Too Late To Love Me I Already Left With His Twins (Lydia and Dave) novel Chapter 209

Careful.

Very much Lydia’s child.

Eli nodded too.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

Then after a pause he added,

“You were still extremely stupid though.”

“Eli,” Ava sighed.

“What? Accountability matters.”

I laughed helplessly under my breath.

“It does.”

The twins exchanged one of those silent looks they always seemed to have between themselves before Ava finally spoke again.

“We’ll tell mum what we think later.”

Not rejection.

Not acceptance either.

Just honesty.

And honestly?

I would take that.

Because for the first time since coming back into their lives, this conversation did not feel like I was performing fatherhood.

It felt like I had finally taken the first real step into it.

-----

That man?

Dave pov

The moment I stepped outside Lydia’s house, I just stood there beside the car for a few seconds without moving.

The afternoon sun was warm against my face but honestly I barely felt it.

I could still hear their voices in my head.

Small voices asking very adult questions.

Questions children their age should never have needed to ask in the first place.

And God.

The worst part was that every single question had been deserved.

I rubbed my hand down my face slowly before exhaling hard.

My driver opened the back door carefully.

“Sir?”

“Yeah,” I muttered quietly. “Yeah.”

I got inside finally, leaning my head back against the seat immediately as the car pulled away from the estate.

For a while nobody spoke.

Not my driver.

Not me.

Just the soft hum of traffic moving around us while my brain replayed the entire conversation upstairs over and over again.

Eli’s face when he asked me if I left because something was wrong with them.

Ava quietly asking if I would disappear again once things became inconvenient.

Jeez.

I swallowed hard.

Because no business meeting had ever made me feel as stripped open as two six year olds calmly asking me why I did not love them enough the first time, before they were born.

The car stopped briefly at a traffic light and I glanced absentmindedly outside at pedestrians crossing the road.

Life just continued normally for everybody else meanwhile I felt like somebody had taken a hammer directly to my chest.

My phone buzzed beside me.

Three missed calls.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Ashton.”

I nodded politely.

“Afternoon.”

The elevator ride up felt painfully quiet.

And the moment I entered the suite, my work phone started ringing again.

Right.

Reality.

I dropped my keys onto the table before answering.

Teat mung

+20 Bonus

“Yeah.”

The acting CEO sounded relieved immediately.

“Finally. Dave, thank God. The Singapore investors are asking for final confirmation and legal wants your approval before the market opens tomorrow.”

I walked toward the floor to ceiling windows slowly, staring out across the city skyline.

“Send me the revised projections.”

“We already did.”

“Then resend them.”

A pause.

“You okay?”

“Perfect.”

He snorted softly.

“That sounded extremely unperfect.”

“I’m fine.”