All Chapters of The Accident Was No Mistake: My CEO Husband Wants Me Back : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

VALERIEAshford Industries looked exactly the same.The lobby was all glass and pale stone, quiet in the way expensive buildings always were. I stood near the reception desk with the folder clutched against my side, watching people move through the space like they belonged there. I used to walk these floors without thinking twice. Now every step felt like it belonged to someone else.Something about being in this building made my heart pang really hard in ways I do not understand.“Ms. Laurent?” the receptionist said. “They’re ready for you. Thirty-second floor.”I nodded and followed the security guard toward the elevators.I had spent the entire morning telling myself this was just business. A meeting about lease terms. Nothing more. I wasn’t here for Roman. I wasn’t even sure he knew my name was on the petition. For all I knew, some property manager would sit across from me, recite the company’s position, and send me on my way.The elevator doors closed.I stared at my reflection i

VALERIEPASTI was sitting alone near the back of the library, the way I always did.The table I’d claimed was half-hidden by a tall shelf of economics texts no one ever seemed to touch. My textbooks were spread out in front of me, a highlighter drying in my hand because I’d stopped using it ten minutes ago and forgotten it was there. Outside the tall windows the afternoon light was thinning, turning the whole room a softer gold. I liked this hour. Fewer people. Less noise. Less chance of anyone looking too long at the girl with the secondhand coat and the mismatched eyes.I didn’t have friends. Not really. There were people I exchanged notes with, people who nodded at me in lecture halls, but no one who saved me a seat or texted me after class. I had learned early that it was easier not to expect it. My father was gone. My mother was in a care home I could barely afford to visit every weekend. I worked two part-time jobs and still counted every dollar before I spent it. The other stu

VALERIEI pulled Miles through the door before he could say anything else, and the little bell above us rang again as it swung shut.“You know you could have told me you were coming,” I said, still smiling, unable to fully wipe it off my face even as I pretended to scold him.He laughed under his breath, dropping his bag onto one of the stools like he’d done it a hundred times before, even though this was the first time he’d ever actually seen the place in person. “And ruin the surprise? Where’s the fun in that.”“The fun is I would have actually cleaned up before you got here.”“Val, I watched you live out of a single duffel bag in Boston for four months. I think we’re past the point of you needing to impress me.”I swatted his arm, though the truth was my chest had gone warm and a little unsteady the second I’d heard the bell and looked up to see him standing there, unannounced, grinning like showing up in New York without warning was the most natural thing in the world. It had been

VALERIEI sat back down across from Miles with a fresh napkin pressed against the front of my blouse. The wine stain had already started to settle into a dark, uneven patch, and no amount of blotting was going to make it look intentional.“Hey.” Miles looked up, concern flickering across his face the second he actually got a look at me. “Are you okay? The wine thing… it’s really nothing, I promise, they’re already bringing you a new glass.”“I’m fine.” The words came out a beat too fast and I hated how obviously rehearsed they sounded even to my own ears. “Really. I’m fine.”“Did I freak you out?” he asked, quieter now, some of his earlier confidence visibly deflating. “With the…what I was saying, before. I know I kind of dropped it out of nowhere, and if it’s too much, or too soon, or—”“No. No, you didn’t.” I reached for my water instead of the wine, needing something to do with my hands that wasn’t twisting my napkin into a ruined little knot. “I promise.”That was, technically, a

VALERIEThree weeks had never felt so short.Every morning I opened the café, served the same regulars, wiped the same counters, and pretended the calendar wasn’t moving toward a night I had already agreed to and already hated. I hadn’t really touched my apartment since the day I moved in. Boxes still sat stacked against the living room wall, half-labeled in my own rushed handwriting, and the only furniture I actually owned was a mattress, a folding table, and one chair I’d bought. Between the café and my mother and everything with Roman, I hadn’t had a single free evening to turn the place into somewhere that actually looked lived in.So when Zoey showed up at my door two afternoons before the dinner, arms full of paper bags from a home goods store and a bottle of wine tucked under one elbow, I didn’t have it in me to pretend I wasn’t relieved.“You said you needed help,” she announced, brushing past me into the apartment before I’d even fully opened the door. “I’m helping. Don’t ar