Home / Romance / Too Late, Mr. Hale / Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

All Chapters of Too Late, Mr. Hale : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

27 Chapters

Sunday Lunch

Mason's POVFor five years, Sunday lunch at my mother's house had been the easiest part of my week.I never had to think about it. I would arrive at one o'clock, and the table would already be set. There would be roast chicken with lemon and thyme, my mother's favorite, and the little potato pie that Callie only made on Sundays. Callie would kiss my cheek at the door and take my coat. My mother would be laughing with her in the kitchen. I would sit down, eat, check my phone, and leave by three.I never once asked who cooked it.This Sunday, Kendra and I arrived at a quarter past one because she changed her outfit three times. She came up the path in white heels and a short cream dress, holding a paper bag from a deli downtown."Your mother will love this," she said. "It's the most expensive salad they have."My mother opened the door before we rang. She smiled at Kendra, but her eyes went past us, down the path, to the street."Where's Callie?" she asked.I had my answer ready. "She's

Last Updated : 2026-11-05

Declined

Callie's POVThe video went up at nine in the morning. By ten, two million people had watched it.Kendra sat on a white couch in soft light, with no makeup on and her hair pulled back like a tired young mother. One hand rested on her stomach. Her eyes were wet."I didn't want to say anything," she said to the camera, and her voice shook. "But I can't stay quiet anymore. Someone made a fake recording of my voice. They used a computer to make it sound like I paid a poor woman to lie in court. I would never do that. I'm just a girl who fell in love, and now I'm being attacked every single day while I'm carrying a baby." She wiped her eyes. "Please, just leave us alone."Under the video, there was a short statement from Hale Ventures.Mr. Hale believes the recording is fake and stands fully behind Ms. Lowe.I read the comments until my hands went cold. They called me a witch. They called me sick. They said I paid Paula myself and that I used my rich boyfriend's money to do it.Margaret ca

Last Updated : 2026-11-05

His Table

Callie's POVI called Mason that night. It was the first time I had called him since the hospital.He answered on the fourth ring. I could hear a TV in the background and Kendra laughing at something."What?" he said."Did you tell her the name?" I asked. "Noah. Did you tell Kendra the name I picked on our honeymoon?"There was a long silence. Then the TV went quiet, like he had walked into another room."Yes," he said. "I told her. It's a good name."I held the phone so tight that my fingers hurt. "That was my father's name, Mason. That was supposed to be our son.""We never had a son," he said. His voice was flat and cold. "Five years, Callie, and you never gave me a child. Kendra did it in five months. So I don't think you get to keep the name."I couldn't speak. I just sat there on the edge of the bed in the dark."And stop going around town selling things," he went on. "People are talking. It makes me look bad."Then he hung up.I didn't sleep. I lay awake and stared at the ceili

Last Updated : 2026-11-06

The Answer Is No

Callie's POVFor a moment, nobody moved.Mason looked at me. Then he looked at the drawing on the table, and at the gold pen, and at Jules holding my hand. I watched his face go through three different feelings in two seconds. Surprise. Anger. And then the cold, polite smile he always used when someone important was watching."Callie," he said. "What a surprise."Mrs. Whitmore looked from him to me with sharp little eyes. "You two know each other?""She's my wife," Mason said. He laughed softly, like it was a funny little story. "For now. I'm sorry if she's wasted your time, Mrs. Whitmore. Callie hasn't worked a day in five years. She likes to draw sometimes, as a hobby. I hope nobody promised you anything serious."Jules went red from her neck to her hairline. I squeezed her hand to keep her in her chair.Mrs. Whitmore didn't even blink. She picked up my drawing and held it up so Mason could see it."Your wife just won the contract to redesign this restaurant," she said. "Every big f

Last Updated : 2026-11-06

When You Were Small

Callie's POVI must have made a sound, because Theo turned around.He saw me standing at the back door on my crutches, and for one second his face looked like a boy who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Then he said something quiet into the phone and hung up."Callie," he said. "How long have you been there?""Long enough to hear you cancel my husband's meeting with the president of Meridian Group," I said. "Theo, what was that?"He put the phone down on the kitchen counter and rubbed the back of his neck. "Come in. Sit down before you fall."I came in and sat on a tall stool by the counter. His kitchen was big and clean and almost empty, like someone who ate most of his meals standing up."I work in the president's office," he said. "I've told you that before. I handle his calls, his meetings, and the people who want to see him. Hale Ventures has been asking for a meeting for two years.""And you just cancelled it?""He cancelled it," Theo said. "I told him what happen

Last Updated : 2026-11-06

The Song

Mason's POVThe hospital smelled the same as it did the night of the crash. Clean and cold, like nothing bad was allowed to happen there.Kendra was lying in a bed on the fourth floor with a thin blue blanket pulled up to her chest. Her eyes were red. When I walked in, she reached for me with both hands and started to cry all over again."She came out of nowhere," she sobbed into my shirt. "I was just looking at baby clothes. She grabbed my arm and screamed that I stole her life, and then she pushed me. I fell right on the step, Mason. I thought I was going to lose him."I held her and looked over her head at the wall. My hands were shaking. All I could think about was Callie's voice on the phone the night before, cold and quiet, telling me the name Noah belonged to her.My mother came in ten minutes later with her coat still buttoned. She looked at Kendra in the bed, and then at me."Is the baby all right?" she asked."We're waiting for the doctor," I said.A police officer knocked o

Last Updated : 2026-11-06

Not Yet

Callie's POVThe police didn't come for me. Instead, the next morning, a short message came from Margaret.Mediation meeting moved to today. Two o'clock. Mason's lawyers want to settle fast. Wear something that makes you feel tall.I didn't own anything like that anymore. Jules came over with three dresses in a garment bag and made me try every one. We chose a simple dark green dress with long sleeves. When I looked in the mirror, I saw a woman I hadn't seen in a long time."You look like the boss of somebody," Jules said. "Go and be the boss of him."At noon, my phone buzzed. A new number, of course.It was a photo of my old kitchen. Kendra was standing at the stove in my yellow apron, the one with the little lemons on it, holding a wooden spoon and smiling at the camera. Behind her on the counter were six plastic boxes from a Thai restaurant.Making my man lunch in OUR kitchen, the message said. He says it's better than anything you ever made.Jules looked over my shoulder and snort

Last Updated : 2026-11-06

Theo Is a Superhero

Theo's POVFrom the top floor of the Meridian Tower, the whole city looked small enough to hold in one hand.I had worked in this office for six years. Very few people in the building knew my face. To most of the staff downstairs, I was Mr. Navarro from the president's office, a quiet man in a plain suit who came and went through the side door. The president himself, they said, never came down. Nobody had ever seen him.That was how I wanted it."Hale Ventures stock dropped another nine percent this morning," Owen Reyes said, putting a tablet on my desk. Owen had been my right hand since my father handed me the company. "Their investors heard the Meridian deal is dead. They're nervous.""Good," I said.Owen raised one eyebrow. "You've been waiting a long time to say that."I didn't answer. I looked out the window at the gray sky, and my phone buzzed on the desk. When I saw the name, I picked it up before the first ring finished."Callie.""Hi," she said. Her voice was small and tight.

Last Updated : 2026-11-06

The Garden Table

Callie's POVTheo came to the Whitmore Grand twenty minutes after I hung up. He walked into the empty restaurant fast, still in his work suit, and he didn't slow down until he could see me."You okay?" he asked."I'm fine," I said. "You didn't have to run.""I didn't run," he said, a little out of breath.Jules looked at him, then at me, then back at him, and hid a smile behind her coffee cup.When we walked out to the front steps, I noticed three men in dark suits standing near the street. One of them was talking to a man in a gray car parked across the road. A second later, the gray car pulled away fast and was gone around the corner."Who are they?" I asked."Hotel security," Theo said, opening the car door for me. "Mrs. Whitmore takes good care of her people."I looked back at the men. One of them nodded at Theo. Just a small nod, the way you nod at your boss."It's your first week," Theo said before I could ask anything else. "You got the biggest job in the city and survived Kend

Last Updated : 2026-11-06

Pink Ink

Callie's POVI don't remember screaming. Theo told me later that I did.All I remember is the box falling out of my hands and the white lace spilling across the doorstep like snow, and then Theo was there, running across the dark garden in his socks.He saw the dress. He saw the card. For a second, his face went so cold and so still that I didn't recognize him.Then he pulled out his phone. "How did this get to her door?" he said into it, very quietly. "You had two men in this house. Two."I could hear a man's voice on the other end, fast and nervous. Theo listened, and his jaw got tighter and tighter.When he hung up, he knelt down in front of me on the cold step."A courier van came at ten forty," he said. "The driver wore a uniform. The label on the box said it was from the Whitmore Grand, so they thought it was work for you. They let him through." He breathed out slowly. "It was the same man from the gray car outside the hotel.""What man?" I whispered. "What gray car?"He looked

Last Updated : 2026-11-06

1 2 3

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP