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19. Growing Distance
publish date:
2026-06-23 19:50:01
Latest chapter
The Wife He Chose Too Late 26. The Kiss
Claire's POVOne day, that was all we had left.By tomorrow evening, the contract that had governed the last four years of my life would come to an end.The realization should have terrified me but instead, it settled over me with a quiet numbness that I no longer had the strength to fight.The days since I had stayed with Olivia had blurred together into an endless routine of work, polite conversations, and carefully maintained distance.Damien seemed to have accepted it or perhaps he welcomed it.He no longer stopped by my office unless he needed something work-related. The casual conversations we'd once shared over coffee disappeared. Lunches became board meetings. Even the drive home, on the rare occasions we left the office together, was filled with silence or phone calls that had nothing to do with us.There wasn't an us anymore. There was only Mr. Laurent and the woman who happened to be working for him until the divorce became official.I had stopped trying to read meaning int
The Wife He Chose Too Late 25. Replaced
Claire's POVI woke to the smell of freshly brewed coffee and the unfamiliar comfort of knowing I didn't have to pretend.For one night, I hadn't been Mrs. Laurent, I hadn't been Damien's assistant and I hadn't been the woman silently carrying a child whose father had already told her there would never be an us.I had simply been Claire.Olivia was already in the kitchen when I wandered into the living area. She stood barefoot in an oversized T-shirt, humming softly while pouring coffee into two mugs.She looked over her shoulder and offered me a small smile. "You look terrible."A laugh escaped me before I could stop it. "I appreciate your honesty.""I figured you didn't need false hope before breakfast." She slid one of the mugs across the marble island. "I also made toast, but I wasn't entirely convinced you'd eat it.""I'll try."She watched me carefully while I took a sip of coffee. "How are you feeling?"I thought about the question longer than I expected. "I think..." I paused,
The Wife He Chose Too Late 24. Home Isn't Home Anymore
Claire's POVThe elevator carried me down to the lobby in complete silence. I stood staring at my reflection in the polished steel doors, barely recognizing the woman looking back at me. My makeup had survived the day, but I wasn't sure anything else had. Damien's words refused to leave my mind.You deserve someone who falls in love with you. I know I'm not that man.He hadn't said those words to hurt me. He had spoken with kindness because he honestly believed he was doing the right thing. Somehow that made everything worse. If he had been angry, I could have hated him. If he had blamed me, I could have defended myself. If he had walked away without looking back, I could have convinced myself he had never cared at all. Instead, he had thanked me for four years of loyalty before setting me free with the same care someone might use when returning something precious that had never really belonged to them.The cool evening air met me as I stepped outside Laurent Group. Employees poured o
The Wife He Chose Too Late 23. The words she feared
Claire's POVThe conversation I had overheard outside the conference room stayed with me for the rest of the day.I kept telling myself that Damien hadn't said anything cruel. He hadn't mocked me or spoken badly about our marriage. He had simply talked about the contract the way we had in the beginning, with honesty and the certainty that it would end exactly as we had agreed.That wasn't what hurt.What hurt was realizing that somewhere along the way I had stopped thinking of our marriage as a contract but Damien hadn't.By the time everyone else left for the evening, the executive floor had grown unusually quiet. The cleaning staff moved from office to office, emptying wastebaskets and wiping fingerprints from the glass conference tables while the last few executives headed for the elevators with their briefcases in hand.I sat alone at my desk, trying to focus on the gala schedules spread out in front of me.The guest list blurred together until the words stopped making sense. I re
The Wife He Chose Too Late 22. The Wife
Claire's POVThe charity gala was only a few weeks away and it felt as though the entire company had gone into panic mode.By Monday morning emails were piling up faster than I could answer them and people kept stopping by my office with new questions, new requests and new problems that needed attention.As usual most of it eventually landed on my desk.I sat at the conference table surrounded by contracts, schedules, guest lists, seating plans and more coffee than any one person should probably drink in a day.Part of me found it almost funny because in eleven days, I wouldn't be working here anymore or at least, that was the plan yet people were still handing me new projects as if nothing was changing."Claire." One of the board members pushed a folder toward me. "Can you look through this before we send it to Damien?"I took the folder without even thinking about it. "Of course.""Thank God."The older man leaned back in his chair. "Nobody knows how Damien likes things done better
The Wife He Chose Too Late 21. The Gala
Claire's POVThe next morning wasn't much different from the mornings that had come before it. I hadn't slept well and I had spent far too much time lying awake thinking about things I couldn't change and no matter how hard I tried to focus on something else I kept going back to the same conversation.Have you thought about what you want after the divorce?Damien hadn't asked the question to be cruel if anything, he had sounded concerned and that was probably what bothered me most because if he had been angry, I could have argued with him. If he had been cold, I could have blamed him for it but instead, he had asked the question quietly, as though he genuinely wanted to know the answer and for some reason, that made it harder to forget.By the time I arrived at Laurent Group, I had done my best to stop thinking about the conversation from the night before. There wasn't much point dwelling on it anyway. The company wasn't going to slow down because my marriage was falling apart. Client
The Wife He Chose Too Late 6. The Morning After
Claire's POVDamien wasn't home, of course he wasn't.I stepped inside anyway, but the apartment felt different. Larger somehow. Colder. The silence seemed to stretch endlessly through the empty rooms, and for the first time since discovering I was pregnant, fear settled heavily in my chest. It wasn
The Wife He Chose Too Late 5. The Woman Who Left Him
Claire's POVThe moment I saw the name on Damien's phone screen, something inside me went completely still.Tiffany Morgan.For a second, I wondered if I had imagined it. The restaurant seemed to fade around me, the soft glow of candlelight and the murmur of nearby conversations becoming distant an
The Wife He Chose Too Late 4. A Dinner for Two
Claire's POVThe message remained open on my phone long after I had finished reading it.Outside the penthouse windows, Manhattan glittered beneath the deepening evening sky, its countless lights stretching toward the horizon like stars scattered across black velvet. Normally I loved this view. The
The Wife He Chose Too Late 3. The Wife in Everything But Name
Claire's POVThe next morning, I left the penthouse before Damien not because I had an early meeting and not because my schedule demanded it but because I couldn't bear the thought of sitting across from him at breakfast while pretending his words from the night before hadn't lodged themselves bene
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