Mr Billionaire's Regret Chasing His Irresistible Wife (Jared and Arielle) novel Chapter 84

(JARED'S POV)

Eight months—it’s been eight months, but it feels like an eternity. My life has spiraled in ways I never anticipated, and not for the better. Sofia and I... we were never meant to be. I see that now.

What started as an escape—maybe from my own demons—has become another prison, one I built with my own hands. Regret gnaws at me, but it’s too late. Too late to fix what I’ve broken.

The moment Sofia lost the baby, everything changed. I wasn’t ready for it—not for the life she carried, and certainly not for its loss. But as the weight of the grief sank in, I realized it wasn’t just her child I was mourning.

It was the child I lost with Arielle.

The one I could have had. The one I wasn’t there for.

I can still hear Sofia’s voice from that day—shrill, desperate. It rings in my ears even now, haunting me in quiet moments.

(Flashback)

I was knee-deep in paperwork, trying to escape into the dull routine of the office when my phone buzzed on my desk. Sofia’s name flashed on the screen, and I felt a sinking feeling in my gut before I even answered.

"Jared, my water just broke!" Her voice trembled, fear tightening each word.

I froze for a second, then bolted out of my chair. "I’m coming!" I practically shouted, my heart already pounding.

The drive home was a blur. I don’t even remember how I got her into the car—only that I was driving like a madman, panic gnawing at me with each second. I had to get her there in time. I had to make sure this didn’t go wrong.

But it did. Everything went wrong.

The baby... the baby didn’t make it.

The doctor’s words were a haze of medical jargon and apologies, but all I heard was the finality of it: gone. Another life I couldn’t save. The suffocating weight of it wrapped around my chest like a vise. My mind flashed back to Arielle. To the night she lost our child, alone.

To my own absence.

This—this was my punishment, wasn’t it? For neglecting her. For not being there when it mattered. Now, I was here, but it didn’t change anything. The universe was making me pay for what I’d done. Another child, gone. Another failure on my shoulders.

I felt sick as I walked into Sofia’s room, the grief too raw to contain. How was I supposed to tell her? How was I supposed to be the bearer of that kind of agony?

She opened her eyes, still groggy but searching, hopeful. "Where’s my baby?"

I couldn’t speak. My throat closed up, the words stuck behind the thick wall of guilt. "Sofia..." I began, but my voice cracked. "The baby didn’t make it."

I’ll never forget the way her face crumbled. She screamed. Sobbed. Wailed until the sound of her grief filled every corner of the room, sharp enough to pierce through my bones. She shattered, and I just stood there, helpless.

I couldn’t save her from this pain any more than I could have saved the child.

The doctors brought the baby’s body. Sofia clung to it, rocking back and forth, whispering desperate prayers into the baby’s cold skin. I thought I’d seen the depths of pain, but nothing prepared me for that.

Her grief was wild, uncontainable, and it only dragged me deeper into my own.

I had failed again.

And things got worse from there. Sofia's grief metamorphosed into anger and bitterness, making her a total stranger I could barely recognize.

******

I was still lost in thought, replaying the painful memories, when a knock on the door jolted me back to reality.