All Chapters of TOO LATE TO WANT ME BACK : Chapter 61 - Chapter 69

69 Chapters

{ SIXTY ONE }

VAYLEN I didn't let myself think about the child. Not properly, not yet. Whatever she was to me, the answer ran through her mother first. If Alice Laurent wasn't Catherine, then a resemblance was just a resemblance, a cruel trick grief liked to play on tired eyes. And if she was, everything else would follow from that single fact on its own, without me needing to chase it. So I held the question about the girl closed, the way I'd learned to hold most things closed, and let myself focus on the one thread I could actually still pull. I wanted my head clear, so I went out to an open bar, crowded that evening. I pulled the door of the penthouse shut, walked down to the garage, and drove out into the cool night air. The city streets were bright with neon signs, the traffic moving in a slow, steady stream along the avenue. I headed toward the commercial district, parking the vehicle two blocks

{ SIXTY TWO }

ALICE Julius called me on the phone on Sunday evening, his voice carrying a caution I wasn't used to hearing from him. I sat down abruptly on the edge of the bed, my hand tightening hard on the casing of my phone as a wave of pure shock forced the breath completely from my lungs. He told me everything about the bar encounter, from the photograph Vaylen had set on the wood to the direct question about a sister named Catherine. My heart delivered a heavy thud against my ribs as I listened to Julius repeat his own flat response and Vaylen's parting words about finding his wife. Had I given him a reason to doubt me, after everything I'd done to convince him otherwise? Sooner or later, a man with his resources and his patience was going to find something I couldn't explain away with a smile. I couldn't just sit behind my gates and panic. I needed to act.&

{ SIXTY THREE }

VAYLEN I waited until the noon traffic cleared before I drove to Eagle's Bright Academy, the tires of my car humming steadily against the hot asphalt pavement. It was Monday, and the gray fog that usually hung across the avenue in the morning had vanished, leaving the white stone fronts of the commercial enclaves under a flat, bright sun. I parked along the curb, walked straight into the front administrative office, and explained my presence to the school director. He sat behind his desk, his posture rigid as he listened to me ask for the classroom details of a four-year-old minor. When I finished speaking, he shook his head with an absolute finality that left no room for error. “I am sorry, Mr. Morgan,” the director said, his voice quiet, steady, and carrying the firm discipline of a competent administrator. “You won't be able to see Diamond today. The facility has never logged your name in

{ SIXTY FOUR }

ALICE Gerald's threat had been sitting on my chest since Monday. It had followed me through board meetings, through quiet elevator rides, through the last waking minutes before sleep. I'd tell myself it was nothing, another one of his manipulations designed to keep me circling back to him. It was Saturday, so I stayed in the living room of the penthouse, reviewing project progress and sorting through reports sent by the different teams. The afternoon light cast long, gray lines across the rug, the quiet of the apartment deep and completely undisturbed. Jessica had gone out to get her hair done, leaving the entire floor to the two of us. When I finally paused and looked around, I didn't see Diamond. She had been practicing her language skills on her iPad right beside me just moments ago, but the spot was empty. I'd bought her that iPad six months ago, after one too many nights of her

{ SIXTY FIVE }

VAYLEN Since I left Eagle's Bright Academy on Monday, my mind hadn't been at rest. I endlessly reflected on everything Diamond had said to me on that playground bench, her soft voice turning the layout of my history into a complete, unresolved question. More than twice today, I had held my phone, staring at the contact number I copied from her backpack tag. Every instinct urged me to dial it, to hear her small voice, but I resisted. I didn't want to get the little girl into trouble. The last thing I wanted was for Alice to scold her daughter because of me. I spent forty-eight hours forcing my focus back to our shipping reports and port data accounts, trying to maintain a straight business composure while the weeks dropped away. My restraint had broken earlier in the week, on Wednesday. Alice had come into the temporary project office toward the evening, he

{ SIXTY SIX }

VAYLEN The boardroom thinned out in a slow stream of dark suits. Chairs scraped against the floorboards, leather folders clicked shut, and a few parting handshakes were exchanged near the exit as the partner representatives filed into the hallway. I remained seated at the middle of the long table, my hands resting against my thighs, deliberately waiting for the room to empty. I watched Alice from my seat as she collected her notes, her movements calm as she finished a conversation with the last staff director near the door. Once the director nodded and stepped into the corridor, the room dropped into an absolute quiet. Alice didn't look toward my chair. She picked up her binder, turned on her heel, and walked out of the hall. I stood up, walked down and stopped outside her door. I knocked once, waiting

{ SIXTY SEVEN }

ALICE I stood in front of the vanity mirror in the corner of my office, my fingers stopped halfway to my hair. My breath caught completely in my throat, and I stared at my own reflection like it belonged to a total stranger. I had been rushing all morning, my mind entirely consumed by the frantic pace of the day. Between getting Diamond dressed, dropping her off safely at the gates of Eagles Bright Academy, and reaching the office before the team and our new international partners arrived, I had not once paused to look in a mirror. Because of that haste, I had worn mismatched earrings through the entire two-hour morning briefing, and then straight through a live television segment that was watched by half the state. A small gold hoop hung from my left ear, while a plain pearl stud sat on the right. I stared at the ridiculous mismatch in the glass and

{ SIXTY EIGHT }

ALICE He was still kneeling on the floor, his hands open at his sides. I stood perfectly still near the window, my fingers resting motionless against the glass as a heavy silence settled over the room. I didn't say a word, and I didn't look away from his face. Looking down at him, I noticed a faint line near the corner of his left eye that hadn't been there five years ago. His frame looked smaller on the floor, stripped of the unyielding corporate armor he had worn into the boardroom that morning. Five years I had practiced this moment in my head. In every version, I stayed strong. I said it flat, like a fact, and walked away with my composure whole. Standing here with him on his knees in front of me, I understood none of that had ever been true. There was no strong version of this. There was only the truth, finally leaving me, w

{ SIXTY NINE }

VAYLEN I didn't turn the key. I just sat there in the quiet of the Laurent Group parking garage, my hands still on the wheel, my fingers clamped down on the dark leather in the exact same grip I had used weeks ago when the first doubt had cracked my composure in this same slot. The engine remained dark, the low hum of the building's ventilation system filling the enclosed bay with a steady rattle that seemed to vibrate straight through my coat. Five years I had told myself a story to survive. That I imagined her face in a crowd. That grief had rewritten a stranger into my wife because I couldn't live with the alternative, that she was real and had simply chosen to disappear from me completely. Now I knew. She was real. She had been standing across from me for months, in boardrooms and elevators and now, finally, in the one room where the truth couldn't hide behind either of our comp

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