Dear Ex Wife Please take me back novel Chapter 108

ALEX

“You look like shit.”

Luca leans back in his chair, brown eyes sweeping over me like he’s confirming a diagnosis.

“Shit doesn’t cover it,” Iann chimes in, and I throw him a glare that lacks the heat it usually carries.

They're both right.

I do look like hell.

“Should I pour you a drink?” Luca offers, but I shake my head.

“Rayen’s birthday party starts in an hour. I’m not showing up stinking of whiskey.”

Luca whistles. “Look at you being responsible.”

I rub at my temples, head throbbing from more than just the sleepless nights.

“I just… I don’t get it.”

That makes them both pause. I never start conversations like this. I usually keep things buried, neat, and tucked somewhere no one can find them, but something’s been cracking lately.

“Get what?” Luca edges me on.

“Athena.” Her name feels like gravel in my throat.

“She’s been… amazing with Rayen. Like really good to him. He's already sent me a picture of the gift she just took to him, some Lego game, and he swears it's the best thing he's ever gotten.”

I let out a dry laugh.

“I bought him four actual cars. But sure, let’s all worship the plastic blocks.”

Iann raises a brow, clearly confused,

“You’re stressed because she's good to your son?”

I lean forward, elbows on my knees.

“Yes. I mean not for that reason, but I've been wrecking my brain trying to figure out why she's so good to Rayen when she-” My voice breaks, “When she got rid of our child.”

My jaw clenches so hard at the memory of those goddamn photos, “She didn’t want to be a mother. Not a mother of my child anyway."

My voice sounds foreign in my own ears, hoarse and bitter, like something scraped up from the bottom of a bottle I never drank.

"You should see her with Noah or the bastard, Zayan.”

I continue, fingers tightening into fists. “She's carefree and laughs at almost everything. I've seen my cousin grow. He couldn't make a dollar from telling a funny joke. So it baffles me what she finds so damn funny!”

And where the hell is Zayan in all of this? Wasn’t he the reason? The man she gave up everything for? Why isn’t she with him? Why isn’t he her husband yet?

The question haunts me.

Is she with him but hiding it?

Was it worth it, giving up our little boy’s life for?

And if not, if she’s not with him, then what the hell was it all for?

My stomach knots at the thought. Because if she did it for nothing, if she’s not with him, if they’re not building some kind of perfect life together, then she really did kill our child for nothing.

“I’m losing it,” I mutter, raking my fingers through my hair.

Iann’s quiet for a moment before he says,

“You’re not losing it. You’re in love with her.”

I look up at him like his lost his mind. Which I suspect he has.