Too Late To Love Me I Already Left With His Twins (Lydia and Dave) novel Chapter 42

Hidden

Dave POV

I opened the drawer for a contract

That was the intention.

Instead, my hand brushed paper.

Folded.

Thin.

Familiar.

And before I could stop myself, I was already looking at it.

Her note.

Still there.

Still tucked in the back right corner beneath acquisition files and legal correspondence, as though burying it under paperwork somehow made its presence less absurd.

I stared at it for a moment.

Then picked it up.

I tell myself I kept it for legal purposes.

Documentation.

Proof of voluntary departure.

Protection, in case she ever tried to complicate things later.

A sensible explanation.

A professional explanation.

One that made considerably more sense than the truth, which was that I had never once managed to throw it away.

I unfolded it carefully.

The paper had softened slightly at the creases.

Three lines.

That was all.

I love you, but I love my child more.

I wish you the happiness you were looking for.

Goodbye, Lydia.

My jaw tightened.

Even now, months later, the second line irritated me most.

The happiness you were looking for.

HICKIN

As If she had understood something about me I had not.

As if she had looked at the wreckage of us and drawn conclusions I was still not prepared to examine.

I folded it again.

Too quickly. 1

Set it down.

Picked it back up.

Read it again.

Same three lines.

Same quiet devastation.

Deliberate. Clean. Final.

It would have been easier if she had hated me loudly.

Easier if she had broken things.

Easier if she had called me names and shattered every piece of glass in the room before leaving.

Instead she had done something far worse.

She had left peacefully.

As if I were not worth one final fight.

POV: Lawyer

Mr. Halden disliked unresolved files.

In forty two years of estate practice, he had built his reputation on one simple principle:

Every document reached its intended hands. 1

Eventually.

Which was why the cream envelope on his desk had begun to irritate him.

He adjusted his glasses and looked down at it again.

Still sealed.

Unusual.

Inside were three failed contact attempts.

+20 Bonus

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify