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CHAPTER FORTY
Terakhir Diperbarui:
2025-04-29 23:39:14
Bab terkait
A Whole New World CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
REMI After Alex stormed out of the house, I sat alone on the couch, clenching my fists as bitterness boiled in my chest. Everything was spiraling out of control, and the cause of it all... Essence....was still breathing. Vesper, who had been silent for a while, finally pulled herself off the floor and slumped beside me. Her face was still blotchy from Alex's manhandling, her voice shaking with anger as she said, "This is the first time my brother has ever treated me like trash... and it’s all because of her. That bitch. I swear, Remi, I’ll never forgive her for this." I barely heard her. My mind was racing, plotting, calculating. Just then, Asher waddled over to me, his small hand tugging at my sleeve. "Mommy, don't be sad," he said, his innocent eyes looking up at me like I was his whole world. "I love you. You'll always be my mummy." A soft, strategic smile curled on my lips. Yes... how could I forget? Asher. My secret weapon. All my patient acts of pretending to love him,
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-30A Whole New World CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
REMI Alex had been spiraling since the moment we arrived at the hospital. I watched as he paced back and forth like a caged lion, muttering curses under his breath. Every time the doctor walked past without stopping, his fury intensified. I wanted to reach out, to soothe him, to remind him that I was just trying to help.... but the moment I opened my mouth, he shoved my hand away. “Don’t touch me,” he snapped. “You’re the root of every damn problem in my life.” The words hit me like a slap. My throat tightened as tears stung my eyes. “How can you say that?” I asked, my voice trembling. “I love you, Alex. I love Asher like my own. He calls me Mommy. I was just trying to make him breakfast. How was I supposed to know he was allergic to peanut butter?” He whirled on me. “That’s exactly the point, Remi!” His voice was sharp enough to cut through glass. “You claim to love him but you don’t even know what he can or can’t eat? Have you ever seen Essence feed him peanut butter? Ever?
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-30A Whole New World CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
ESSENCE Slapping Vesper felt better than I imagined. Scratch that... it felt glorious. It wasn't the first time, yes, but it was different. I didn't just slap her for myself; I slapped her for every insult she ever threw at me, every time she laughed when Alex humiliated me, and every single second I spent in that house feeling like I was less. My hand stung, but my soul? Oh, it sang. For a second, the entire bar went silent, like the slap had echoed into the souls of everyone watching. Vesper stumbled back, one hand pressed to her cheek as she fell, her mouth slightly open in shock. The crimson outline of my palm started to blossom across her face, and for the first time since I met her, she looked genuinely stunned. She touched her lips, then looked at her fingers. Blood. Oh yes, I split that lip. The satisfaction that rolled through me was sinful. I didn’t even try to hide my smirk. But of course, Remi wasn't one to just stand there. She immediately raised her hand, aiming
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-05-01A Whole New World CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
ESSENCE The words just wouldn't compute. "Your... stepson?" I asked again, even though my ears had done a perfectly fine job the first time. Sky gave me a little shrug, the kind someone gives when they just admitted to borrowing your lipstick without asking and hoped you wouldn’t make a big deal out of it. Not when what she’d said was equivalent to dropping a whole-ass scandal in the middle of a crowded marketplace. "Yes, technically," she replied, looking as calm as a cucumber dipped in audacity. "He’s the son of my late husband. We didn’t really talk until after the funeral. And one thing led to another..." I almost dropped my purse. "Sky, that’s not 'one thing.' That’s a whole damn novella! You went from widow to wicked stepmother in under a year." She snorted. "Oh, please. He’s older than me by like five years, and my husband was practically a century old. Besides, it’s not like I raised him or anything." I stared at her. "Sky. You literally just boned your dead hu
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-05-01A Whole New World CHAPTER ONE
ESSENCE I sat quietly in the corner, watching everyone eat, drink, and laugh like it was the happiest day of their lives. Well, it probably was. Everyone’s life but mine. They looked right through me, as if I didn’t exist. Which was ironic, considering I was supposed to be the co-star of the show. It was my tenth wedding anniversary, for goodness’ sake. Ten years married to Alex Watson, yet here I was, the invisible woman at my own celebration. But not Remi Vanguard. Oh no, Remi was impossible to miss. She was the star of the evening. She floated around like she owned the place… like she owned my husband. Alex couldn’t take his eyes off her, and neither could half the people here. Including my nine-year-old son, Asher, who seemed to think she was some kind of goddess sent from heaven to grace us with her presence. I looked at the party I had spent weeks planning. The decorations, the flowers, the cake I nearly lost my eyebrows baking in the middle of the night because the ca
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-03-14A Whole New World CHAPTER TWO
ESSENCE My alarm dragged me out of a sleep I didn’t remember falling into. For a second, I forgot why my chest felt so heavy..... then I remembered. I sat up slowly, stretching my arms until my shoulders popped. Yawning, I glanced at the clock. Almost five in the morning, because apparently, heartbreak wakes up early. I was still surprised I’d made it home last night. After everything that had happened—the humiliation, the cold, and the fact that my family treated me like an afterthought—I’d driven home like a zombie on autopilot. And I lived to tell the tale. Sort of. It still hurt, thinking about last night. But sitting around feeling sorry for myself wasn’t going to get my family back. I was determined to fix it..... to fix me. I climbed out of bed, splashed water on my face to clear the fog, and headed straight for the kitchen. A while later, I had breakfast set up at the dining table. Toasted bread, eggs, sausage, fruit—served with the kind of love and hope only a wo
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-03-18A Whole New World CHAPTER THREE
ESSENCE Once again, I ended up in the arms of the stranger.He caught me before my face hit the ground, flipping my body effortlessly. In the blink of an eye, my back was resting against his other arm, like he’d done this a thousand times before.Our eyes met. Again. And there went my heart, racing like it was training for a marathon. I didn’t even realize I was biting my lower lip until it was too late.'You are truly disgusting, Essence.' I chided myself silently, forcing my teeth away from my lip. At thirty, I was too old to be getting infatuated with a hot stranger who would never think of me that way.Worse, I was a married woman. With a son. And yet, here I was acting like a schoolgirl who’d never seen a man before.I pulled myself away from him quickly and tried to put a good two feet of distance between us.“You need to be more careful,” he said.Then his gaze sharpened. “Why are your cheeks turning red? Are you having indigestion?”“It’s my natural skin tone,” I lied flatly.
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-03-18A Whole New World CHAPTER FOUR
ESSENCE I turned and ran back to my room. I didn’t stop until I was face-down on my bed, crying my heart out.At some point, I slid down to the floor. I sat there for hours, my back against the bed, my face streaked with tears. I wasn’t just crying over what I saw, I was mourning everything. All of it. I thought back to how it started. How I met Alex. He was in a wheelchair back then. An accident had left him paralyzed, but he still showed up to support kids at the orphanage. I was there, too. I had lived a few years of my life in that same orphanage. I understood those kids better than anyone.That was where we met.I had just started my company with my best friends, Hailey and Sky. Life was good. It was mine. Until we fell in love. Alex proposed, and I said yes. I was a size twenty-two even then, but he never complained, he loved me that way. And I believed him. After we got married, I found out he could walk again, if he had surgery. But it was expensive... very
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-03-18
Bab terbaru
A Whole New World CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
ESSENCE The words just wouldn't compute. "Your... stepson?" I asked again, even though my ears had done a perfectly fine job the first time. Sky gave me a little shrug, the kind someone gives when they just admitted to borrowing your lipstick without asking and hoped you wouldn’t make a big deal out of it. Not when what she’d said was equivalent to dropping a whole-ass scandal in the middle of a crowded marketplace. "Yes, technically," she replied, looking as calm as a cucumber dipped in audacity. "He’s the son of my late husband. We didn’t really talk until after the funeral. And one thing led to another..." I almost dropped my purse. "Sky, that’s not 'one thing.' That’s a whole damn novella! You went from widow to wicked stepmother in under a year." She snorted. "Oh, please. He’s older than me by like five years, and my husband was practically a century old. Besides, it’s not like I raised him or anything." I stared at her. "Sky. You literally just boned your dead hu
A Whole New World CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
ESSENCE Slapping Vesper felt better than I imagined. Scratch that... it felt glorious. It wasn't the first time, yes, but it was different. I didn't just slap her for myself; I slapped her for every insult she ever threw at me, every time she laughed when Alex humiliated me, and every single second I spent in that house feeling like I was less. My hand stung, but my soul? Oh, it sang. For a second, the entire bar went silent, like the slap had echoed into the souls of everyone watching. Vesper stumbled back, one hand pressed to her cheek as she fell, her mouth slightly open in shock. The crimson outline of my palm started to blossom across her face, and for the first time since I met her, she looked genuinely stunned. She touched her lips, then looked at her fingers. Blood. Oh yes, I split that lip. The satisfaction that rolled through me was sinful. I didn’t even try to hide my smirk. But of course, Remi wasn't one to just stand there. She immediately raised her hand, aiming
A Whole New World CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
REMI Alex had been spiraling since the moment we arrived at the hospital. I watched as he paced back and forth like a caged lion, muttering curses under his breath. Every time the doctor walked past without stopping, his fury intensified. I wanted to reach out, to soothe him, to remind him that I was just trying to help.... but the moment I opened my mouth, he shoved my hand away. “Don’t touch me,” he snapped. “You’re the root of every damn problem in my life.” The words hit me like a slap. My throat tightened as tears stung my eyes. “How can you say that?” I asked, my voice trembling. “I love you, Alex. I love Asher like my own. He calls me Mommy. I was just trying to make him breakfast. How was I supposed to know he was allergic to peanut butter?” He whirled on me. “That’s exactly the point, Remi!” His voice was sharp enough to cut through glass. “You claim to love him but you don’t even know what he can or can’t eat? Have you ever seen Essence feed him peanut butter? Ever?
A Whole New World CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
REMI After Alex stormed out of the house, I sat alone on the couch, clenching my fists as bitterness boiled in my chest. Everything was spiraling out of control, and the cause of it all... Essence....was still breathing. Vesper, who had been silent for a while, finally pulled herself off the floor and slumped beside me. Her face was still blotchy from Alex's manhandling, her voice shaking with anger as she said, "This is the first time my brother has ever treated me like trash... and it’s all because of her. That bitch. I swear, Remi, I’ll never forgive her for this." I barely heard her. My mind was racing, plotting, calculating. Just then, Asher waddled over to me, his small hand tugging at my sleeve. "Mommy, don't be sad," he said, his innocent eyes looking up at me like I was his whole world. "I love you. You'll always be my mummy." A soft, strategic smile curled on my lips. Yes... how could I forget? Asher. My secret weapon. All my patient acts of pretending to love him,
A Whole New World CHAPTER FORTY
REMI Yesterday had been hell. Today? Not any better. Ever since our sex tape hit X and went viral like wildfire, Alex had been a completely different person. I expected him to lean on me, to seek comfort in the woman who had always been there for him. But no. Instead, he pulled away. He barely looked at me without sneering. His words? Sharper than razors. Cold. Dismissive. Like I was a piece of gum stuck to his shoe. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. He was supposed to defend me. Shield me. Blame Essence like he always did. But instead, he turned that icy fury on me, and I hated it. But not as much as I hated her. Essence. That fat, entitled, holier-than-thou creature who walked around like the world owed her for merely existing. She always thought Alex and Asher owed her their lives..... as if wiping a kid’s nose and making burnt jollof rice was some noble sacrifice. If only she knew how often they both made fun of her when she wasn’t around. I couldn’t count
A Whole New World CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
ESSENCE "Sky!" Hailey slapped Sky's arm. "What?" Sky grinned unrepentantly. "It's very important for the sex to be good. It's like food. Maybe even more important. At the very least, her husband has to be better in bed than that loser Alex, so as to keep her satisfied. Bad sex can ruin everything. Trust me, I would know." "There are more important things in a relationship than sex," Hailey muttered under her breath. Sky waved her hand dismissively. "Says the girl who dated a guy for a year and still pretended she didn’t notice he kissed like a dying fish." I couldn't help it....... I laughed. Watching them argue like this felt like balm to my soul. Familiar, warm, and safe. As they bickered, my mind wandered to Lucian. To the way his lips had tasted when he kissed me goodbye. To the way his hands had felt possessive and tender at the same time. To the maddening, forbidden ache he stirred deep inside me. I swallowed hard and looked down into my drink, embarrassed a
A Whole New World CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
ESSENCEWatching my friends’ jaws hanging open like broken hinges, I couldn't help but chuckle. I guess I should have given them a little warning before dropping the bombshell, but where was the fun in that?I let them stew in their shock for a moment longer, just to enjoy the rare sight of Sky and Hailey looking like they had seen a ghost. Only after I had enough of their gaping faces did I finally signal the waiter over and asked for a drink. Something chilled. Something sweet. Something strong enough to drown any second-guessing before it even had the chance to bubble up inside me.As the waiter opened the bottle and poured the sparkling drink into my glass, Sky leaned forward, her elbows nearly knocking over the centerpiece, and asked in a slightly strangled voice, "Essence, what the hell is going on? Wasn’t it just two days ago you were still married? Did you keep the truth from us or are we living in an alternate universe?"I took a casual sip of my drink, letting the sweet, fiz
A Whole New World CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
ESSENCE I stood there like a statue, struggling to digest Lucian's last words. Telling the world I was his wife? Without a second thought? Seriously? Was he even aware of what that would cause? The internet would lose its mind. The fashion blogs would probably hold an emergency meeting. All the sexy models of the world would send condolence messages to each other. And yet, he didn’t seem to mind. Then again, Lucian Knight had been surprising me since the very first day I met him. He didn’t behave like the cold, untouchable, notorious player everyone painted him to be. No, he was something else entirely.... warmer, scarier because he made it too easy to forget my place in his world. Could Sara have been right about him? Was he really different from what people thought? Or was it just too early for me to tell? Lucian must have noticed the turmoil on my face because he tilted his head slightly, smiled that devastating smile of his, and asked, "What’s going on in that pretty hea
A Whole New World CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
ESSENCE I sat in the room for a while, hugging one of the throw pillows and trying to talk myself into forgetting about what happened the night before. But the more I thought about it, the more embarrassed I felt. Eventually, I told myself that if I didn’t go out soon, Lucian would come looking for me. I got up and padded out to the dining room, steeling myself for whatever came next. Lucian looked up the moment I stepped in. His eyes landed on my face, and his expression immediately shifted into something soft and concerned. "Are you okay?" I nodded, attempting a half-hearted smile. "I'm fine." He motioned to the untouched food. "Come, finish your breakfast." I sat down, but I barely touched the spoon. "I'm not hungry anymore. I'm already full." Lucian watched me quietly for a beat before leaning in. "What’s wrong?" I sighed, realizing I couldn’t keep dodging him. Not with the level of attention he was giving to me. “Can we talk in private?” He led me into one of the sitting
