Too Late To Love Me I Already Left With His Twins (Lydia and Dave) novel Chapter 261

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Not tonight

Dave POV

After the call ended, I remained exactly where I was, the phone still pressed against my ear even though there was no one left on the other side.

Nothing moved.

Not the clock.

Not the air-conditioning.

Not even me.

The words kept replaying in my head with a cruelty that made them impossible to absorb.

Lydia was involved in a serious accident.

Emergency surgery.

Eighty percent chance of not surviving.

Eighty percent.

My children.

My kids were somewhere in this city, probably wondering why their mother wasn’t answering her phone, while I had been sitting in my office worrying that she’d decided to ignore me.

What the fuck was the universe playing at?

I finally lowered the phone.

My vision felt strangely unfocused, like I’d been dropped into somebody else’s nightmare and hadn’t figured out how to wake up yet.

Lydia couldn’t die.

The thought arrived so suddenly that my chest tightened.

No.

She couldn’t.

Not Lydia.

Not the woman who could look me dead in the eyes and dismantle every stupid argument I brought to her. Not the woman who could make me feel like the world’s biggest idiot with one raised eyebrow. Not the mother who somehow knew exactly which child needed a hug and which one needed to be left alone.

Not the woman I’d only just started realizing I wanted back.

I pushed myself away from the desk.

My chair scraped violently against the floor.

I grabbed my keys and practically ran out of the office.

I made it to my car.

Then stopped.

My hand went to the door handle.

Nothing.

I stared at it.

My fingers were trembling so badly I couldn’t even seem to make them work properly.

“Come on.”

I tried again.

The handle slipped beneath my palm.

I closed my eyes and inhaled.

Where was I supposed to go?

The hospital.

The kids.

Lydia.

My children were with Anna, but Lydia was lying somewhere in a hospital fighting for her life.

How could I sit with the kids when their mother might—

No.

I cut the thought off before it finished.

I couldn’t think like that.

I couldn’t.

I stepped away from the car and pulled out my phone.

My fingers moved almost mechanically as I opened a ride app and typed in the address Anna had given me.

I didn’t trust myself to drive.

Not tonight.

Not with my head feeling like it was being torn apart from the inside.

The ride arrived within minutes.

I climbed into the back seat and gave the driver the address without saying anything else.

The moment the car pulled away from the curb, I leaned my head against the window.

Cold glass met my temple.

It helped.

A little.

The night air slipped through the slightly open window, cool against my face, and I welcomed it greedily

Because my thoughts were moving too fast.

What if she doesn’t make it?

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What if the surgery fails?

What if the kids wake up tomorrow and their mother is gone?

What if I never get the chance to tell her-

I squeezed my eyes shut.

No.

She was going to make it.

She had to.

Thirty minutes had never felt so long.

When the car finally stopped outside Anna’s house, I barely waited for it to come to a complete half before getting out.

I hurried through the entrance without even looking properly at the architecture surrounding me. Under any other circumstances, I probably would have stopped to admire the enormous property, the manicured grounds, the warm lights spilling through the windows.

Tonight, it could have been a castle.

I wouldn’t have noticed.

I pushed through the door.

“Dadddd!”

Two small bodies came charging toward me.

For one second, I couldn’t move.

Then Eli collided with my waist, followed immediately by Ava

I dropped down and pulled both of them into my arms.

“How do you know we’re here?” Eli demanded, wrapping his arms around me.

I squeezed him tighter.

“I have my ways.”

“I missed you so badly,” he announced against my chest. Then he pulled back, his face scrunched into a deeply offended expression. “I want you to tell Mom never to talk to me again. Ever.”

My smile faltered.

“Why?”

“Because she isn’t calling me.”

Ava stepped closer.

“Daddy.”

Her voice was quieter.