Shadows Of A Forgotten Spring

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."

Alexander said in a softer tone, though the hurt still resonated in his voice. "But I deserve

bear it anymore. Her tears fell freely as she turned and walked away, her heart shattering with

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

had not wanted the whole conversation to go that way,

what Emma has done to

in the worst

he let go of all his emotions and let the tears roll down for

AAAAA

her even a moment's reprieve. If she had known that things

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

he wanted to claim. It was about her children,

14 **

Chapter 149

of sunshine through the stormiest

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