Too Late for Sorry, Mr. Billionaire (Chasing my Wife Back) novel Chapter 143

AMELIA'S car turned into the street four minutes later.

Hazel and her friend were now out and standing at the small veranda when the headlights swept across the pavement, and she watched her mother step out of the car, running across the lawn to meet her daughter.

"Is something wrong? You said you wanted to show me something... Did someone hurt you? Did you..." Amelia trailed off as she searched around Hazel's body for any sign that she was hurt.

"No, it's not that." Hazel said slowly. "It's actually about you, mum. About Charles, actually. There is something you need to hear, but promise me you won't get mad or cry." The corners of the girl's eyes shimmered with unshed tears.

They looked at each other across the pavement.

"Show me," Amelia said.

Hazel held up her phone and pressed play. Amelia stood in the fading afternoon light and listened to the recording from beginning to end without speaking, without moving, without any change in her expression except for one moment... when Charles laughed about neither of them going anywhere.

When it finished, she handed the phone back to Hazel.

"How much of the conversation did you get?" she asked calmly, holding her daughter's hands in hers.

"Most of it," Hazel said. "I started immediately I recognized his voice. I knew that something wasn't right."

"You got the key parts?" Amelia asked again to be sure.

"All of them."

Amelia nodded slowly. She looked at the lawn of the house, then at the street, then back at her daughter.

"How are you?" she asked.

Hazel blinked. Of all the things she had expected her mother to say, that was not among them.

"I'm okay," she said. "I'm just..." She paused. "I'm angry for you. After everything you have been through, now this... It's..."

"I know," Amelia said gently. "Thank you."

"What are you going to do? That's his house," she pointed at the bungalow.

Amelia looked at the house for a moment. Then she said, "I'm going to end the relationship. Tonight, if possible." She looked at Hazel, and did not elaborate that she already knew about it. "But not here, and not now. You go home. I will handle this."

"Mom—"

"Hazel." Her voice was soft but absolute. "Go home. To your father's house and take care of your brothers. I will be back before nine."

Hazel studied her mother's face for a long moment. She knew that expression. It was something akin to the calm before a storm. Like she had already made her decision and there was nothing anyone could do to change her mind. She had seen it before Shantel was arrested. She had seen it before Charles was made to listen to the recording from Shantel's house. It was the expression of a woman who was done deliberating and had arrived at action.

"Okay," Hazel trusted her mother on this, but she knew she would tell her father once she got home. But when she ruminated on it, she didn't know if that was the right course of action to take. She felt really helpless at this point.

Amelia nodded once, then reached out and squeezed her daughter's hand briefly. Then she got back into her car and called Charles.

He answered on the second ring, his voice warm and easy.

"Hey, baby. Everything okay?"

"Can you come over?" she said softly in a way that always got Charles. "Tonight? I need to talk to you."

There was a brief pause.

"Of course. Is something wrong?"

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