Semua Bab The Chubby Wife's Revenge.: Bab 131 - Bab 140

Nathaniel Mercer’s house had gone quiet a long time ago, but I remained awake in the living room with the lights turned low, my phone resting on the table in front of me. Every few minutes I found myself looking at it, even though I already knew there would be nothing new there.I had been tempted to call Amelia more times than I cared to admit. I wanted to hear her voice, even if she was angry with me. I wanted to know whether she had eaten, whether she had gone to bed, whether she was crying the way I suspected she might be. I wanted to hear her tell me that she was all right, because the knowledge that she was hurting while I sat here doing nothing felt unbearable.But every time I reached for my phone, I remembered the way she had looked at me before I left. Not angry. Not even accusing. Just hurt. And beneath all of it there had been something that frightened me more than her anger ever could.Fear.She had told me I was supposed to be her safe place, and somehow I had become th

AmeliaBy the time I arrived at the hospital, I had managed to convince myself that going through the appointment alone was exactly what I needed. I had spent the entire drive reminding myself that I was perfectly capable of handling a routine checkup without Nathaniel beside me, even if some quiet part of me knew that I had never actually wanted to do it alone.I stepped into the waiting area and immediately saw him.Nathaniel was sitting near the windows, his phone resting loosely in one hand as he watched the entrance. The moment our eyes met, he stood.He looked tired, and something about the way he rose so quickly made it obvious that he had been waiting for me."I remembered today was your appointment," he said quietly.I said nothing.His eyes searched my face, but I couldn't bring myself to give him the reassurance he was looking for. Instead, I adjusted the strap of my handbag and walked toward the reception desk.He followed without saying anything.The receptionist confirmed

BlakeBy the time I returned home, the confidence I had carried when I approached Amelia's house had completely disappeared.I closed the front door behind me and stood there for several seconds, staring at nothing while the conversation replayed in my mind. I could still hear Amelia's calm voice telling me she would not be leaving her home, and the certainty in those words bothered me far more than anger would have.I had expected jealousy, anger, perhaps even an argument.What I hadn't expected was a woman who looked me in the eye and refused to be intimidated.I dropped my handbag onto the console and walked into the living room, but I couldn't settle. I paced for several minutes before finally sitting down, my fingers twisting together as one thought returned again and again.The DNA test.For weeks, I had managed to avoid thinking about it seriously. Whenever Nathaniel mentioned Ethan, I had spoken with enough certainty to make him believe there had never been any question. I ha

AmeliaBy late evening, I had managed to keep myself occupied with work, although I couldn't honestly say I had accomplished much. My laptop was open in front of me, and I had been going through emails that required my attention, but I kept finding myself reading the same paragraphs twice because my thoughts would drift back to everything that had happened since the previous night.The twins were fine. I had heard their heartbeats that morning, and the memory still brought a strange mixture of happiness and sadness whenever I thought about it. Nathaniel had been there too, standing beside me as we listened to those tiny, rapid beats filling the examination room, and for those few minutes, everything else had seemed unimportant.Then Blake's face would come back to me, followed by the things she had said outside the house, and the warmth of that memory would disappear almost as quickly as it had come.I was still trying to decide what I wanted to do about Nathaniel when my phone rang.

AmeliaI woke before my alarm and lay there a while, staring at the ceiling as the quiet of the bedroom settled around me. My hand drifted across the mattress without thought, stopping at the space beside me, and the familiar ache returned before I'd even opened my eyes fully.Nathaniel still wasn't home.I had asked him to leave, asked for space, and he'd done exactly that. Still, something was unsettling about waking up without him that I hadn't been prepared for. Years of his presence had worked their way into the ordinary corners of my life: the way he claimed half the bathroom counter, the way he reached for me in his sleep. None of those habits disappeared just because I was angry with him.I pushed the thought aside, dressed, and went downstairs.Martha was already in the kitchen, arranging a tray of fresh fruit while the smell of breakfast filled the room."Good morning, Mrs. Vaughn.""Good morning, Martha."She looked at me a moment. She didn't ask how I was feeling, but some