Chapter 254

Chapter 254:
“But in nine days, we’ll be officially divorced,” Millie added gently. “You don’t have to worry about him.” The rightful source is.net
She gently smoothed Ari’s hair, letting out a quiet sigh. “Sometimes, we make mistakes. He was one of them. But I’m doing my best to make things right, and I promise, he won’t be a part of our lives. We’re going to be okay.”
Millie drifted into unexpectedly personal territory, her words tumbling out before she could stop them.
She glanced at Ari, a weary sigh echoing inside her chest.
If she was honest, none of this was truly meant for Ari’s ears—she was confessing to herself, sorting through the ache she still carried.
Moving on wasn’t about erasing the past. It was about stripping it of its power.
Brandon—his memory, his mistakes—no longer held sway over her life.
Nothing he did could touch her now. Or so she desperately hoped.
She almost laughed at the irony of spilling her heart to a child.
Surely Ari couldn’t grasp the tangled mess of adult regrets. But before Millie could say more, Ari wrapped her in a fierce, earnest hug, as if determined to shield her from the world.
Ari’s tiny arms barely circled Millie’s waist, but the embrace radiated a stubborn comfort.
“I’m not going to call him Dad,” Ari mumbled softly.
“We’re both going to be alright,” she continued, her voice barely more than a breath. “My birth parents didn’t want me, but that’s just because they weren’t the right ones. Finding you—that’s the part that matters. You’re my real mom now.”
Ari lifted her chin, eyes bright with tears but shining with stubborn hope.
“When you leave him, you’ll find someone better, too. Just like I found you.”
Millie blinked, caught off guard by the depth in Ari’s words.
Emotion rose in her throat, too fierce to swallow. She pulled Ari into a fierce embrace, clutching her as if to anchor them both.
Ari hugged her back, small arms locked tight.
In that moment, blood ties meant nothing. It was as if fate itself had stitched their hearts together.
Millie found herself utterly speechless, unable to capture the storm inside her chest. Words simply wouldn’t come. But Ari was right—they would be alright.
No matter how unpredictable life became, every hardship they survived brought them closer to the sunlight on the other side.
The wind swept through the night with a biting chill.
In one of the club’s private rooms, bathed in fading light, Brandon sat curled up, pouring wine down his throat as darkness closed in.
The heavy stillness did nothing to warm the air, nor to soften the ache pounding behind his eyes.
He couldn’t stop replaying the look Millie had given him—icy, distant, final. Every time her voice rang out in his mind, it pierced deeper. “Don’t push me into hating you.”
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