All Chapters of Ex-Husband's Regret: Your Uncle Wants Me Now: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Sophie’s POVMy head was pounding again as I walked up to Derek. That same terrible throbbing behind my eyes that had been getting worse for weeks."Derek, could you please come with me to the hospital today?" My voice came out smaller than I wanted. "The migraines have been getting really bad and the doctor called. The test results are ready."He looked up from his phone. Not with worry. Just pure annoyance, like I had interrupted something important by asking him to care about me.He sighed. "I can't. Rosa's flight lands today. I have to pick her up."My stomach dropped.Rosa. She was finally coming back to New York.She had left on our wedding day. I had not forgotten that. I doubted anyone in this house had.I still remembered standing at the altar in that heavy white dress, my hands cold inside Derek's stiff grip, watching his jaw tighten when his phone buzzed in his pocket. He looked at it for just a second. But I saw his face change. Something behind his eyes went out. He fini

Sophie’s POVI stood there in the pouring rain without an umbrella, soaking wet within seconds, and I thought about everything that had happened today from the moment I woke up to this exact moment and I almost laughed. Almost. The sound that came out wasn't quite a laugh and wasn't quite a cry. It was something in between that I had no name for.I started walking. I didn't know what else to do. I was just so tired. Tired of waiting for buses and tired of cold houses and tired of being invisible and tired of being strong and quiet and useful. I was tired all the way down to my bones.The rain poured down and soaked through my coat and my shoes and my hair stuck flat against my face and I kept walking.Then the headache hit me.Not the usual throbbing I had been living with for weeks. This was different. This was a white hot spike of pain behind my eyes so sudden and so sharp that my legs buckled. I grabbed a lamppost with both hands and held on and waited for the world to stop tilting

Sophie’s POVBecause that is what I was. That is what she was saying. After two years of living in this house, cooking the meals and keeping the rooms and shrinking myself down to nothing, I was the help.I pressed my lips together very hard. I picked up my plate. I pushed my chair back carefully so it wouldn't scrape and stood up and walked toward the kitchen door."The food tastes awful by the way," Lana said behind me.More laughter.The banging on my door woke me out of a dead sleep.I sat up too fast and the headache rushed back immediately, that familiar throbbing behind my eyes that never fully went away anymore. I pressed my hand to my temple and waited for the room to stop spinning. The clock on my nightstand said seven fourteen in the morning.The banging came again. “Sophie!”"Coming," I said. My voice was rough with sleep.I opened the door. Lana was standing in the hallway in a silk robe, arms crossed, looking at me the way she always looked at me. Like I was an inconveni

Sophie’s POVDerek's expression shifted. I could see him recalibrating, adjusting to the version of me that was sitting in that chair, which was a version of me he had never seen before and clearly did not know what to do with.His eyes were sharp and waiting, like he expected the conditions to be small and manageable. Like he expected me to ask for money or a bigger room or some other thing he could dismiss easily.I looked him straight in the eyes."For the next three months, you will treat me like a real wife. Not like the maid. Not like a ghost you tolerate in your own hallways. Like your actual wife." I counted on my fingers, slowly and deliberately, so there would be no confusion later about what had been agreed."You will be kind to me. You will eat breakfast and dinner with me every day. You will speak to me with basic respect. And you will protect me from your mother and your sister. Every time. Without question."Derek's face darkened. "What the fuck?""Second condition." I

Sophie’s POVI picked up my fork and took a bite of the eggs. They tasted like nothing. But I chewed, swallowed, and stayed right where I was. I didn’t look at her.Rosa’s nostrils flared. “Excuse me.” Her voice got very quiet and very controlled. That was always more scary than when she yelled. “I said move.”I kept eating.She took one step closer. Then another. Her voice dropped to a mean whisper only I could hear. “Move, you pathetic little bitch, before I drag you out of that chair myself.”She raised her hands. I saw them coming from the side of my eye. My fingers squeezed the fork hard. Every muscle in my body went tight. I told myself I wasn’t going to flinch. I wasn’t going to get up. I wasn’t going to let her win—“That’s not necessary. I’m leaving for work.”Derek’s voice cut through everything. It was flat, cold, and final, like a judge hitting the hammer. He wasn’t loud. He wasn’t angry. He was just done. He was already standing, pushing his chair back, picking up his pho