Too Late By Colleen Hoover Novels & Stories

Tell me it's not true! Mom was totally lost. She figured Bruce knew I was off the market. She had no clue why he was even there, but she kept her cool and explained. "Mr. Laurent, meet my grandsons, Leo and Luca. They're four, Eleanor and her husband's little ones." "No way!" Bruce was shaking his head like crazy, "Eleanor can't be married! She loves me! She's been waiting for me! She's been waiting all these five years!" The crowd started buzzing, the room turning into a hot mess.

"Dad, Mom, what exactly is going on?" Lincoln, however, kicked him aside. "I'm not your dad! Scram far away!" Leonard clutched his chest in pain and turned to Maria with bloodshot eyes. "Mom, what's going on?" Maria collapsed on the ground, looking despondent. She wiped the tears from her face and continued to deny everything vehemently. "I didn't…" Before she could complete her sentence, I threw an envelope to the floor. Photos spilled out, revealing shameful footage of two people entangled passionately with each other.

“Let me tell you something, Charlotte.” I stared at her silently. “In my husband’s family,” she continued, “there was once a woman who married into the house but failed to produce a child for five years.” Her tone had grown darker. “At first everyone was patient. They gave her time. They told her not to worry.” I felt a chill creeping along my spine. “But eventually,” she said, “the whispers began.” My throat felt dry. “They said she was cursed. That she had brought bad luck into the family.”

I asked, while he suddenly developed a cough. He started coughing and slowly moved away from me. “You know what? Just forget it… I’m late, we’ll talk later in the evening… byeee…” I let out and then left with a satisfied grin stuck on my face. “Ready?” Sonia’s voice suddenly rose from behind me. I turned back and saw her sitting on the sofa. I didn’t even know she was in the living room. “Yes? You’re going with Dennis, right?” She shook her head and quickly got up.

"But the mistake ends tonight. Murphy Daniel got the housewife who bent over backwards to please him. Texas is going to get the surgeon." I took a deep breath, the cold air filling my lungs, and looked at the black corporate folder one last time. The weak, broken woman who walked out of that mansion was gone.

Elena’s chat icon blinked red every few days: —The rose dome of St. Cecilia Cathedral. —The new rose-gold Beretta Dad bought her, the family crest inlaid on the grip. —Caption: Family first. I scrolled past them, never hitting “like”. On Thanksgiving, the project team got 48 hours off. I stayed on site duty. It was 23 degrees Fahrenheit at night. I sat in the back of the pickup wrapped in a sleeping bag, staring up at the Milky Way. My phone vibrated. A voice message from Mom. Piano and laughter in the background: “Rhea, look what we got. Seafood. Your favorite—”

We ran the closing program. It was nearly right. Had been nearly right for several days now, approaching the threshold where nearly became actually without quite crossing it, and I had learned over five years that nearly right had its own timeline and could not be forced across the threshold by will alone. You had to keep playing and trust that the crossing would happen when it happened. Vivian was not there.

Andy replied in his childish tone, "Daddy picked them up. Only Great-Grandpa Henry and Great-Grandma Maria are home." "Alright," I replied easily. … I picked Andy up as soon as I returned to Havyn Villa. All of us had a great time baking cookies. Andy stood by the side as he helped to roll out the dough. He did a messy job. The sound of the doorbell broke out amidst our laughter. I was surprised to see Miles when I opened the door. Snow gathered on his shoulders as our eyes met. Behind him, Connor and Katie greeted me merrily, "Oh, Yvvy is here!"

Jared lowered his head to drink the soup quietly. A phone suddenly rang when someone walked past his ward, and the ringtone was “Later” by Rene Liu*. “Later, I finally learned how to love. Sadly, you’ve gone far away and disappeared in the crowd…” A tear rolled down the corner of Jared’s eye into the bowl of soup. When his butler came to the hospital the next day to send him soup again, he was startled when he saw Jared, who was on the bed. “Mr. Crawford…” Jared looked up. “What is it?”

"Tomorrow will be the last day I ever set foot in this cursed house." Ravelle took a deep breath, calming the rhythm of her heartbeat before stepping out from behind the partition wall. She put her emotionless, cold, unreadable mask back on, ready to give her deceitful husband one final performance before the storm of destruction finally descended upon them within the next twenty-four hours.