Chapter 54 You Need To Heal
Claire
I let out a deep sigh. The expressions on their faces were unreadable, and truthfully, I was exhausted, emotionally drained, tired of carrying everything alone.
“I’m going to say this simply,” I said, my voice flat with fatigue. “Your father had an affair. I found out about it. And now, I’m having an affair too. So yes—we’ll be getting divorced.”
The words left my mouth in one long exhale.
“But what did Luppy mean about blackmail?” Isabella asked.
By then, Max had already staggered toward the nearest couch, dropping into it like his legs could no longer hold him.
“It’s not something you need to concern yourselves with,” I said quickly. “I’ve handled it.”
Riette let out a long sigh, and I avoided his eyes.
“I guess I was blind,” he said bitterly. “Blind to what was happening right under my nose. You both went this far, and I didn’t even see it coming.”
Anger edged his voice as his gaze shifted to Luppy, as though she had been hiding the most painful truth from him all along.
“I’m out of here,” he said abruptly.
He grabbed his luggage and started dragging it away.
I had expected disappointment. I had prepared myself for it. But seeing it, feeling it, was more than I could bear.
“But you just said the man is Dad’s mistress’s boyfriend,” Isa cried, tears already streaming down her face.
I felt like a fool standing there in front of my own children. I told myself they would get over it, that time would soften the blow, but even as the thought crossed my mind, doubt followed.
Would they?
I blinked back the tears threatening to spill again.
“Life doesn’t always go the way we want it to,” I said softly. I pressed my fingers to my forehead. The migraine I’d been feeling from the plane pulsed harder. “People change. Your father changed and so did I.”
I swallowed.
“I tried,” I continued. “I really tried to keep this family together. But your father made it clear he was no longer interested in this marriage.”
Suddenly, Max was on his feet.
He crossed the room in seconds, his hands clamping tightly around my arms.
“Just because Dad did it doesn’t mean you should have,” he shouted. “You could’ve told us. You could’ve divorced that bastard!”
I swallowed hard. He was right. I knew he was.
But there was nothing left to undo now. What was done… was done.
But I didn’t say anything more.
I just stood there and watched as my son broke.
His chest rose and fell erratically, emotions bubbling violently beneath the surface until Luppy stepped forward.
“Please,” she said firmly, touching his arm, “let your grip go.”
And just like that, he released me and took a step back, putting distance between us.
“That’s what you always do, Mom,” he said, breathing hard. “You bottle everything up. You try to fix things on your own. You always think you can handle it.”
Tears spilled from his eyes then, and seeing them nearly brought me to my knees.
“But you should’ve known better,” he continued. “Cheating should’ve been the last straw. But no—you still tried to carry it all.”
My tears finally fell too.
“But that's who you are,” he said brokenly. “You put on a front because you’re trying to protect your kids… while you’re dying inside.”
He was right.
In every possible way, he was right.
“And as for Dad,” he added, wiping his face roughly, “it’s good you’re finally breaking free from him. But you—” his voice cracked, “—you need to heal.”
With that, he picked up his luggage and walked away too.
My heart sank heavily in my chest. My throat tightened like a thick lump had lodged there, making it hard to breathe, harder to swallow.
Suddenly, my head began to twist painfully, a sharp wave of dizziness washing over me. I stood frozen, words completely failing me. I didn’t even know what I was doing anymore.
Isabella remained where she was, crying quietly as she watched me fall apart.
Luppy wrapped her arms around me, trying to comfort me, but it barely helped.
Some pains couldn’t be held together.
My hand loosened around my purse, and it slipped from my grasp, hitting the floor softly.
“Mom… I’m sorry that happened to you,” Isa said.
But I wasn’t listening to her. My chest tightened painfully, like something heavy was pressing down on it.
“Luppy,” I blurted out, my voice shaky. “I want water.”
My heart was pounding too fast, working harder than it should.
Luppy released me and stared at my face, her expression instantly changing. “Are you okay?” she asked.
I shook my head.
For reasons I couldn’t explain, my body was growing weak. Breathing became difficult, each inhale shallow and useless.
“I just need water,” I repeated, my voice barely steady.
Isa stepped closer, fear written all over her face. “Mom, just take a deep breath,” she said urgently.
A deep breath?
I couldn’t even remember how to do that.
The room suddenly blurred. My vision swam, darkening at the edges. My legs betrayed me, giving way beneath my weight.
I was falling.
My head felt like chaos, my heart shattered beyond repair as my eyes slowly began to shut.
“Max!” Isa screamed at the top of her voice. “Mom is fainting!”
That was the last thing I heard—
Before everything went completely dark.
Liam
The meeting dragged on far longer than it should have. By the time it ended and I got to my office I practically collapsed into my chair, reaching for my cigar without thinking. I lit it, drew in the first deep pull of smoke, and let it sit in my lungs for a second.
The club’s getting too big, too fast. I’m going to need to bring in more girls soon or we’ll start turning people away at peak hours.
I dragged the stack of new applications toward me and started flipping through them quickly.
Twenty? Who the hell approved her application?
I pulled that one out and flicked it straight into the trash. Club rule—nothing under twenty-one. I’m not risking some parent or cop showing up at my door because a girl’s brain hasn’t finished cooking yet. Hard line. No exceptions.
I kept scanning, pulling the ones who looked like they could actually handle the life: looks, attitude, the kind of quiet confidence that survives the first rough night. One by one I separated them from the pile.
“Jerry?” I called without looking up.
He stepped in almost instantly.
I nodded toward the short stack on the desk. “There. Give them a call. Set up interviews for tomorrow night.”
While he gathered the files, my mind drifted somewhere else entirely, talking about calls.
It had been a while since I last spoke to Claire.
I reached into my jacket pocket for my phone. Out of habit, maybe something darker, I opened the tracker first.
Her little dot blinked back at me.
She was back in town, good, I smiled softly but then stopped. My brows pulled together.
What the hell was she doing at the hospital?