Too Late for Sorry, Mr. Billionaire (Chasing my Wife Back) novel Chapter 134

THE house was quiet at night, but she still wasn't able to sleep. Both boys were asleep, Hazel's light was off, and the city outside had settled into its low nighttime hum. Amelia sat at the kitchen table in her robe with a cup of tea she had made twenty minutes ago and hadn't touched, staring at nothing in particular.

She had come home from work early, kissed the boys when they came back from school, sat through homework supervision with Gaddiel, listened to Gabriel tell a very long story about something that happened at break time, and did all of it with the careful, present attention she always gave them. Because they didn't understand why her presence felt heavy around them today. They were seven years old and they needed their mother present, not a haunted and broken woman.

But now they were asleep, and the house was quiet, and there was nothing left to focus on except the thing she had been pushing to the edges of her mind all day.

Vivian.

She picked up the tea, took a sip, and set it back down. When she couldn't stay in the kitchen again, she made her way towards her bedroom. The knock on her bedroom door came softly around nine-thirty. She looked up, slightly startled.

"Mom?" Hazel's voice came through the wood.

"Come in, sweetheart." She answered softly and began to sit up.

Hazel pushed the door open and leaned against the frame, still in her school hoodie. She hadn't taken it off to wear her nightwear. She looked at her mother sitting on the bed alone in the half-dark with the untouched tea.

"Are you okay? You seemed kind of distant today. Is everything okay?" she asked as she made her way towards her mother's bed.

"Come sit with me," Amelia said instead of answering.

Hazel came, climbed into the bed and sat down. She didn't push immediately. She just looked at her mother the way Amelia had looked at her countless times— with patience, waiting for whatever needed to come out to find its own way.

"Uncle Valentine brought his girlfriend to meet me Saturday," Amelia said finally.

Hazel nodded slowly.

"I know. You told me he was planning to."

"Did he tell you anything about her?"

"Just that she was really special, and he loved her so much." Something twisted in Amelia's heart as she heard the word 'love'. She knew it. She knew that Vale loved Vivian, and could literally see it in his eyes that evening. Hazel tilted her head slightly. "Why? What happened?"

Amelia wrapped both hands around the mug.

"The girl he brought," she said carefully, "is someone from my past. Our past... This family's past. Someone connected to a very painful time of our life."

Hazel was quiet for a moment.

"Connected in what way?"

Amelia looked at her daughter— this fifteen-year-old who had already seen more of life's complications than most adults, who had sat across from her on countless difficult nights and handled the truth better than most people twice her age. She deserved honesty.

"You know what I think, mom?" she leaned her head into her mother's shoulder, and Amelia welcomed the warmth it brought to her. The feeling that she was not alone in this world.

"What?" She hummed softly, pressing a kiss on the top of her daughter's head.

"I think the fact that it still hurts doesn't mean you haven't healed. It just means it mattered." Hazel paused and squeezed her hand softly. "You are allowed to feel it, Mom. You don't have to be okay about everything immediately."

Amelia looked at her daughter for a long moment with a small smile forming on her face.

"When did you get so wise?"

"I learned from someone," Hazel said simply, digging her body into her mom's and smiling faintly. She loved it when her mother complimented her mind.

Amelia smiled faintly. It was small and tired, but it was real.

They talked for another half hour about small things mostly, school, the boys, something funny Gaddiel had said at dinner. The calm lightness of it was a gift Hazel gave her without making it obvious, and Amelia accepted it gratefully.

When Hazel finally said goodnight and padded back down the hallway, Amelia sat alone again. She looked at her phone. There were two missed calls from Adrian— one from earlier in the evening, one from just after nine. She looked at his name on the screen for a long moment because she didn't know what to feel, especially as Vivian was back in the picture. She couldn't help but ask herself if he knew she was back... and how did that make her feel?

She stared at the screen for a while and then she put the phone face down on the table, finished her cold tea in one long sip, and went to bed. This time, sleep came easily, and she knew it was because she had been able to sort her heart and mind out with the help of her daughter.