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154: An Ordinary Evening II
Last Updated:
2025-02-25 21:21:40
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Till Betrayal Do Us Part: Ex-Husband, Ex-Heartbreak 155: Tiny Questions, Big Answers
Amelia / Estella "Higher, Mama! I want to touch the clouds!" I push Arielle's swing, watching her little legs kick at the sky. The playground is mostly empty this late afternoon, just a few kids wrapping up their play dates. We are here for ballet practice which ended early after Miss Carmen twisted her ankle, and I couldn't say no when Ari begged for "just five minutes" at the park. "Look how high I'm going!" She throws her head back, dark curls streaming behind her. "I'm flying!" "You sure are, baby." I give her another push, earning another delighted squeal from her. These are the moments I live for – just us, no complications, no missing memories pressing against my skull. "Sofia says I can't be a real swan." The words come out casual, but I catch the slight tremor in her voice. My hands tighten on the swing chains. "Why would she say that?" Arielle shrugs, her next kick less enthusiastic. "She says real swans have mamas and papas. And I only have a mama." Fuck.
Last Updated : 2025-02-25Till Betrayal Do Us Part: Ex-Husband, Ex-Heartbreak Chapter 156: Tiny Questions, Big Answers II
Arielle's in the stuffed animal section, curled up in the reading nook. Her eyes are red but defiant when I sit beside her."I'm not apologizing.""Yes, you are." I brush a tear from her cheek. "That was incredibly rude.""He deserved it." She hugs her legs tighter. "I don't want a new daddy."The words hit like a punch to the gut. "Baby...""Everyone at school has one. But I don't need one. I have you and Nana and that's enough."I pull her into my lap, swan and all. "You're right. We're enough, just us. But that doesn't mean you get to be mean to people.""He's going to keep coming around." She burrows into my neck. "And then you'll like him better than me.""Hey." I tilt her chin up. "No one in this world could ever be more important to me than you. You're my heart walking around outside my body.""Promise?""Cross my heart and hope to die."She considers this solemnly. "Stick a needle in your eye?""Obviously." I tickle her side, drawing out a reluctant giggle. "Now, about that ap
Last Updated : 2025-02-26Till Betrayal Do Us Part: Ex-Husband, Ex-Heartbreak Chapter 157: The Price of Fame
The universe has a sick sense of humor.That's the only explanation for why Ethan is standing outside the toy store, holding a pristine white swan plush that makes Arielle's eyes light up like Christmas came early."Is that—" She tugs my hand, previous animosity forgotten at the sight of the stuffed animal."For you?" Ethan crouches down, holding out the swan. "I saw how much you liked the one inside. Consider it a peace offering?"I open my mouth to refuse, but Arielle's already reaching for it. "It's so soft!" She crushes it against her chest, then narrows her eyes at Ethan. "This doesn't mean you can date my mama."He laughs, and for a second I catch that phantom scent again – leather and spice, but different from his cologne. My head spins with the familiar-yet-not sensation that's haunted me since the accident."Actually, I was hoping we could be friends." He meets her suspicious gaze. "Just you and me. No mama-dating involved.""Friends?" She pets the swan's head, considering. "
Last Updated : 2025-02-26Till Betrayal Do Us Part: Ex-Husband, Ex-Heartbreak Chapter 158: Gone Viral
"I'm so sorry!" I push through the last row of onlookers, grabbing Arielle's shoulders and pulling her back. "I’m so sorry. It was an accident."Julia looks down at the ice cream stain spreading across the front of her Valentino dress, then at Arielle's stricken face."Do you have any idea what this dress cost?" Her voice rises, distress overriding the social niceties. "This is supposed to be the most important moment of my life, and now it's ruined!""I'm sorry," Arielle whispers, lower lip trembling. "I didn't mean to."Mark steps forward, looking torn between comforting his fiancée and diffusing the situation. "Babe, it's just a dress. The kid didn't mean it. We can get it dry cleaned.""Just a dress?" Julia whirls on him. "This is Valentino! And now every photo, every video of our engagement has this—this disaster!""Hey," I step between her and Arielle, whose tears are now falling freely. "I understand you're upset, but she's just a child. And like I said it was an accident.""We
Last Updated : 2025-02-27Till Betrayal Do Us Part: Ex-Husband, Ex-Heartbreak 159: The Ghost in the Screen
Alejandro The boardroom fell silent as I slammed my fist against the polished mahogany table, causing the pitchers of water to tremble. The executives seated around me visibly flinched, but I couldn't give less of a fuck about their comfort."The Hong Kong deal is non-negotiable." My voice cut through the tension like a blade. "Either they accept our terms or we pull out completely."Marcus, the new VP of acquisitions, cleared his throat. "Mr. De Luca, with all due respect—""Did I ask for your input?" I fixed him with a stare that made him physically recoil.The room temperature seemed to drop several degrees. Five years ago, I might have cared about building consensus, about hearing different perspectives. That Alejandro died along with Estella.I reached for the tumbler of whiskey beside my laptop—my constant companion these days. The amber liquid burned down my throat, a familiar comfort in a world that had long since lost its color."You have forty-eight hours to close the deal.
Last Updated : 2025-02-28Till Betrayal Do Us Part: Ex-Husband, Ex-Heartbreak 160: Chasing Clues
Alejandro I stormed into my penthouse with Raul following after me, throwing my suit jacket across the room where it landed in a heap of already piling clothes on the Italian leather sofa. The housekeeper isn’t coming in until the weekend. The whiskey bottle called to me from the bar, all I wanted to do was head over there and drown this thoughts down, but for once, I ignored it. I needed my head clear for this."Pull up everything on every available database." I paced across the hardwood floors while Raul sat and set up his laptop at my dining table. "And I mean everything."I couldn’t remember the drive from the office and how I made it home. It had been a blur of several thoughts. My mind kept replaying that video on loop—the woman with Estella's face, the little girl with my eyes. The ghost of my wife was haunting me in flesh and blood.Raul's fingers flew across the keyboard. "I've accessed databases that would land us both in federal prison, but there's barely anything on Ameli
Last Updated : 2025-02-28Till Betrayal Do Us Part: Ex-Husband, Ex-Heartbreak 161: The Truth They Kept From Me
Raul took a deep breath. "It might be her, Alejandro.""Based on what? The resemblance isn't proof—""Clara confessed something to me ." His voice dropped. "She—Estella was pregnant when she boarded that plane."The world tilted beneath my feet. "What the fuck did you just say?""Clara only told me last year. When she was pregnant with Kai, she got emotional and teary one night and spilled everything. She said Estella had just found out after she was buried. She was planning to tell you when finally joined her."My vision tunneled, rage burning white-hot. I crossed the distance between us in two steps, grabbing Raul by his shirt collar and slamming him against the nearby wall."You knew for a year and said NOTHING?" I roared, my face inches from his."Alejandro!" He didn't fight back. "You were just getting clean! You'd barely survived the overdose. What good would it have done to tell you that she was pregnant when she died in that crash?"My fist pulled back, trembling with fury."G
Last Updated : 2025-03-01Till Betrayal Do Us Part: Ex-Husband, Ex-Heartbreak 162: Crossing Oceans
The private jet touched down on the soil with a gentle thud. I straightened my tie, already reaching for my phone before we'd fully taxied to a stop."Car's waiting," I said to Raul and Clara, who I noticed exchange worried glances across the aisle. I ignored it and instead said "We're going straight to the vineyard.""Alejandro," Raul said cautiously as we disembarked, the warm Madrid air hitting us after hours in recycled cabin oxygen. "Maybe we should think this through before doing anything."I ignored him, striding toward the sleek black Mercedes I'd arranged to pick us. The driver opened the door, and I slid into the back seat, already punching the vineyard's address into my phone."Alvarez Vineyards," I instructed the driver. Raul caught the door before it closed. "Boss, wait." His voice was firm enough to make me look up. "This is a mistake.""Get in the car or stay behind," I said coldly. I am still angry at the both of them. "I don't care which."Clara slipped in beside me
Last Updated : 2025-03-03
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Till Betrayal Do Us Part: Ex-Husband, Ex-Heartbreak Epilogue: The Secrets We Keep
Five Years LaterEstella had insisted on having the windows open despite the doctors' protests—she needed to breathe something other than antiseptic and fear."Almost there," The matron encouraged from between her legs. "One more big push, Estella."Alejandro's hand was nearly crushed in her grip as another contraction seized her. The twins had decided to arrive three weeks early, sending them rushing to the hospital in the middle of the night."You're doing amazingly," Alejandro murmured against her temple. The entire pregnancy had been classified high-risk from the beginning.Estella bore down with a primal scream, feeling the first baby slide from her body."It's a boy!" The matron announced, lifting the wailing infant for them to see before placing him on Estella's chest.She touched her son's dark, wet hair. "Hello, little one,"The moment of joy was short-lived. The monitors beside her bed began beeping erratically."Blood pressure dropping," a nurse called out.The doctor in ch
Till Betrayal Do Us Part: Ex-Husband, Ex-Heartbreak 216: Almost Home
The following weeks were filled with medical tests, therapy sessions, and small but significant milestones.Three weeks after waking, he took his first unassisted steps, gripping the parallel bars with so much intensity as he forced his atrophied muscles to cooperate. I watched from the sidelines, heart in my throat, as he pushed through pain that would have stopped a lesser man."Fuck," he growled through gritted teeth when his legs threatened to give out halfway through. "I'm not stopping."His physical therapist—a no-nonsense woman who'd quickly learned to match his intensity—nodded approvingly. "Two more steps. You can do two more."He did three before collapsing into the wheelchair afterward with sweat pouring down his face."Next time I'll do ten," he promised, breath coming in harsh pants.I handed him a towel, leaning in to whisper, "Watching you fight like this is incredibly sexy, you know."His exhausted laugh was all the reward I needed.By the six-week mark, he was walking
Till Betrayal Do Us Part: Ex-Husband, Ex-Heartbreak 215: Two Months Later, Still Yours
When we broke apart, I rested my head on his shoulder, breathing in his scent beneath the antiseptic hospital smell. "Don't ever scare me like that again," I whispered."I'll try not to make a habit of getting stabbed in the heart," he replied dryly."This isn't funny, Alejandro." I lifted my head to meet his gaze. "I thought I'd lost you. I thought our daughter would grow up without her father."His expression sobered. "I know. I'm sorry." He squeezed my hand weakly. "How bad was it?""Bad," I admitted. "The knife nicked your heart. You lost so much blood... They weren't sure you'd make it through the first surgery." My voice caught. "And then you didn't wake up. Days turned into weeks, and you just... stayed asleep.""I'm sorry," he repeated. "For putting you through that. For not being there for you and Arielle.""You're here now," I said. The door opened quietly, and we both looked up to see Dr. Matthews returning, accompanied by a neurologist I recognized from previous consultat
Till Betrayal Do Us Part: Ex-Husband, Ex-Heartbreak 214: The Sixty-Second Day
Two months laterThe hospital room had become my second home. The nurses knew my schedule better than I did—when I'd arrive each morning with fresh clothes for both of us, when I'd step out for coffee, which chair I preferred to sit in while reading aloud to Alejandro's unresponsive form.Sixty-one days of talking to someone who couldn't answer. Sixty-one days of watching for the slightest movement of an eyelid or the smallest twitch of a finger. Sixty-one days of hope slowly eroding into something that felt dangerously close to despair."The medical journal says coma patients show increased brain activity when family members speak to them," I said, turning the page of the medical text I'd been studying obsessively. "So I'm going to keep talking, even if I'm starting to repeat myself."Alejandro remained motionless. They'd removed his breathing tube last week when he started breathing on his own—a positive sign, Dr. Matthews had assured me. But his consciousness remained locked away,
Till Betrayal Do Us Part: Ex-Husband, Ex-Heartbreak 213: One-Sided Conversations
"Aunt Eleanor," I gasped, shocked to see her. In the chaos, I'd almost forgotten she'd been injured in the initial car crash where Arielle was taken."You look worse than me," she said weakly, attempting a smile that turned into a wince.For some reason, it was the sight of her—battered but alive, just like the rest of us—that finally broke through the numbness I'd been hiding behind. The tears came suddenly and violently, sobs wrenching themselves from my chest as she wheeled herself closer, reaching out with her good arm to pull me against her."I was so scared," I admitted between sobs. "I thought we were all going to die. I was scared history was going to repeat itself self. And this time Arielle, Alejandro—""But you didn't," she reminded me. "You saved them both."I shook my head, glancing at Alejandro's still form. "I didn't save him. He's still—""Fighting," Eleanor cut in. "Just like he always has. Just like you have."I cried until I had no tears left, letting go of the fear
Till Betrayal Do Us Part: Ex-Husband, Ex-Heartbreak 212: The Silence That Hurts Most
I must have dozed off despite my determination to stay awake, because the next thing I knew, someone was gently shaking my shoulder."Estella? Can you hear me?"I forced my heavy eyelids open to find Raul standing over me, his face lined with worry. Clara hovered behind him, her eyes red-rimmed."Raul," I croaked, my throat dry. "Alejandro?""He's out of surgery," Raul said. "It was touch and go for a while, but he made it through."Relief made me dizzy. "He's okay?"Raul and Clara exchanged glances."What aren't you telling me?" I demanded, suddenly fully awake.Raul sighed. "The damage was extensive. They repaired what they could, but... he's in a coma, Estella.""A coma? For how long?""They don't know," Clara said gently, stepping forward to take my hand. "All they said was the next 48 hours are critical."I struggled to sit up, ignoring the pain that shot through my body. "I need to see him.""You need to rest," Clara countered. "You're no good to him or Arielle if you collapse."
Till Betrayal Do Us Part: Ex-Husband, Ex-Heartbreak 211: Between Life and Death
"BP's still dropping," one of the paramedics called as they loaded Alejandro into the ambulance. "We need to move!"I climbed in after them, collapsing onto the bench seat as the doors slammed shut."Arielle," I suddenly remembered, panic clawing at my throat. "My daughter—where is she?""Already en route to Memorial," one of the paramedics replied without looking up from Alejandro. "She's stable."That small mercy gave me the strength to stay upright as I watched them work frantically to keep my husband alive. They'd cut away his shirt completely now, revealing the full extent of his injuries. The wound in his abdomen wasn't as deep as I'd feared, but the chest wound—it was a different story altogether."Left hemothorax," the paramedic muttered. "Need to decompress."I watched in horror as they inserted a large needle between Alejandro's ribs. Blood gushed out immediately, filling a collection bag."What's happening?" I demanded."Blood's filling his chest cavity, compressing on his
Till Betrayal Do Us Part: Ex-Husband, Ex-Heartbreak 210: To the Death
He yanked the makeshift blade free and shoved Alejandro toward me with such force that we both crashed onto the wooden planks of the dock. I barely registered the pain through my ankle as I caught Alejandro's limp body."No, no, no," I sobbed, cradling him against me. His eyes fluttered, struggling to focus on my face as blood bubbled from his lips."Est...ella," he managed, each syllable a battle."Don't talk," I begged, pressing one hand against the stomach wound while frantically trying to stem the bleeding from his chest with the other. It was too much—too much blood, too many wounds.Marco staggered to the boat, his own strength clearly waning. He tossed the bloodied metal shard into the water and began fumbling with the ropes that secured the craft to the dock. His movements were clumsy, his injuries making the simple task laborious."Pressure," Alejandro whispered, his voice so faint I barely heard it. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, staining his ashen lips crimso
Till Betrayal Do Us Part: Ex-Husband, Ex-Heartbreak 209: Blood for Blood
We dove behind a heavy chest of drawers just as the explosion tore through the room. The blast was deafening, sending splinters of wood and plaster raining down on us. Dust filled up the air in the room.Through the ringing in my ears, I heard movement—Marco is making his escape in the confusion. I struggled to my feet, eyes stinging from the dust, and saw a shadow moving toward the far windows."Alejandro," I croaked, pointing.He was already up, blood trickling from another cut on his temple where debris had struck him. Together, we staggered through the devastated room toward the windows.Marco had reached what appeared to be a balcony beyond the shattered glass. As we emerged into the clean night air, I saw his plan—a rope, hastily secured to the balcony railing, leading down to the ground below. Near the edge of the property, barely visible in dark of the night was a small dock with what looked like a speedboat tied up."Stop!" Alejandro shouted, raising his gun.Marco turned, hi
