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Lahat ng Kabanata ng TOO LATE TO WANT ME BACK : Kabanata 11 - Kabanata 20

48 Kabanata

{ ELEVEN }

ALICE “The fall caused significant bleeding.” The doctor’s voice remained calm as he lowered the file onto the desk between us.“Right now, the pregnancy is unstable.”I didn’t move. The white hospital lights reflected faintly against his glasses as he adjusted them slightly before continuing.“We’ve managed to stabilize her condition temporarily, but the next seventy-two hours are critical.”The words settled heavily into the silence around me. Critical.“She’ll need constant monitoring for the next few days,” he said. I kept staring at him without speaking. Somehow, the room suddenly felt colder than before.“Stress and exhaustion had already weakened her condition,” he continued carefully. “Tonight only made things worse.”My fingers tightened slowly against the blanket covering my lap.For the first time since all of this began, real fear started settling inside my chest.Fear of losi

{ TWELVE }

ALICE “This scandal is already affecting shareholder confidence,” the board chairman said evenly. “If we fail to respond now, the market will assume the Laurent Empire protects instability at the executive level.” His voice cut cleanly through the room.I sat motionless while file documents and tablets remained spread across the polished table before everyone. He adjusted the file in front of him before finally looking toward me.“To that effect, Alice Laurent.”I looked up.Every face at the table was already turned toward me.“You are hereby suspended from all leadership duties and executive authority within the Laurent Empire.” He paused. Heads turned to him, " Effective immediately.” he added.For a second, I just… stared at him.My fingers slowly tightened around the edge of the table until the polished wood pressed into my skin.“Please,” He continued, his voice softer now, “you may exc

{ THIRTEEN }

VAYLEN From the outside, my marriage to Melissa looked perfect.Beautiful wife. Luxury parties. Public appearances. Headlines calling us a love story that survived time.People saw the photographs and envied me.But only I knew what these past two months had really felt like.I met Melissa when I was seventeen.She was fifteen then. Loud. Reckless. Beautiful enough to make the entire world disappear whenever she smiled at me.I loved her so much that sometimes it felt embarrassing to admit even to myself.We grew up making promises that sounded immortal at that age. Marriage. A future together. A life that somehow felt guaranteed simply because we wanted it badly enough.Then two days before our wedding, she disappeared. No explanation. No goodbye. Nothing.That period nearly destroyed me.And somehow, in the middle of all that ruin, Catherine entered my life.Quiet. Patient. Kin

{ FOURTEEN }

ALICEJulius studied me quietly for a moment before finally speaking.“I saw the news.” His voice stayed calm. “I wanted to know how you were doing.”I didn’t answer immediately. My eyes stayed fixed somewhere near the floor while silence settled between us again.The room suddenly felt smaller than before.“I can see this has been hard on you,” he said softly after a while.I looked up slightly then.His gaze rested fully on me now. “You look exhausted, Alice.”Something about hearing it spoken aloud made the exhaustion inside me feel heavier instantly.For days, everyone else had only cared about the scandal. The suspension. The pregnancy. Nobody asked how I was actually surviving any of it.Julius leaned back slowly against the couch.“I know what it feels like,” he said quietly, almost more to himself than to me. “When people start looking at you like your existence alone has becom

{ FIFTEEN }

VAYLEN The iron gates of La Santé Prison opened slowly behind me with a deep metallic sound that echoed against the wet concrete.Cold Paris air hit my face immediately. For a moment, I just stood there.Two years ago, I walked through those gates wearing a tailored suit worth more than most people’s salaries.Now, I walked out carrying my entire life inside a transparent plastic bag.One of the officers handed it to me without a word before the gates closed behind me again.I lowered my eyes toward the bag in my hands. A wristwatch that no longer worked. A wallet filled with frozen cards. The same clothes I wore the day I was arrested.Two years. And somehow, everything I once owned now looked meaningless.The French judge called my sentence a compromise. A shared legal responsibility.To me, it felt like innocent people were buried together with criminals while the government called it justice.

{ SIXTEEN }

VAYLEN“Marcus.”Nobody looked up.Rain streaked quietly against the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Lysandor’s financial district while the conference room remained frozen in complete silence.Twenty-five floors below, the city moved through the storm without slowing.Inside the room, nobody touched the documents in front of them. Marcus finally cleared his throat.“Hargrove Group signed a pre-exclusivity clause with Meridian last Thursday.”No reaction crossed my face.I lowered the tablet onto the polished black table between us.“They signed without informing us,” Marcus continued carefully. “We were still conducting due diligence—”“I know where we were.”His voice stopped immediately.Silence settled again.I rose from my chair and adjusted the cuffs of my black shirt slowly as I walked toward the windows.Behind me, no single sound came.“Meridian doesn’t have our infrastructure,” I said calmly. “They don’t have our reach. And they definitely don’t have our capital.”Light

{ SEVENTEEN }

ALICE “Diamond, if you don’t stop moving, your hair is going to come out crooked.” “I want it crooked.” I laughed despite myself while trying to fix the small braid she had already half-destroyed by turning her head every three seconds. Morning sunlight spilled softly across the bedroom through the glass walls overlooking the city outside while she sat cross-legged near the edge of the couch in tiny pink pajamas, kicking her feet carelessly against the cushion. Every few seconds, she turned again before I could finish her hair properly. Managing her sometimes felt harder than running Diamond Global. “Mummy, hurry,” she complained dramatically. “Lisa said beach girls have to look pretty.” “Oh, did she now?” She nodded seriously. “Yes. It’s important.” Another laugh escaped me before I finally adjusted the braid properly. For a moment, I just looked at her. Four years ago, I truly believed my life had ended. Now my mornings looked like this. She suddenly slid off the couch

{ EIGHTEEN }

ALICEThe massive digital screen behind me was already alive.The national seal of Lysandor stretched boldly across the display above an official presidential authorization notice.Beneath it sat the words:LYSANDOR NATIONAL REINVENTION PROJECTLead Development Partner — DIAMOND GLOBALThe conference hall erupted again instantly.Applause crashed across the room.Voices overlapped. Everyone had already risen to their feet.But all of it sounded distant. Because I could only stare at the screen.Fifty-five billion dollar national project. Handed to Diamond Global. One of the largest redevelopment projects currently approved in the country.For a moment, none of it felt real.Emotion tightened so suddenly inside my chest that I had to steady my hand lightly against the conference table.Around me, the celebration continued.Wilson was speaking again. But my eyes never left the screen.DIAMOND GLOBAL.The name glowed beneath the presidential seal like something unreal.The conference hal

{ NINETEEN }

VAYLEN The drive to West Laurentis took about forty-five minutes.I had expected something within the city.Jenny had called it—just a simple dinner. So I didn’t think too much about it when I asked her to pick a place.But the road kept stretching longer than I remembered it should. I finally leaned slightly forward.“How far are we going?” I asked.Jenny didn’t look up from her phone.“Almost there.”The tires rolled onto a private driveway moments later, gravel crunching sharply beneath us.My eyes caught the sign ahead.WELCOME TO GREEN PALACE HOTELMy brows tightened. That wasn’t what she said.The car slowed to a stop. Before I could say anything else, a valet in a tailored uniform was already moving toward my door.“Good evening, sir.”He held the door open as I stepped out slowly.And then I saw it.A red carpet stretched from the driveway all the way into the entrance of the hotel.I paused.“This place is a bit much for dinner,” I said under my breath.Jenny came around th

{ TWENTY }

ALICE The sound of *Happy Birthday* drifted through the restaurant, blending with the low hum of conversations and clinking glasses.At first, I didn't pay much attention to it.I was sitting across from Teenah, half-listening to whatever story she was telling while absentmindedly pushing food around my plate. The evening had been pleasant enough. Good food. Good company. The kind of night that required very little effort.Then something shifted.The feeling was so subtle that I almost missed it.A burst of laughter rose from somewhere across the hall, louder than the rest, and my attention snagged on it before I understood why. It wasn't the laughter itself that caught me. It was the strange feeling that followed.A faint sense of familiarity. A pull I couldn't explain. Without thinking, I looked up.A birthday celebration was unfolding a few tables away. A cake glowed beneath a circle of candles while people applauded around it. Smiles flashed. Glasses lifted. The cheerful energy s

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