I Refuse to Be Your Second Choice novel Chapter 257

“But Alex and I really want you to be there. Why don’t you go to the UK a couple days later?” Camila smiled at her, and for a second, something smug flashed in her eyes.

“I’m sorry, the dates can’t be moved.”

Natalie stood up. “I still have work to finish, so I’ll head out.”

She already knew how this would end. There was no point in staying any longer. From now on, she and Alexander were just two lines that would never meet.

Natalie didn’t look back. She walked straight out of the restaurant.

The night air was cool, but she barely noticed. When your heart goes cold, nothing else feels cold anymore.

Natalie sat in her car for a long time before finally driving away.

Back at home, she opened her laptop and tried to focus on work. She recognized every word on the screen, but the sentences refused to make sense. She kept reading the same lines over and over, unable to process anything.

Feeling restless, she got up to pour herself a glass of water.

“Why do you even care?” she whispered to her reflection in the kitchen window. “You never planned on getting back together with him. This was just a blip, Natalie. Get it together.”

She took a sip, tried to calm down, and made herself return to her desk.

A few minutes later, someone knocked on the door. The sound was steady, not too loud, but it broke her concentration.

Natalie checked the entry camera. It was someone from property management. She remembered then that she had scheduled them to fix the leaky pipe tonight.

Fifteen minutes later, the pipe was fixed and the worker left. Natalie shut the door and started back toward her desk.

He looked at her like he was afraid to blink. She could see the memory in his eyes, the way he’d searched for her three years ago, frantic and lost. He was terrified she’d leave and never return, that he’d never see her again.

Natalie gave a short, bitter laugh. “Whether I come back or not doesn’t matter, Mr. Ramirez. You should be worrying about your fiancée and your baby.”

He looked like he wanted to say something. His lips parted, but nothing came out. She could see it all over his face—the regret, the pain, the things he wanted to ask her but couldn’t. The truth had already hit him. The test didn’t lie. The baby was his.

He had never expected things to end up like this. He thought he could fix it all, win her back, start over. But reality had other plans.

Natalie looked at him, his brows drawn tight, his eyes stormy and lost. The sight made her heart ache, but mostly it just made her tired.

She turned away, her voice cold. “Alexander Ramirez, we’re done. Please don’t come looking for me again. Don’t mess up my life.”