On the Ruins of His Regret I Soar novel Chapter 62

Soaked and defeated, Lance slumped to the floor of the shower, his expensive suit clinging to him. He looked up, his handsome features filled with a raw, bewildered pain. “Jessica, why would you do this to me?”

Jessica dropped the showerhead. She had never seen him so utterly broken. Despite everything—the bitter disappointment, the firm decision to divorce him—seeing the man she had loved for so long in this state sent a sharp pang through her heart.

She took a half-step back. “Lance, you’re drunk. I’m not going to argue with you like this. Just… please, leave.”

He mumbled, his voice low and raspy, “I just… I just wanted to wash you clean…”

Jessica froze, her eyes—as striking as a Persian cat’s—widening in shock.

Wash her clean.

He wanted to wash her clean.

The strength drained from her legs, and she had to grab the glass door frame to keep from collapsing. So this was it. He was drunk tonight because he thought she was dirty.

A laugh escaped her lips, hollow and brittle. It turned into sobs, tears streaming down her face, mingling with the water from the shower. Nothing he could have done would have hurt more than those words.

She took a shaky breath, her voice barely a whisper. “Lance, who’s the one who’s really not clean here?” He was the one holding Catherine in his arms. Wasn’t he the one who was sullied?

Wiping her tears away with the back of her hand, she looked at him, her voice firm. “Lance Smith, we are completely and utterly over.”

She walked out of the bathroom to find Catherine waiting right outside the door. Jessica shot her a look of pure ice before striding out of the room without another word.

Catherine rushed into the bathroom. “Lance? Lance, what’s wrong? Don’t scare me…”

…

Catherine took Lance to the hospital. They didn’t come back all night.

Amy nodded enthusiastically. “Are we going right now?”

“Just give Mommy a minute,” Jessica said.

She went back to her room and called her father, Kevin Brown.

He answered with a gruff, “So, you finally remembered you have a father.”

Jessica cut straight to the point. “Give me back Willowbrook Gardens. If you don’t, I’ll make sure none of you ever have a moment’s peace again.”

Kevin was enraged by her tone. “What kind of attitude is that? I am your father! You get out of that hospital, and you don’t even bother to come home. The first time you call, it’s to give me orders? Jessica, have you grown wings?”

“If you don’t give it back,” she said through gritted teeth, “I will make life hell for the entire Brown family. I mean it. After all, I’m the crazy one, right? I have nothing left to lose. I’m giving you three days, Kevin.”