Chapter 250 Everyone has the bigsins
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Chapter 250 Everyone has their biases.
Mia’s POV
“I’m sorry,” Thomas said finally. “About today. About all of it.”
I glanced at him sideways. In the dim light, his profile looked tired, stressed in a way I rarely saw him. “Which part are you sorry about?”
“Victoria calling me without giving me the full picture. Me not checking with you first. The whole mess.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I honestly thought I was walking into a situation where Madison needed support after being bullied. I never imagined…”
“That my sons were the ones being targeted?”
“That Victoria would use Madison that way,” he corrected. “When she called, she was crying, saying Madison had been hurt and humiliated by other children. She made it sound like an emergency.”
I considered this. It wasn’t entirely Thomas’s fault-Victoria was clearly skilled at manipulation. But that didn’t completely absolve him either.
“Thomas,” I said carefully, “I need to be honest with you about something.”
“Okay.”
“I think Victoria has romantic feelings for you. Or at least some kind of possessiveness that goes way beyond friendship.”
He stopped walking abruptly. “What? No. Mia, that’s not… Victoria was Theo’s wife. She’s grieving. She’s just-”
“She’s marking her territory,” I interrupted. “The way she touched you at the wedding. The way she talks about Madison needing a father figure. The way she positioned herself as the damsel in distress today, needing you to rescue her and her daughter.”
Thomas was quiet for a moment, processing this. When he spoke again, his voice was thoughtful but skeptical. ” Even if that were true-and I don’t think it is-it wouldn’t change anything between us.”
“Wouldn’t it?” I asked, stopping to face him directly. “Because from where I’m standing, it already has. Victoria inserted herself and her daughter into our lives specifically to create conflict. And it worked.”
“Mia-”
“Let me finish,” I said, holding up a hand. “I’m not asking you to choose between me and Victoria. But I am asking you to be honest about what’s happening here. Because if you can’t see it, if you can’t set appropriate boundaries, then I don’t want this relationship.”
The words came out harsher than I’d intended, but I didn’t take them back. I’d learned too much about my own worth to settle for drama and complications when I could have peace.
Thomas stared at me, clearly struggling with something. “You really think Victoria is interested in me romantically?”
“I don’t know. But I know she sees me and my boys as obstacles to getting what she wants.”
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Chapter 250 Everyone has their biot
+15 Bonus
We resumed walking, the path taking us past the empty swings that moved gently in the night breeze.
“After Theo died,” Thomas said slowly, “I did help Victoria a lot. With funeral arrangements, financial paperwork, helping Madison adjust. It was what Theo would have wanted.”
“That’s admirable,” I said, and I meant it. “But helping someone through grief is different from becoming responsible for solving all their problems forever.”
“Madison really does need stability,” he continued, as if he hadn’t heard me. “She lost her father when she was barely four. It’s natural that she’d attach to male figures in her life.”
I felt a familiar frustration building. “Thomas, Madison’s attachment to you isn’t the problem. The problem is Victoria using that attachment as a weapon against my children.”
We’d completed a full circle of the park and were back where we started. The conversation felt similarly circular –we kept covering the same ground without making real progress.
Thomas was quiet for a long moment. When he spoke, his voice was small, uncertain. “I honestly don’t see Victoria as having romantic intentions toward me. Mia, perhaps you have never seen the love between her and Theo.”
I studied his face in the streetlight. There was something there-not deception exactly, but maybe willful blindness. Sometimes people don’t see what they don’t want to see.
Everyone has their biases.
We stood there in the quiet park, the weight of unspoken truths hanging between us. In the distance, I could hear a siren-police or ambulance, impossible to tell which. The sound faded as quickly as it had come, leaving us in silence again.
“I don’t know what to think anymore,” Thomas admitted finally.
“You don’t have to figure it all out tonight,” I said gently. “But I need you to understand that this affects my children. Alexander and Ethan have been through enough upheaval in their short lives. I won’t let them be hurt by adult drama again.”
“Again?”
The word slipped out before I could stop it. I’d been thinking about Kyle, about the chaos and abandonment that had shaped the early years of the twins’ lives. But Thomas didn’t need to hear about that right now.
“It’s late,” I said instead. “We should both get some sleep and let everything settle before we make any decisions.”
“Mia, wait.” Thomas caught my arm gently as I turned toward my building. “Are we okay? I mean, are we going to be okay?”
I looked at him-this good, kind man who’d been nothing but wonderful to me and my boys for four years. He didn’t deserve to be caught up in Victoria’s games any more than the twins did.
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