All Chapters of ENTANGLED WITH MY CONTRACTED HUSBAND : Chapter 161 - Chapter 170

"Gracious, don’t start with the 'I gave you everything' talk once more!" Alexis snapped, her dissatisfaction spilling over. "You gave me what you thought I needed. You never asked me what I needed, Haven. You never saw me as a person with my own dreams, my own wants. It was almost about you." Haven's grasp on the coffee cup fixed, his knuckles turning white. "That’s not true. I—" "Yes, it is!" Alexis hindered, her voice rising. She looked around the coffee shop, taking note of a number of inquisitive eyes turning their way. She brought down her voice, but the outrage in her tone remained. "You never took the time to get it for me. You were so wrapped up in your own world, in your own needs, merely overlooked I existed. Do you know how agonizing that feels?" Haven opened his mouth to reply, but Alexis cut him off once more, her eyes bursting now. "Matthew isn’t like that. He really tunes in. He makes me feel seen. When I talk to him, it’s like he’s truly there, you know? He's a show

She had spoken them so softly, nearly tenderly, as if she was conveying a slow death. But there was no benevolence in it, not for him. It was a betrayal , one he had been as well dazed or as well proud to see coming. And now, it was late to do anything around it. He stopped under the shade of a closed shop, wiping the rain from his face, in spite of the fact that it didn’t stop the throb in his chest. His phone buzzed in his pocket, a brutal update that life didn’t stop just since his world had disintegrated. For a minute, he overlooked it, but at that point he pulled it out, half-expecting to see a message from Alexis. Some part of him, unreasonably, still trusted her to change her mind, to say that she didn’t mean it. That she didn’t love Matthew, not truly. But the screen appeared with a different title, Vanessa. He gazed at the phone, his thumb drifting over the reply button. Vanessa had been his ex-girlfriend before Alexis, a long time before they'd ever indeed met. They had rem

"I think I do," he answered, a little grin pulling at his lips. The other day, Alexis arrived at Matthew’s loft with a few bags and an apprehensive grin. Matthew helped her carry her things inside, his heart beating as the reality of the circumstance sank in. This was it, they were doing this. As she unloaded her things, Matthew observed her discreetly, still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that she was here, living with him. It felt surreal, like they were in a bubble, cut off from the rest of the world. But as the days passed, the bubble started to burst. To begin with, things were energizing. They went through their days together, giggling and talking, the excitement of being able to straightforwardly share their lives inebriated. But as time went on, cracks began to appear. The push of Alexis’ later partition from Haven weighed on her more than she let on, and it began to leak into their relationship. One evening, they sat at the kitchen table, eating supper quietly. Al

Vanessa grinned, in spite of the fact that it didn’t very reach her eyes. “I was irate for a long time, Haven. You walked away when I needed you, and it hurts. But I’ve moved past that. We were both youthful, and we both made mistakes.” He gestured, blaming biting at him. He had hurt her, and now he was paying the cost for all the egotistical choices he had made. His life had spiraled out of control, and the incongruity wasn’t lost on him that the one person who might help him presently was the one person he had wronged so deeply. “I don’t know what I’m doing any longer, Vanessa,” Haven confessed, his voice splitting. “I’ve lost my wife, no more family that I’ve fantasized with her, and I’m frightened. I’m frightened that I’m going to end up alone.” Vanessa turned to him, her expression softening. “You’re not alone, Haven. You’ve got people who care about you. And I’m here, aren’t I?” Haven looked at her, really looked at her, for the first time in a long time. There was a warmth

The air between them grew heavy with the weight of inferred things, the shared history they had buried long back. Haven looked at her, the sadness in his eyes more than almost Alexis. It was about the life he had envisioned, the long haul he had clung to, and presently the agonising truth that was slipping through his fingers. "How did we end up here?" he inquired, more to himself than to her. Vanessa sighed. "I think, some of the time, we stop fighting since we disregard what we're fighting for. And by the time we keep in mind, it's late." Haven scowled, her words settling awkwardly in his mind. “Do you think that’s what happened to us?” His voice cracked slightly. Vanessa looked at him, her eyes delicate but firm. “Maybe. Possibly we just weren’t right for each other the way we thought. Possibly we were supposed to learn something from all of this, indeed in case it was hard.” He closed his eyes, trying to handle the hurricane of feelings that had been twirling in him since Ale