All Chapters of Divorce Suits Me Better: Chapter 41 - Chapter 49

(Nate’s POV)Alexis was at the hallway mirror doing her makeup.She was wearing a cream blouse tucked into wide-leg trousers, her dark hair blown out and shining, gold earrings I didn’t recognize.She looked healthy. She looked like a woman going to brunch, with her glowing skin, full cheeks, and not a trace of anything wrong with her.“Hospital appointment,” she said brightly, drawing on her lipstick without turning. “I’ll be back by lunch. Mara’s driving.”“I’ll come with you,” I said.Her hand stopped.“Baby.” She laughed lightly. “You don’t have to do that. It’s just a check-in. Totally boring. You’d be sitting in a waiting room for an hour reading magazines from March.”“I don’t mind,” I said again.“Nate, seriously.” She capped the lipstick and turned to face me, smiling, one hand on her hip. “It will be thirty minutes, tops. I’ll text you the second I’m done.”“You’re going through cancer treatment. I want to be in the room.”The smile stayed but something behind it shifted—a t

(Nate’s POV)She won.I sat on the edge of the bed for a long time after she left the room. Her perfume was still in the air, and her words were still ringing in my ears.Are you really going to punish an innocent baby because its mother loved you too much?I didn’t explode. I didn’t throw anything.I sat there with my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands, and I let her walk out, because that’s what I do. That’s all I’ve ever done. Someone puts a pen in my hand, I sign. Someone puts a lie in front of me, I swallow it.Sabrina knew that about me before I did.When I finally came out, Alexis was in the kitchen. She’d changed into silk pajama shorts and a cream camisole that stretched over her belly, her blonde hair twisted up in a claw clip, her legs crossed on my barstool.She had a glass of red wine in her hand. Red wine.I stared at the glass.“One glass, Nate, don’t start,” she said lazily, not even looking up from her phone.“You’re pregnant, Alexis.”She just smiled at me. T

(Sabrina’s POV)The castle was absurd. It rose into the blue sky like something from a picture book a child would refuse to put down.Felix had his window down in the car ahead and was narrating the approach like a nature documentary.“And here we observe the Atwood family entering their natural habitat,” his voice drifted back to us.“He’s been doing this since Lyon,” Luca said beside me, amused.I leaned forward between the seats. “He’ll do it until someone stops him.”Luca laughed. He was in a linen shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, his forearms tan from outdoor site visits, his dark hair pushed back from his forehead.My hand was on my belly. I could feel my bump now under the loose pale blue dress Adrian had picked out. The baby shifted, a tiny push, and my breath caught.The cars stopped. Felix was out first.The event coordinator, a small woman in a black apron, met us at the door, and Felix had already launched into a negotiation about the pet policy before the rest

(Sabrina’s POV)The south terrace took my breath away and then Nate Cooper sat down six chairs from me and took whatever was left.The valley fell away below us into vineyards that went purple at the edges where the sun was setting, and the whole thing looked like something out of a film.I should have been enjoying the view.I was counting chairs instead.Luca pulled mine out for me, his blazer sleeve brushing my bare shoulder as he leaned past.“You look beautiful tonight,” he murmured as he sat down beside me.“You’ve said that three times,” I told him.“I’ll say it a fourth.” His knee pressed against mine under the tablecloth and he left it there. “You look beautiful tonight.”“You’re ridiculous,” I said, but I leaned into the warm pressure of his thumb when it found my shoulder blade through the silk of my dress.Felix dropped into the seat beside Nate with so much enthusiasm he knocked a bread roll onto the floor. He scooped it up, dusted it off, and extended his hand across the

(Nate’s POV)I didn’t have brothers. I didn’t have a Luca. I didn’t have five men who’d cross oceans and crash parties and loom by swimming pools to make sure nobody touched me wrong.I had Alexis. So I used her.Evening cocktails on the castle lawn, the sky going pink over the valley, fairy lights strung through the plane trees overhead. I put my arm around Alexis and I performed.She was in a red dress that clung to her belly and fell to her ankles, her blonde hair blown out in soft waves, gold earrings catching every eye.She looked incredible. She always looked incredible. That was never the problem.I whispered in her ear—nothing, small nothings, you look good tonight—but from across the lawn it would look intimate.When the waiter came around with rosé I waved him off.“She’s pregnant,” I said. “Just water.”Alexis’s lips parted. She looked up at me and her whole face softened, and she pressed closer against my side and kissed the underside of my jaw.“You’re being so sweet toni