Lahat ng Kabanata ng I Married the Man My Ex Could Never Compete With : Kabanata 71 - Kabanata 80

Lydia POV The estate is beautiful. That’s the strange part. If someone dropped me here without context, I would probably call it peaceful. The property stretches across acres of land. Tall trees shield the house from the outside world, and the quiet feels almost luxurious compared to the chaos of the city. But beauty and freedom are not the same thing. And the longer I stay here, the more obvious that difference becomes. The first morning I wake up inside the estate, I forget where I am. For a few seconds, everything feels normal. Then I hear the sound of a door scanner unlocking somewhere down the hallway. And I remember. The fortress. The biometric gates. The security teams. Adrian. I sit up slowly in the large bed and glance toward the windows. The curtains are partially open, letting soft gray morning light spill into the room. Outside, the lawn stretches toward the tree line. And near the edge of the property, I can see a guard walking his patrol route. So much f

Lydia POV The estate is quiet in a way that doesn’t feel natural. At first, I thought it would be peaceful. No reporters outside the gates. No endless cameras flashing whenever I step into public. No analysts speculating about the child growing inside me like it’s a financial asset. But silence, I’m starting to realize, has its own weight. By the third day here, the quiet begins to feel heavier than the noise ever did. I wake before sunrise. Not because I want to, but because sleep has become shallow lately. Pregnancy probably plays a role. So does the constant awareness that somewhere beyond the trees surrounding this estate, people are trying to reach us. I sit up slowly and glance toward the window. The property stretches across the dark landscape like a private world. Security lights glow faintly along the stone walls, and one of the guards is already making his patrol across the southern lawn. They never stop moving. Day or night. Someone is always watching. At first,

Lydia’s POV Something changes the moment Adrian receives the letter. He doesn’t say anything about it. No announcement. No explanation. No casual mention over dinner. But I notice the shift anyway. Because living with someone teaches you the rhythm of their behavior. The way they move through a room. The tone they use when they speak to people. The pauses between their words. Adrian’s rhythm changes. Subtly. Almost invisibly. But enough that I feel it. That evening the estate feels ten degrees colder. Security is tighter again. More guards appear near the outer gates. I see Owen speaking quietly with two officers in the hallway like they’re reviewing new instructions. No one tells me why. No one needs to. Adrian walks through the house like a man solving a problem that hasn’t revealed its full shape yet. Calm. Focused. But distant. I find him in the study around nine. The room is dim except for the desk lamp casting light across a stack of document

Lydia POV I used to think pregnancy was something private. Something quiet. Something that belonged to two people preparing for a child. Now I understand how naïve that idea was. Because in my life, nothing stays private for long. Not the marriage. Not the scandals. And definitely not the baby growing inside me. The explosion starts on a Tuesday morning. At first, it looks like just another headline. By noon, it’s everywhere. I’m sitting in the sunroom when Margaret brings my tea and gently places the tablet beside the cup. “Mrs. Cole,” she says carefully, “you may want to see this.” That tone alone tells me the news won’t be pleasant. I glance at the screen. The headline is impossible to miss. COLE HEIR: WILL ADRIAN COLE’S UNBORN CHILD CONTROL THE COMPANY? I stare at the words. For a moment I feel like I’m reading about someone else. A stranger. Some public figure who exists only in financial headlines. Except that the stranger happens to be me. I open the arti

Lydia POV I know something is wrong before Adrian says a single word. It’s the way the house feels. The estate has always been quiet, but tonight the silence is different. Heavier. Like the air itself is waiting for something to happen. Security moved twice in the last hour. New guards at the inner gate. Owen was walking through the hallway with a tablet, speaking in low voices with the surveillance team. No one explains anything to me. They rarely do. But I’ve lived long enough inside Adrian’s world now to recognize the signs. Something shifted again. And whatever it is… it isn’t small. I find Adrian in the study. The room is dim except for the soft light from the desk lamp. Papers are spread across the table in front of him—financial reports, legal documents, stock movement charts. War maps. That’s what they look like to me now. He’s standing with one hand braced against the desk, staring down at the documents like he’s trying to dismantle them with logic alone. “Adr