquired.“Yes ma’am,” she nodded in confirmation. “I made sure she was ready on time and Sir Xavier offered to drop her off at school.”“He did?” I raised a brow.“Yes ma’am.”That was news to me. It was pleasant, yet confusing.My mind drifted to a moment in time, struggling to process why Cole had always made it seem like a difficult chore to do.He never took