All Chapters of Too Late, My Ex-Wife: Her Regret After Our Daughter's Death: Chapter 1
- Chapter 10
10 chapters
Chapter 1: An Innocent Wish
Nathan's POV:"Mr. Cole, the results confirm Progressive Myelin Decay Syndrome." He turned the monitor toward me."It is a rare degenerative condition. Early intervention is what makes the difference in most cases. But your daughter’s case..." He stopped. Just half a second. "The optimal treatment window has almost completely passed."I stared at the doctor, my voice trembled."What does that mean exactly?""It means your daughter has less than a month to live. Maybe even less if her condition continues to deteriorate." He sighed.Less than a month?I felt like I couldn’t breathe. The room seemed to tilt."Mr. Cole." He was watching me. "Do you have any questions?"A thousand questions crashed through my mind.How long had she been suffering?Could anything still be done?Was there any chance the diagnosis was wrong?But when I opened my mouth, not a single word came out.I swallowed hard."I... need a moment."He nodded. Slid a printed sheet across the desk. "Take all the time you ne
Chapter 2: The Last Thread
Nathan's POV:The room went quiet.Something flickered behind Vivienne's eyes—a momentary shadow of shock—but before it could take root, Roman moved.He took a half-step forward, his expression instantly melting into one of deep, sorrowful understanding.He looked around the room at the watching investors, then back at me, his voice dropping into that smooth, low register used for comforting a erratic child."Nathan, please, let’s all take a breath," Roman said, gently raising his hands."You have to look at the bigger picture here," Roman continued, his tone laced with a heavy, patronizing sigh. "Vivienne has been working herself to the bone to secure Lily’s future. Tonight is the culmination of months of agonizing hard work. To bring a domestic misunderstanding here, to use a little girl’s seasonal flu as a dramatic stunt to drag her mother home..."He shook his head, looking directly at Vivienne with an expression of tender pity."It’s just a pattern, isn't it? Every time Vivienne
Chapter 3: The Drawing
Nathan's POV:Vivienne's expression shifted the moment I said it."Divorce." She set her bag down slowly, like the word itself had weight she needed to put somewhere. "You are doing this to force me away from Roman. That is what this is, isn't it.""No."She waited for the rest of the sentence. I did not give her one."Then what, Nathan. What exactly is this?"I looked at her. My knuckles were still sore from the banquet. The doctor's printed sheet was still folded in my jacket pocket from the day before, soft at the creases already. I had spent the whole drive home and every hour since trying to find a way to say this that did not sound like a threat. There wasn't one."I am done," I said. "I have been done for a while now. But I will wait until after Lily's birthday before we make it official. Stay with her until then. Be present. That is the only thing she has ever asked for. Show up for her. After the birthday, I will sign everything the same day. No argument. Nothing."She star
Chapter 4: Nonchalant Mother
Nathan's POV:"Stay with me," I told her. "We're almost there. Just stay with me, okay?"She didn't answer. I'd pushed my seat as far back as it would go so I could keep one hand on her the whole way. Her head was against the window, her eyes closed, and I kept talking anyway because silence felt like the wrong choice."Five minutes," I said. "Less than five minutes."I parked badly and didn't care.Inside, I was already moving before the car had fully stopped. Someone at the desk looked up and I said, "She collapsed, she has Progressive Myelin Decay Syndrome, please," and after that everything moved the way hospitals move when a child comes through the doors not conscious.They took her from me at the double doors."Sir, you need to wait here.""She's seven years old.""I understand. We'll take care of her. Please wait here."I stood on the wrong side of those doors and didn't move for a long time.I took my phone out twice to call Vivienne. Both times I put it back.She wouldn't c
Chapter 5: The Right Kind of Man
Third Person's POV:"I owe you an apology," Roman said.Vivienne turned from the window. He stood a few feet away, not crowding her, just there. That was the thing about Roman. He never crowded."You don't need to apologize," she said."I do." He shook his head slightly. "I shouldn't have called you this morning. I panicked, and I reached for the person I trusted most without thinking about what it would cost you. That was selfish of me."She looked at him for a moment.Nathan had not once in seven years apologized without turning it into a tally of everything she owed him afterward. Roman just said the thing and waited, and didn't ask for anything in return."Your son needed help," she said. "Stop apologizing.""He's fine, by the way." A small smile. "Already asking about lunch.""Of course he is."Roman looked out the window. "Are you okay?""I'm fine.""Vivienne.""I said I'm fine." She exhaled. "Nathan just, he does that. He finds the one moment when something's finally going righ
Chapter 6: Not For Her
Nathan's POV:Four days passed.Vivienne didn't call.I didn't call her either. Not once. I stayed in that hospital and gave every part of myself to the one person in my life who had never once made me feel like loving her was a burden.On the second morning I was dozing in the chair when I heard her."Daddy."I was awake before she finished the word."Hey." I pulled the chair closer. "How do you feel?"She thought about it, eyes still half-closed. "Okay, I think. My chest feels a bit heavy.""That's normal. The doctor said it would for a while."She looked at the ceiling a moment. Then, "Daddy, I'm sorry.""For what.""For falling down. For making you bring me here again. I know it's expensive, and you already have a lot to worry about.""Lily." I waited until she looked at me. "You don't apologize for being sick. That's not something you have to be sorry for. Do you understand me."She nodded slowly. Then she picked at the edge of her blanket, the way she did when she was working up
Chapter 7: Her Home
Third Person's POV:Lily hadn't moved from the hallway. Roman's son stood a few feet away, arms crossed, watching her with the particular satisfaction of a child who understood exactly what was happening even if the adults pretended otherwise.Then Lily looked up."This is my home," she said quietly. Not angry. Just stating something she needed said out loud. "It's my birthday tomorrow. Why do I have to be the one who leaves?"The hallway went very still.Roman's son stared at her for exactly one second. Then his face collapsed."She's bullying me," he said, voice breaking on the last word with practiced precision. "She's bullying me because I don't have a mother. Everyone always does that. They say things like that because they know I don't have anyone to defend me."He pressed his hands against his eyes.Vivienne crossed to him immediately, crouched down, both hands on his shoulders. "Hey, hey, look at me," she said, in the voice she kept just for him. The soft one. The careful one.
Chapter 8: The Wrong Kind of Cold
Third Person's POV:The amusement park had been Lily's idea, but she wasn't really there.Nathan could tell within the first ten minutes. She stood in front of the carousel and watched it turn without asking to get on. She held his hand and walked through the gates and looked at everything the way you look at things when your eyes are working but your mind is somewhere else entirely."Want to try the swings?" he asked."Maybe in a bit," she said.She'd said that three times already. About the swings. About the spinning teacups she'd talked about for two weeks last summer. About the small roller coaster at the far end she'd circled on a hand-drawn map at age five and pinned to her bedroom wall.Her face was pale. Not the pale of a child who hadn't slept well. The other kind.Nathan crouched in front of her near a bench by the fountain. "Lily. Talk to me. How are you feeling."She looked at him, then past him, at the carousel still turning."A little tired," she said. "But I'm okay."Sh
Chapter 9: Keep It
Third Person's POV:"Stay with me," Nathan was saying behind her. "Lily stay with me. We are almost there."The same words he had used before. In the same voice.Vivienne drove faster.She did not let herself think about the fact that she had been thirty minutes away for the last hour and a half. She did not let herself think about the verification check she had scheduled for this morning that she had postponed because Roman said there was no rush. She drove and she listened to Nathan's voice in the back seat saying her daughter's name over and over.Then her phone rang.Roman.She glanced at it on the seat beside her.It rang again.She answered on speaker. "Roman I cannot talk right now.""Vivienne." His voice was urgent and slightly breathless. "It is Leo. He was running on the stairs after you left and he fell. He is bleeding and I cannot get the bleeding to stop and I do not know what to do I do not know where the nearest hospital is from here I need you."Vivienne's hands tighte
Chapter 10: My Writhed Flower
Nathan's POV:I did not move for a long time after the doctor left. Everything exactly the same. Except Lily was gone.The ward beside the waiting area had its curtain half open. I was not trying to look. I just looked.A man was sitting on the edge of a child's hospital bed. The girl on the bed was maybe six or seven, cheeks flushed pink from fever, a damp cloth on her forehead. She was whining in that particular way sick children had, not crying exactly, just existing loudly and without apology.Her father was trying not to smile."Listen," he said, tucking the blanket around her legs, "you get better. That is your one job right now. Just get better.""I do not want to get better I want to go home.""You can go home when the fever breaks.""That is taking forever.""It has been four hours.""That is forever when you are sick." She coughed dramatically. "I might die."He laughed. The easy laugh of a man who knew his daughter was not going anywhere. "You are not dying. You have a feve