جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 100

*Bella's POV. I didn't sleep. At least, it never felt like sleep. I drifted somewhere between dreams and wakefulness, sinking beneath memories only to fight my way back to the surface again. The entire night became a loop I couldn't escape because every time I closed my eyes, I found myself back in that boardroom, staring at Alex's face, watching the shock in his eyes while my own breath caught so painfully in my chest that I thought it might never return. By morning, my head felt strangely weightless and unbearably heavy at the same time. Clara stayed the night. She refused to leave after she watched my hands tremble so badly that I poured myself a glass of water I never managed to drink. The nanny took care of the children, answering Noah's sleepy questions, carrying Lily when she became clingy with sleep, and getting all four of them ready for school before leading them out the door with a promise to bring them home with extra hugs. When the house finally settled into sil

*Bella's POV*Evening settled softly over the house, wrapping everything in the kind of golden light that made the rooms look warmer than they felt. I sat cross-legged on the rug in the sitting room, surrounded by my children's laughter. Lily was in the middle of another dramatic story, Evie's tiny hands kept tugging at puzzle pieces, and Clara sat beside me on the floor, leaning back on her palms with an affectionate smile as Noah tried to build a tower that had already collapsed three times. The nanny moved quietly between the kitchen and the living room, humming to herself while folding tiny socks and watching the cheerful chaos with the fond expression of someone who secretly loved every second of it. It should have felt peaceful, for a while, it almost did. Yet beneath the smile I kept on my face, exhaustion settled deep inside me, reaching places no amount of sleep could touch. Ever since the boardroom incident a few days ago, it had lived quietly inside my bones, refusing to

*Alex’s POV* Clara held my gaze for so long that the silence between us seemed to gather weight. Something changed behind her eyes, but I couldn't tell whether it was doubt, anger, or pity. Maybe all three. She drew a slow breath before looking away, and I knew exactly where her thoughts had gone. "I don't know how to reach her anymore," I admitted quietly. "But you do." She took another step back, her arms tightening around herself. "Alex... I can't. It's not possible. " "I'm not asking you to convince her," I said before she could finish. "I'm not asking you to defend me or tell her she should forgive me. I just..." My voice caught, forcing me to stop for a moment before I tried again. "I just need to know how to reach her. A phone number. An address. Somewhere she feels safe enough that she'll at least hear me out." She didn't answer. The only sound between us was the distant rush of traffic beyond the parking lot. Her heartbeat wasn't the only one pounding; mine felt lik

*Clara's POV*By the time I pulled up outside Daniel's building, the city had already slipped into that quiet hour of the evening when the streetlights bathed everything in soft gold. I kept my hands wrapped around the steering wheel for a few moments, listening to the slow rhythm of my breathing as my heartbeat refused to settle.I hadn't planned to come here, at least, not tonight.Certainly not with the weight of what had happened earlier pressing so heavily against my chest that every breath seemed to scrape around it.Eventually, I climbed out of the car and made my way upstairs.Daniel's apartment looked exactly the way I remembered it. Every detail felt deliberate, from the dark wood floors to the oversized abstract painting hanging above the fireplace, its bruised shades of blue dissolving into jagged streaks of black. Beyond it, the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked the city as though the skyline belonged to him.I could see him through the glass; he was standing at the kit

*Bella's POV* The smell of fresh coffee and legal pads had become strangely comforting to me. Every morning, it greeted me before anyone else did, reminding me that I had built something of my own from the wreckage of everything I had lost. Sunlight filtered through the blinds, laying narrow bands of gold across the file spread open on my desk. I barely noticed the time passing as I read through the statements, my lips moving silently while I tested arguments in my head the way I always did before stepping into a courtroom. The frosted-glass door swung inward before anyone bothered to knock. Well... almost. "Knock, knock," Clara sang as she eased the door open with her shoulder, balancing two paper bags and her phone against her hip. I couldn't stop the smile that spread across my face. "You’re early," I said, setting my pen aside. "Please tell me that's food and not another lecture about how I need to stop working through lunch." She dropped the bags onto my desk with