Todos os capítulos de Too Late To Say Sorry, Mr. Hartwell: Capítulo 1 - Capítulo 8

“When do you plan to divorce her?”Today is my sister’s cradle ceremony, but here I am, arriving so late. I spent all night in surgery, and I thought I would make it in time, but the surgery was so critical that it dragged into this morning.To say I’m exhausted is an understatement, but I have to do this. When I arrive at my family’s mansion, I head straight to my sister’s room to surprise her with the gift I have for her, since I was told she is in her room. But as I approach her door, I hear faint voices coming from inside.It sounds like she’s having a serious conversation with a man, but nothing is clear until I hear her talking about divorce.I don’t know why, but it stirs a little curiosity in me.“You know I can’t just divorce her without a good reason, babe. I’m still trying to come up with a plan…”I nearly trip and almost let go of the box under my arm. Is it just me? Or does that baritone voice sound all too familiar? Like Damien’s?Nah… My ears must be hearing things, bec

My eyes snap open and I feel a dull ache in my head. I scan around and see cannulas connected to my wrist, but I’m a thousand percent sure the bed I’m lying on isn’t as rocky as a hospital bed, and neither is the room.The room looks and smells kind of familiar, but I can’t figure out whose room I’m in or how I got here in the first place. Thankfully, the door swings open and Elias trudges in, dressed in his medical coat.“You’re awake!” He drops the pile of files he’s holding on the cabinet and rushes toward me on the bed.“How are you feeling now?” he asks as I pull myself up to sit, and he quickly guides me up.“I have a slight headache. What happened to me?” I mutter, my memory in jumbles.Last I remember, we were all in court and I had divorced Damien. What happened after that?“You passed out yesterday at the court, so I brought you here.”I passed out? “What happened? I mean, what’s wrong with me?” I rasp, getting worried.Elias smiles and gently rests his hand on my thigh. “Sh

Three knocks.Slow. Careful. The kind a man gives when he already knows he isn’t welcome.I freeze in the middle of the kitchen with the bowl still in my hands. Water runs over my fingers and I forget to turn off the tap.“Serena.”His voice comes through the wood, low and rough, like he has been shouting for hours and lost it halfway.I set the bowl in the sink without a sound. Then I do something I’m not proud of. I tiptoe to the door like a child hiding from a monster and press my back against the wall beside the frame, where the peephole can’t see me.Elias told me not to open it for anyone.I wasn’t planning to.“I know you’re in there,” Damien says. “The light is on under the door. And Elias’s car isn’t downstairs.”Of course he checked. Of course he did.“I got the address from someone at the hospital. I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry for that too.” A pause. “I’m not going to force my way in. I wouldn’t. I just need you to know that.”I say nothing. My hand slides to my stomach on i

I don’t sleep.I lie on Elias’s bed with my eyes open, one hand on my stomach, listening to the city breathe outside the window. Every time I close my eyes I see the amber bottle. Every time I drift, I hear my mother’s voice, thin and pleading. Please, darling. I’m asking you.At six, I give up and get dressed.At nine, Elias drives me across town to a tea house with a sagging green awning, tucked behind the courthouse where I signed my marriage away. Naomi Park chose it herself. “Nobody who matters to your father would ever walk in here,” she told me on the phone.She is waiting in the back room, at a small table with a pot of tea she hasn’t touched. She is about forty, in a dark suit, her hair pinned back so severely it looks painful. Her eyes go to Elias first, sharp and measuring.“I asked you to come alone, Dr. Vance.”“He stays,” I say.A pause. Then she nods once. “Then he stays.”We sit. She slides a thick cream envelope across the table, sealed with brittle red wax. My grandm