All Chapters of All His Begging Can't Bring Back the Love He Threw Away: Chapter 1 - Chapter 7

When I opened my eyes, the surgical lights were off.A deep ache kept rolling through my stomach. It hurt so much I could barely breathe.Julian stood at the foot of the bed with bits of colorful confetti from the amusement park stuck to his suit jacket.Owen leaned against the doorframe, holding a bag of medication.Ryan stood by the window, looking at his phone.All three of them were in the room, but it felt like they'd only come to confirm the surgery was over."See? You're fine." Julian glanced at the chart by the bed. "Didn't the doctor say the surgery went smoothly?"I stared at the confetti on his jacket. My voice came out tight. "You went to an amusement park?"He paused. "Chloe had a bad scare. I took her out to get her mind off it.""What about me?"Tears welled up. I bit down hard on my lip and fought them back with everything I had.Julian frowned. "You've got plenty of people looking after you here. It's not like I could've operated on you myself. Besides, Chloe's all alo

Ryan sent me more than a dozen texts."You sold the house?"Julian says you're emotionally unstable."Chloe has nowhere to stay right now. Can't you put off selling the house?"I read them, set my phone face down on the table, and didn't reply.The next day, I returned to the office to wrap up my handover.I was leading the city's accessibility improvement project. We'd just won the contract, with work scheduled to begin next month.Someone from finance handed me a document. "Ms. Bennett, Mr. Ford says the project's on hold for now."I took it. "Why?""He says you're not well enough to run it right now."Julian was an investor in the company, but he'd never bypassed me to suspend one of my projects before.I gripped the notice and headed for the conference room.He was talking with Chloe, the project files spread out on the table."You signed the order putting the project on hold?"I put the document down on the table."It's just a delay."He replied evenly, "You just had surgery. Focu

The overseas firm's office was in the old harbor district. Outside the window, the tactile paving ended abruptly in front of a row of shops.On my second day, I walked the neighborhood for two hours with the community rep. My stomach started to ache, so I held on to a railing and rested for a minute.My assistant, Tessa, asked if I wanted to head back.I screwed the cap back onto my water bottle and kept my voice low. "Write this down first. There's nowhere to sit and rest outside the hospital."Phase one had a budget of $600,000 and a three-month deadline to redo the main walking routes through three blocks.The contractor flipped through the plans and pushed the bid right back at us. Not enough money, they said. The design had to change.The community rep frowned. "If this drags on any longer, wheelchair users will still have to travel in the street."I put my name down as the person responsible, my voice especially firm."The design stays. The whole point of this project is the peop

Six months later, I pitched the firm a plan to start my own company.Graham read through it and didn't say yes right away. He just asked how far along I was with clients, staff, and funding.I put my projections in front of him. My palms were a little damp."Clients will sign new contracts. Staff can decide whether to join me. We'll finish the original firm's projects as agreed, and we won't take any internal files."He flipped to the last page, looked up, and smiled."You've already laid out the toughest terms yourself.""If we get it all out in the open now, it's easier to work together later."After two months of talks, we signed a partnership agreement, and my new company leased a floor next door to the old office.On opening day, 20-odd people crowded into the conference room, waiting for me to say a few words.I stood there for a long time, and in the end, all I managed to say was, "Paychecks go out on time, and we never cut corners on site safety."Someone laughed, slapped the t