Shadows Of A Forgotten Spring
Billionaire Shadow 149

Chapter 149 Chapter 149

"I was protecting my kids!" Emma snapped, her voice cracking under the strain of her emotions.

"Protecting them from whom?" Alexander asked, his voice breaking with disbelief. He looked to his left and then to his right, as if to ask, Where is the bad man? "From me?" He scoffed in bitterness, shaking his head. "I never thought you'd stoop this low, Emma." Emma's chest heaved as she struggled to hold back her tears. "And I never thought you would divorce me for a woman you hadn't seen in years. You made your choice, Alexander, and I made mine. It is a win win, isn't it?

"Stop trying to justify yourself!" Alexander's voice thundered, raw with the pain he had bottled up for weeks. "If you had told me back then, I might have reconsidered everything."

"Reconsider?" Emma scoffed, the word bitter with resentment. "You were too blinded by your love for Annie to even notice me, Alexander. To you, I was nothing but an obstacle. A woman you were forced to marry in order to claim your inheritance."

"You hid my children from me!" Alexander roared, his anguish spilling over. "I missed four years of their lives, years I can never get back. And even when I finally met them, you told me to stay away, as if I'm some kind of threat

Emma furiously wiped away her tears. "They are my kids.

"They are our children." Alexander reiterated, firm but his voice soft and steady. "It's time, Emma, we did right."

Emma took some steps backward, her head shaking. "I won't let you take them from me."

"I'm not trying to take them from you." Alexander said in a softer tone, though the hurt still resonated in his voice. "But I deserve to be in their lives. They have the right to know who their father is."

Emma couldn't bear it anymore. Her tears fell freely as she turned and walked away, her heart shattering with every step. She couldn't let him see how deeply his words had cut her.

In the shadows, unbeknownst to either of them, Annie stood frozen. Her face was pale and she was clutching her chest. She had heard every word, and the devastation coursing through her veins was unlike anything she had ever felt. The walls she had built around her lies had begun to crumble, and it now seemed obvious that her place in Alexander's life was hanging by a thread.

Alexander took a deep breath. He had not wanted the whole conversation to go that way, and yet he couldn't really help it.

He couldn't help what Emma has done to him.

Emma had betrayed him in the worst possible way.

He walked to the edge of the roof and looked down the bustling street. His hands on the railings, he let go of all his emotions and let the tears roll down for the very first time in his life.

AAAAA

That night, Emma tossed and turned in bed as her mind refused to grant her even a moment's reprieve. If she had known that things would go this way, she would have stayed as far away as possible from Alexander, no matter what.

Her heart ached with regret and fear, the weight of her choices pressing down on her like a suffocating blanket. She knew Alexander too well, better than she cared to admit. He had always been a man of unyielding determination, someone who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted.

But this wasn't about a business deal or some trophy he wanted to claim. It was about her children, her twins, and they are

00:22 Tue Jan 14 ** ** **

Chapter 149

her everything the reason she gets up in the morning, her ray of sunshine through the stormiest nights. The thought of Alexander taking them from her sent ripples down into her very out.

She stared up at the ceiling, her fists clenched tightly into the sheets as her resolve hardened. If Alexander thought to take her children from her, he was sorely mistaken. Emma was ready to fight tooth and nail for them, to protect them with everything she had. Annie ran into the bathroom for what felt like the hundredth time that morning. She was faking the morning sickness.

She looked in the mirror at her reflection staring back: circles were under her eyes, and there was an air of tenseness everywhere. She splashed cold water on her face, trying to compose herself, but it did little to calm the storm brewing inside her.

Alexander was healing, almost back to his old self physically, yet he showed no signs of leaving the hospital. For a month, Annie had endured this nightmare: staying in a place she despised, surrounded by people who barely tolerated her presence. But last night had made things far worse.

Alexander knew about the twins.

She had been walking on eggshells now for weeks. Vivian's Cold, piercing stares had became relentless. But the most painful one was Emma's presence; it seemed to Annie that bit by bit, Emma was digging her way back into Alexander's life.

Annie ground her teeth. She had sacrificed too much and struggled too hard to find a place beside Alexander to see it all now slipping away.

Annie dried her face with a towel and stared at her reflection in the mirror.

She had no reason to fear Emma anymore. Emma's cards had been played, her secrets were now out in the open. It was now time for

Annie to play her own cards. And if Emma seriously believed that she'd get him now, well then she had the another thing coming.

A smile curled up on her lips. If she couldn't shut Emma out entirely, she'd learn to share. After all, maybe being a stepmother to the twins wasn't going to be so bad. That would keep her close to Alexander, close to all she had struggled so hard to attain and close to her enemy too.