Chapter 123 The Hand of Fate
Mia’s POV
“Mia.”
The voice, that voice, snapped me back to reality with jarring suddenness.
I turned my head. My eyes flew open to find Kyle standing a few feet away, his expression guarded but his posture hesitant.
The second time. “Are you following me?” I blurted.
“No.” He gestured to a building visible just beyond the park’s edge. “My meeting was there. I saw you from the window.”
I wanted to believe it was another coincidence, but the statistical improbability, strained credulity. Paris was too big, with too many parks and too many paths for these encounters to be chance
I think I was angry.
“What do you want, Kyle?” I asked, suddenly tired of the games, the half–truths, the careful dance we’d been performing since the divorce.
He hesitated, then sat beside me, leaving a careful distance between us. His closeness sent an unwanted ripple of awareness through me. Purely subconscious. For the familiar scent of his cologne, the warmth radiating from his body.
“Is it true?” he asked after a moment of tense silence. “About you and Wallace.”
I should have anticipated the question, should have prepared an answer that would shut down this conversation before it began. But exhaustion and honesty conspired against me.
“No,” I admitted, unable to maintain the lie. “We’re just friends. He is helping me get rid of things I don’t want.”
“He seemed quite… proprietary for ‘just friends.“”
“He was being protective,” I corrected, bristling at his tone. “Why do you care, Kyle. You are upsetting me. What on earth are you trying to pull?”
“I don’t mean to upset you.” His voice softened, losing some of its edge. “That’s the last thing I want.”
“But you already have, whether or not you want to. Why are you here, Kyle? Why did you really come to Paris?”
He was quiet for a long moment, his gaze fixed on something in the middle distance. “The Legrand acquisition is real,” he said finally. “But no, it’s not why I came.”
“Then why?”
“Because you’ve been avoiding me,” he said simply. “Because we have things to discuss that can’t wait any longer.” He stopped
abruptly, his jaw tightening.
“Okay. You want to give me money, money for “your babies“. I accept. Are we finished? Can you go now?”
He looked at me, his gray eyes growing dark. I hadn’t looked at Kyle like that in a long time. I could even see his tiny mustache. What had made everything turn out like this?
He lowered his head. “I lied. I came to Paris because-
“Because what?”
His eyes met mine, storm–gray and intense. “Because I missed you”
I froze for a second. That was a very sweet thing to hear. Although reminded myself that it was just a carefully crafted lie.
“Don’t,” I whispered. “Don’t say things like that.”
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Chapter 123 The Hand of fete
+25 BONUS
“Why not? It’s the truth.”
“The truth?” I repeated, anger flaring hot and sudden. “Can’t you top lying to yourself, Kyle? I’m really sick of it! Do you know how to spell the word love?“.
I stood up. “You want to talk about truth, Kyle? The truth is that you only ‘missed‘ me after you found out I was the girl from your childhood. After you realized Taylor had been lying to you all along. I’m just… what? Some replacement for your shattered fantasy?”
His expression hardened but said nothing.
“Isn’t it?” I challenged, past caring about making a scene. “You don’t love me at all, you don’t love the woman standing in front of you! Do you really see me? You were with me for three years. You had three years, for god, Kyle! You fucked me every night. But you don’t know anything about me! Three years of marriage to see me, to know me, to choose me. And you never did! You’re only saying this now because you happen to know that I’m the little girl from your memory. And she could be anyone!”
Tears welled up in my eyes, and I let them stream down my cheeks
Kyle also stood up. He was much taller than me. He wanted to wipe my
“Mia-”
“If you tell me you love me again, then you can just fuck off.” My voice He flinched as if I’d struck him. “It’s not that simple.”
tears
away. But I turned my head away.
cracked with emotion I couldn’t suppress.
“No, it’s exactly that simple,” I insisted, tears threatening despite my best efforts to hold them back. “Kyle, please leave me alone. I hate myself for even talking to you. I don’t want to have anything to do with you anymore..”
“That’s not true. I cared about you. I still care about you. Not just because you are the girl.“he said, his voice low and intense. “Care?” I laughed, the sound brittle even to my own ears. “That’s a bloodless word, Kyle. Like something from a corporate memo. ‘We care about our employees‘ wellbeing. I am tired. Let me go.”
“I am sorry, Mia.” A rare flash of genuine frustration broke through his controlled exterior. “I made mistakes. I was blind and stupid. I just… I’m trying to make it right.”
“There is no making it right.” I gathered my flowers, preparing to stand. “Some things can’t be fixed. Some things are just broken.”
As I struggled to my feet, awkward with the weight of the twins, Kyle automatically reached out to help me. I stepped back quickly, nearly losing my balance in the process. My flowers slipped from my grasp, scattering across the gravel path,
“Don’t-“I started, but the warning came too late.
As I bent awkwardly, trying to reach for the bouquet, something slipped from my jacket pocket, landing with a soft clink among the fallen flowers. The pendant.
Why is it here? Is God messing with me?
I guess I’d inexplicably tucked into this jacket pocket and forgotten about.
Then I accidentally packed this jacket in my suitcase. And then chose to wear it before leaving the hotel.
Wow. Fate is really set up. It made the pendant appear at this moment. Just like a huge mockery. Kyle froze. But soon he reached down in a smooth motion, retrieving both the flowers and the pendant.
