Lahat ng Kabanata ng Too late, Ex. NOW WATCH ME RISE: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 8

The campus of the city university was bustling with students holding schedules, buying textbooks, and rushing between buildings. Lillian stood in the administrative office, holding a folder containing her old transcripts. It had been nearly three years since she last walked through these halls, and the familiar smell of floor wax and old books brought a sudden rush of nostalgia. “Everything seems to be in order, Miss Harper,” the academic advisor said, looking up from his computer screen with a pleasant smile. “Since you completed your first two years with excellent grades, we can reinstate you into the clinical program starting next week. You’ll have to make up a few updated laboratory modules, but you can easily graduate within two years.” Lillian felt a massive weight lift from her shoulders. “Thank you, Dr. Evans. You have no idea what this means to me.” “We are glad to have you back,” he said, handing her a printed schedule. “Welcome back to the nursing department.” Lillian wa

Chapter 5Lillian’s phone nearly slipped from her hand. “I’m sorry,” she said slowly. “Can you repeat that?”“Mr. William Brooks passed away early this morning,” attorney Gerald Haines repeated. “And you are named as a beneficiary in his will. We would like you to come in at your earliest convenience.”Lillian pressed her back against the kitchen wall. Her mind was moving in three directions at once.William Brooks was dead.The man who had arranged her marriage with Nathaniel. The man who, despite everything, had always treated Lillian with a strange kind of fondness that she never fully understood.Dead!?“When did it happen?” she asked.“Early this morning. Around four a.m.,” the attorney said. “He died from a cardiac arrest.”Four a.m. Lillian thought about Nathaniel showing up at her mother’s door looking like he had not slept. Now she understood why.“Does Nathaniel know?” she asked before she could stop herself.There was a brief pause and then Gerald Haines said. “Mr. Brooks w

Chapter 3The next morning, her phone woke her up at seven. It was not her alarm.It was a call from a number she did not recognize. She almost ignored it, but something made her pick up.“Hello?” Lillian answered grudgingly.“Lillian Harper?” The female voice was almost too calm.“Yes. Who is this?”There was a short pause and then, “It’s Vanessa Clarke, Nathaniel's current girlfriend.”Lillian’s whole body went still. Of all the things she had expected this morning; her mother calling her for breakfast, maybe a follow-up from Nathaniel’s lawyers, this was not it.Lillian sat up slowly, her fingers tightening around the phone. “How did you get this number?” She asked.“That doesn’t matter,” Vanessa said. “I think we need to talk.”“I have nothing to say to you.”“Maybe not,” Vanessa replied. “But I have something to say to you. Something important. Something that will make this easier for both of us.”Lillian laughed, but it came out hollow. “Nathaniel told you already?”“He told me

Chapter 1Lillian heard the front door open and felt her shoulders relax for the first time all day. She was not sure what made her do it.Maybe it was the strange feeling she had carried all day, that quiet anxiety in her chest that told her something bad was about to happen.She had spent the entire afternoon cooking jollof rice and grilled chicken, Nathaniel’s favourite. She had also cleaned the house from top to bottom, ironed his shirts, and left his evening clothes folded neatly on the bed. The same routine she had kept for three years.She and Nathaniel had met when she was thirteen and he was sixteen. He was the son of William Brooks, her father’s closest business associate.Back then, Nathaniel barely acknowledged her. But Lillian had fallen for him completely. She had carried that feeling all through her teenage years.When their fathers sat them both down at twenty and twenty-three and proposed the marriage arrangement, Nathaniel had agreed without much expression.His fath