Lahat ng Kabanata ng My Brother's Best Friend's Secret Baby: Kabanata 71 - Kabanata 80

She had painted it alone in her apartment, on the very first night her daughter slept somewhere else. She had pulled it out of everything surrounding her in the middle of the night. The silence she feared so much. The absence with its unmistakable shape. That was what had come out of her. I set my phone facedown on the nightstand. Lying there in the dark, I found myself imagining things I wasn't ready to act on. The next morning, after Lucy devoured the pancakes I'd made under her meticulous supervision, Rosie came to pick her up at ten. She looked rested. Lighter. Once they were gone, I sat down at the kitchen table with my coffee and called my assistant. Her name was Priya, and she'd worked with me for three years. She possessed the rare ability to get things done with ruthless efficiency while never demanding unnecessary explanations. It was one of the things I valued most because I hated having to justify myself. "I need you to look into something," I said. "It's

"That's significant," she said. "Why do you think it's possible now when it wasn't before?"I looked toward the window."The evenings," I said. "The nights Lucy's with Aiden. I suddenly have free time with no responsibilities. I don't have to figure out how to fill those hours anymore. So I paint.""So this arrangement is giving something back to you as well.""Yes," I admitted.Saying it out loud wasn't easy."I never expected that."Dr. Harper studied me for a long moment."Is that the only thing that's changed?"My gaze drifted to the wall.More specifically, to the space between the bookshelf and the window, the spot I'd found myself staring at throughout these sessions."Maybe..." I began slowly. "Maybe I've stopped waiting for everything to fall apart."She remained silent, inviting me to continue."Ever since Aiden walked into that conference room, I've been waiting for the worst," I said. "I've been waiting for the mistake that would prove I'd been right to protect Lucy so fier

A report for child neglect had just been filed with the school where I taught. If the administrative investigation went badly, I could lose my job. My reputation with parents and within the local community was the foundation of my livelihood. This wasn't an accident. It was a deliberate act of malice. I grabbed my phone and called Aiden. He answered on the first ring. I told him everything. The call from the principal. The allegations in the report. The impending visit from Child Protective Services. I kept my voice perfectly neutral. He needed the facts, not my panic. When I finished, silence filled the line. Then came a coldness I'd never heard from him before. It wasn't directed at me. It was the icy anger of a man with absolute self-control who had finally reached his limit. Over the past few months, I'd heard every shade of his voice. Guilty. Defensive. Gentle. Occasionally strained. Never this. "Let me handle it," he said. "No." "Rosalie." His voice

"Thanks for calling." "You were waiting for my call," she replied. It wasn't an accusation. Just a fact. "I was," I admitted. A brief silence followed. The kind that had become familiar between us. A quiet space that no longer needed to be filled with words. "Call me later if you need to talk," I said. "Maybe," she murmured before hanging up. I remained seated at the table, the silent phone still pressed to my ear. Eventually, I ended the call, my eyes settling on The Return. I mentally ran through everything I still had to do. Rosie's battle had been won. Mine could finally begin. The first person I called was my private investigator. The moment he answered, I laid out exactly what I wanted. I needed an airtight investigative file on Elena. Everything from the past two months. Location data alone wasn't enough anymore. I wanted her complete communication history, who she'd been in contact with, how often they'd spoken, every official complaint or administrative fil

I stared down at the table. "It's hard to hear," I admitted. "I figured." "It doesn't erase what he did." "I never said it did." His voice grew more cautious. He weighed every word, the way he always did when he was trying to be both honest and fair.It was something that had always cost him more than he ever let on. "I'm not asking you to change your opinion of him. I'm not telling you to forgive him. I'm just telling you what I saw." I picked up my tea again. "I don't know how to forgive him," I said. The words came out with a clarity that surprised me. Somehow, it had finally become easier to say them out loud. "I don't know what forgiveness is supposed to look like. I don't know what it asks of you or how you get there. There isn't a manual for something like this." "Neither do I," Jeffery said. "He hurt me enough to turn my entire life upside down. I spent seven years running because of what he told me. Seven years where Lucy grew up without her father, and I li