Chapter 290:

🍙 🍙 🍙 🍙 🍙

The office door opened. Jewel and Kayden emerged. Kayden was clutching a new, crisp admission packet, her face split by a radiant, gap-toothed grin.

“Mommy, I got it!” she yelled, running toward Elisa.

Elisa swept her up in a fierce hug, burying her face in her daughter’s hair, breathing in the scent of victory. “You did it, baby,” she whispered, her voice thick. “You did it all by yourself. I’m so proud of you.”

She put Kayden down, took her hand, and without a single glance back at the wreckage of her past standing in the hallway, she walked toward the exit.

August watched them go. He watched the way Elisa’s hand rested on the little girl’s head. He watched the way the girl skipped, her small body full of a bright, vibrant energy.

And as he watched the small, retreating figure of the child, a strange, powerful, and completely unfamiliar sensation shot through him. A jolt, deep in his chest. A hollow ache.

A feeling, sharp and painful, like he had just missed something.

Something vital.

Elisa and her small, victorious party were gone.

𝘞𝘩𝗮t 𝗲𝘷er𝘺𝘰n𝖾 𝗂𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗮di𝗻𝗴 𝗼n 𝘨aln𝗼𝘷е𝗅𝗌.𝖼оm

August remained in the hallway, a statue carved from fury and confusion. Allena was still trying to talk to him, her voice a whining, irritating buzz in his ear, but he couldn’t hear her.

His mind was stuck on a loop.

She is my life.

The words echoed, stripped of their context, taking on a strange, monumental weight. He’d seen the look in Elisa’s eyes. It wasn’t the calculated affection of a woman playing a role. It was something primal. Absolute.

He thought of the little girl. Kayden. He replayed the image of her face in his mind. Those eyes. There was something about them. Clear, intelligent, and with a spark of defiance that was… familiar.

He shook his head, trying to dislodge the absurd thought.

“Simon,” he barked into his phone at his assistant. “Cancel my next meeting. I’m waiting for a call. I’ll be at the school.”

He needed a moment of quiet. He brushed past a still-complaining Allena and walked down a side corridor, finding a small, empty seating area near the elevator bank. He sank into a leather chair, rubbing his temples.

At the other end of the building, Jewel was buckling Kayden into her car seat when she realized something was missing.

“Oh, shoot. Your water bottle, sweetie. We left it in Mrs. Gable’s office.”

“I’ll get it!” Kayden chirped, already unbuckling herself. High on the thrill of her victory, she was a bundle of pure, joyful energy.

“Wait for me!” Jewel called, but Kayden was already gone, her small legs pumping as she ran back into the school building.

She rounded a corner at full speed, her eyes on the floor, her mind on her new school, her new life.

She didn’t see the man sitting in the chair.

She ran directly into his legs.

The impact sent her stumbling backward. She bounced off his expensive leather shoes, her small body pitching backward before she landed hard on the polished floor, the precious admission packet spilling from her hands.

.

.

.

Message from Noa: We’re in the final quarter of the year, my dear ones, hang in there! God loves you and Noa wishes you all the best. (ɔO‿=)ɔ ♥

.