Revenge on My Ex Husband

Chapter 14

Lora’s POV

My blood froze.

For one terrifying second, I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t even think properly.

The bathroom suddenly felt too small, the warm golden lights pressing against my skin as panic rushed violently through my chest.

Slowly, I turned around.

Drake stood near the doorway. He wasn’t close enough to touch me, but he still wasn’t far enough.

His tie had been loosened further since the last time I saw him, the sleeves of his dark shirt rolled slightly past his wrists. One hand rested lazily against the frame of the door, but there was nothing relaxed about the way he was looking at me.

His eyes held mine steadily, waiting for me to respond.

My heartbeat slammed painfully against my ribs.

How much did he hear?

The question repeated itself so loudly inside my head that it almost drowned out everything else.

I forced myself to swallow before speaking.

“Nothing,” I said too quickly.

His gaze didn’t shift. Instead, his eyes dropped slowly to my hand resting against my stomach.

Something unreadable flickered briefly across his expression before disappearing completely.

“You startled me,” I added quietly, forcing steadiness into my voice.

Drake remained silent for a moment longer before stepping fully into the bathroom.

The sound of the door closing behind him made tension crawl slowly down my spine.

“You shouldn’t be standing this long after the fall,” he said calmly.

The sudden change in direction almost unsettled me more.

I stared at him carefully. “That’s what you heard?”

One corner of his mouth moved faintly.

“Should there have been something else?”

My throat tightened. “No.”

The answer came immediately this time.

I knew he noticed. But he said nothing.

Rain continued tapping softly against the windows outside while silence stretched between us again, heavier now than before.

I looked away first.

“I couldn’t sleep,” I murmured quietly. “That’s all.”

For a second, he didn’t respond. Then he stepped closer….just close enough to make me aware of him again.

His eyes studied my face carefully before lowering slightly toward the counter behind me where my untouched pain medication still rested.

“You haven’t taken these.”

It wasn’t a question.

“I forgot.”ml

“You’ve said that about three different things today.”

Heat crept slowly into my cheeks.

“I didn’t realize you were monitoring me that closely.”

“I am.”

The answer came so easily it caught me off guard.

My eyes lifted back to his immediately.

But Drake didn’t look embarrassed by the admission. If anything, he looked almost irritated that I found it surprising.

“You were nearly injured twice in less than forty-eight hours,” he continued evenly. “You’re living in my house. Of course I’m paying attention.”

Something about the words settled strangely inside my chest.

My house.

Not the house.

His house.

The reminder should have created distance. Instead, it only made the air between us feel heavier.

I turned slightly toward the sink, needing something else to focus on besides the way he kept looking at me like he was trying to understand things I hadn’t explained.

The marble counter felt cool beneath my fingertips.

“I can take care of myself,” I said softly.

Drake’s reflection remained steady in the mirror behind me.

“That’s the problem.”

My brows frowned slightly. “What does that mean?”

His gaze held mine through the reflection.

“It means you’ve been doing everything alone for so long that you treat help like a threat.”

The words hit harder than they should have.

For a moment, I didn’t know what to say. Because the worst part was that he wasn’t entirely wrong, I was used to doing this alone, and for everyone.

The silence stretched again.

Outside, thunder rolled faintly through the night.

Then Drake moved forward, reaching past me toward the medication bottle resting near the sink.

The movement was smooth, but the sudden closeness made my breath catch slightly anyway.

His shoulder brushed lightly against mine. It was solid, warm and dangerously distracting.

He opened the bottle calmly before placing one tablet into his palm and holding it out toward me.

“Take it.”

I stared at him.

“You sound bossy.”

“I wasn’t aiming to be polite.”

Despite myself, a soft breath of laughter escaped me.

And something in Drake’s expression shifted the moment he heard it. It wasn’t over visible but it was enough to make my chest tighten unexpectedly.

Maybe he wasn’t used to hearing that sound from me. Or maybe from anyone.

I took the medication from his hand carefully, trying not to notice how close he still was.

Our fingers brushed briefly.

The contact lingered longer in my head than it should have.

After swallowing the tablet, I reached for the glass of water beside the sink. But before my fingers touched it, Drake picked it up first and handed it to me instead.

The gesture was simple and effortless. Yet strangely intimate.

I accepted it quietly.

“Thank you.”

His eyes stayed on me as I drank.

And suddenly the bathroom felt unbearably quiet again.

I lowered the glass slowly.

“You should sleep,” he said after a moment.

I nodded faintly.

But neither of us moved immediately. Something invisible seemed to hold the moment in place.

Long after Drake had fallen asleep, I remained awake beside him, staring into the darkness while the mansion settled into silence around us.

But my thoughts refused to rest. Bruno’s words kept replaying inside my head.

The erased footage.

Chloe near the staircase.

The fall.

Slowly, my fingers curled tighter against the blanket. Because deep down, I already knew something terrifying.

What happened on those stairs hadn’t been an accident.

And the worst part was, I still had no idea why Chloe hated me enough to want me hurt.