บททั้งหมดของ TOO LATE TO WANT ME BACK : บทที่ 51 - บทที่ 60

ALICE The private elevator panel clicked as the lift reached the basement level of the Laurent security wing, the heavy steel doors sliding open with a quiet hiss. The air inside the subterranean holding facility was cold, smelling of fresh paint and damp stone, a sterile layout completely isolated from the main administrative floors above. I walked down the narrow corridor, my boots striking the concrete floorboards in fast, hard strides. Julius Roland walked half a step behind my shoulder, his coat left unbuttoned, his face a calm, disciplined mask as he listened to me trace the events of the last seventy-two hours. I had spent three days keeping the details of the investigation locked behind my teeth, but the moment the security head confirmed the extradition from Val Ostreya, I had dialed Julius’s private line. With a real, physical suspect sitting in our custody cell, I couldn't afford to manage the threat on my own. &ld

VAYLEN  My phone buzzed against the glass desk at exactly nine o'clock, the vibration a dull rattle in the quiet office. I picked it up, my thumb sliding over the screen to take the line.  “Mr. Morgan,” my secretary said, her voice coming through quick and clear. “The selection committee from the Prime Minister’s office just confirmed our application.  CARINE Limited has been officially selected as one of the secondary partners for the Smart City infrastructure project. I have forwarded the confirmation email to your email, Sir.” I didn't answer right away. I set my pen down on the blotter, letting my fingers release the plastic casing as I leaned back against my chair. A quiet wave of satisfaction moved through my chest, loosening the tightness behind my jaw for the first time in months.  This was it. This was the kind of opportu

VAYLEN  I don't remember walking to the car. I only remember sitting in it, my hand on the wheel, the engine still off, replaying the last thing she'd said to me.  The concrete walls of the Laurent Group’s parking garage were bright, but all I could see were long, flat shadows across the front fender of my vehicle. The hum of the building's ventilation system was the only sound in the enclosed bay, a steady, low rattle that seemed to vibrate straight through the leather of my seat.  I didn't turn the key, and I didn't reach for my bag on the passenger side. I just sat there in the quiet, my fingers clamping down on the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white.  “Besides, I've never known you.” Her words looped in my ears with a terrifying clarity. I turned the sentence over from every angle, dissecting the tone she had used, the curve of

ALICE  Four days had passed since the elevator ride, and I hadn't seen him since.  I had succeeded. His apology had reassured me that I had made him believe I wasn't the woman he was looking for. But beneath that small, cold satisfaction, a different feeling landed harder than I expected, the realization that Vaylen Morgan had never known my face well enough, even as his own wife, to recognize it with any real certainty now.  He was searching for a stranger because he had never fully seen me to begin with. I wasn't going back to that. I owed it to myself, and to her, to protect the woman I'd become since. I'd been splitting my time between the Laurent headquarters, the Prime Minister's office, and the project site, deliberately avoiding the temporary project floor except when it was completely unavoidable.  I hadn't been spending enough time with Diamond, and

ALICE  The air at the airport terminal had been cold, but the heat inside my own chest didn't cool down until we were miles above the clouds.  The second we'd cleared the boarding line, I caught Diamond's shoulder and turned her to face me, crouching so we were eye to eye. "You do not run off like that. Not ever again." My voice came out sharper than I meant it to, rising fast in a hurried, clipped cadence. "You don't know who's standing in a place like this. You don't run toward strangers, Diamond. Do you understand me?" Her small face dropped instantly, her lower lip trembling as she stared up at me, too stunned to answer right away. "Do you understand me?" I asked again, harder. "Yes, Mummy," she whispered. She cried quietly the rest of the way to the gate, her tiny fingers digging into the wool of her blanket until Julius st