Accueil / Romance / My Ruthless Billionaire Ex Wants Me Back / Chapitre 21 - Chapitre 30

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Chapter 21

Scarlett Hospitals had a smell that never really left you. The sterile air mixed with exhaustion, fear, and sleepless nights. No matter how many years passed, that smell always made panic feel heavier. I sat beside Liam’s hospital bed with my fingers wrapped tightly around his small hand while the steady sound of machines filled the room around us. The monitor beside him beeped softly every few seconds, a constant reminder that he was here, breathing, safe. The doctors had assured me over and over again that he was going to be fine. A severe viral infection. A dangerously high fever. Dehydration. But they had caught it early enough. He would recover. I understood every word logically, but my body still refused to calm down. For one horrifying moment tonight, I thought I was going to lose my son, and I didn’t think any explanation in the world could erase the terror that kind of fear leaves behind. "Mama..." My head snapped up immediately at the weak sound of Liam’s

Chapter 22

Adrian The second Avery walked into the hospital room, the atmosphere changed so completely it felt like all the oxygen had been sucked out at once. One moment the room had been quiet, tense but manageable, filled only with the soft hum of machines and Liam’s uneven breathing. The next, everything sharpened. Every emotion. Every glance. Every unresolved feeling hanging between Scarlett and me. Avery noticed it immediately. She had always been observant, especially when it came to me. That was part of the problem. Avery noticed too much, understood too much, and tonight there was nowhere left for either of us to hide from the truth. Her heels clicked softly against the hospital floor as she stepped further inside, elegant and perfectly composed despite the storm sitting behind her eyes. Then her gaze moved slowly across the room. First Scarlett sitting beside Liam’s hospital bed, her hand wrapped tightly around our son’s smaller one like she was terrified to let go. The

Chapter 23

Scarlett Morning arrived slowly, soft sunlight filtered through the hospital, stretching across the floor and climbing the walls inch by inch until the cold room no longer looked quite so harsh. The steady sound of machines filled the silence, low and rhythmic, blending with Liam’s calmer breathing. He was better, but he was still pale, tired, but he was better. The fever had finally broken sometime around dawn, and the doctor assured me several times that he was going to be okay. I should have felt relieved enough to finally breathe normally again. Instead, my chest still felt tight. Adrian had stayed, not for an hour. Not until things settled down. He had been here all night. Even after Avery walked out of the hospital room with heartbreak written all over her face. Even after the arguments, the tension, the emotional exhaustion pressing down on all of us. He stayed anyway. It affected me far more than I wanted it to. I sat beside Liam’s bed carefully adjusting the edge of h

Chapter 24

Adrian The word stayed with me long after she said it. She called me Daddy. Not Adrian. Not "that man." Not some distant title spoken out of politeness or obligation. Daddy. It was such a small word but it was simple and ordinary. Something millions of men heard every single day without their entire world shifting beneath them. But when Lily said it, it felt like something cracked open inside my chest. I had closed billion-dollar deals without my pulse changing once. I had stood in rooms full of ruthless men and never flinched under pressure. I had spent years building a reputation around composure, logic, control. And yet one sleepy word from my daughter nearly brought me to my knees emotionally. My daughter. Even now, the thought still felt unreal. Not because I doubted it. Because I didn’t. I saw myself in both of them every time they smiled, every time they frowned, every time Liam challenged something stubbornly or Lily watched the room too carefully before spea

Chapter 25

Scarlett I should have felt safe inside my own house again. Liam was finally home from the hospital. Lily was curled up on the living room rug surrounded by crayons and cartoon stickers while soft music played quietly through the speakers. The late evening rain tapped gently against the windows, wrapping the house in a calmness I had desperately needed after the emotional disaster of the past two days. Everything should have felt normal again. Instead, anxiety sat heavily in my chest like something waiting to happen. I stood in the kitchen stirring Liam’s soup slowly while my mind replayed every moment from the hospital over and over again. Adrian holding Lily while she slept, the look on his face when Liam called him Daddy, the quiet promise in his eyes when he said he wasn’t leaving again. God. That promise scared me more than it should have, because part of me believed him and that was dangerous. A soft knock sounded at the front door. I froze briefly before setti

Chapter 26

Avery I wasn't stupid. I knew Adrian still loved Scarlett the moment I saw the way he looked at her inside that hospital room. I knew men didn’t stare at women like that unless emotions were involved. Real emotions especially dangerous ones. Adrian was worse because he didn’t love easily. He was controlled in everything, even cold when he wanted to be. I had spent years learning him piece by piece, and one thing became painfully clear over time Adrian Mattson never gave people all of himself. Not fully. Not completely. Not even to me. But the way he looked at Scarlett? God. That man looked at her like she still lived somewhere beneath his skin. Like losing her once had carved something out of him that never properly healed, and suddenly I understood something humiliating. I had spent years loving a man who emotionally belonged to someone else. The realization sat inside my chest like poison. I stood alone in my penthouse living room while replaying every moment

Chapter 27

Scarlett I almost ignored the email. It came in while I was sitting cross-legged on the living room floor helping Liam build some ridiculous dinosaur puzzle he had become emotionally attached to over the last two hours while Lily sat behind me braiding my hair with the confidence of someone who genuinely believed she was a professional stylist. The television played softly in the background. Liam kept insisting dinosaurs would absolutely destroy superheroes in a real fight because "superheroes always talk too much before punching people." Lily disagreed passionately. I was halfway through pretending to referee the argument when my phone buzzed quietly against the couch cushion beside me. Unknown sender. For some reason, the second I saw it, my stomach tightened. A strange feeling settled heavily in my chest. The kind that warned you something bad was coming before your mind fully understood why. "Mama," Lily complained dramatically from behind me, "you moved again.

Chapter 28

Adrian Lily’s question hit me harder than any business collapse, hostile takeover, or public scandal ever had. "Are you fighting because of us?" Her tiny voice trembled so softly it almost broke apart at the end, and somehow that made it worse. Fear looked wrong on my daughter’s face. Children were supposed to cry over scraped knees and broken toys, not stand frozen in hallways worrying that they were the reason adults were falling apart. Scarlett dropped to her knees in front of her immediately, pulling Lily closer with both hands like she needed to physically shield her from the tension filling the house. "No, sweetheart," she whispered quickly, brushing trembling fingers through Lily’s hair. "Never because of you. None of this is your fault." But Lily still looked uncertain. Because children always knew when adults were lying. Maybe not the details. Maybe not the history. But they felt emotions instinctively. They noticed shaking voices, swollen eyes, heavy silenc

Chapter 29

Scarlett Everything happened too fast. One second the house was quiet, warm, almost peaceful in that fragile way our home had started feeling lately. Liam was still sitting on the carpet beside the half-finished dinosaur puzzle while Lily argued passionately that pink braids made me look "younger and cooler." Chaos exploded outside my front door. Camera flashes burst violently through the windows like lightning strikes. Loud voices overlapped each other outside the gate. Reporters shouted questions over one another so aggressively that the noise became almost unbearable. Everything shifted in seconds. The calm disappeared instantly. Lily’s terrified scream shattered through the house so sharply that my entire body reacted before my brain even could. "Close the door!" I shouted, my voice shaking uncontrollably. Adrian moved immediately. The door slammed shut hard enough to rattle the walls, but it barely helped because the reporters outside only became louder. Que

Chapter 30

Scarlett "No." the word left my mouth instantly, because moving into Adrian’s estate sounded like the worst possible idea imaginable. It would be too easy to fall back into feelings I had spent five years trying to bury alive. Living under the same roof as Adrian again would destroy every emotional wall I fought desperately to rebuild after the divorce. The terrifying part is that I am not sure I was strong enough to survive that destruction a second time. I looked at Lily and Liam again. Lily was still curled tightly into the corner of the couch clutching her teddy bear against her chest like it was protecting her from the world while Liam kept glancing nervously toward the windows every few seconds as though reporters might suddenly burst through the glass again. Fear sat all over their tiny faces. Not confusion anymore. My resistance weakened painfully. Adrian noticed immediately. Of course he did. Nothing escaped him when it came to me. "Scarlett." His voice softened

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