She Took The House The Car And My Heart

Chapter 396:

Though both parents had their own loves, they surrendered to the weight of tradition, their resistance merely a whisper against the storm. And so they married—two strangers beneath the same roof, learning to coexist while longing for someone else. They had hoped to endure until they could part ways quietly.

But fate, ever capricious, had other plans. Divorce eluded them, and three years into their forced companionship, Freya was born.

With her arrival, something shifted. They resolved to raise her with care, determined not to let history write her fate as it had theirs. They wanted her to know a childhood where love, even if feigned, felt real.

And in that, they succeeded.

As for Hugh and Cheryl…

Three years prior, Cheryl had found herself in a nightmare—trapped in a marriage poisoned by violence. In her darkest hour, she reached for Hugh, a flicker of her past she hoped might save her.

Hugh helped her find a lawyer, but he kept his distance.

had a family now, and the embers of their old love had long gone cold. What he

eventually divorced. And then,

years ago,

seen it with her own eyes. A cruel setup by Cheryl’s family, who believed Hugh still carried a torch for Cheryl after helping her escape her abusive

I spent decades together. Though love may not have lived between us, companionship did. And over time, that becomes its

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something quietly shifted within

from love. She couldn’t recall how she managed to shower or

ceiling, her mind reeled with memories of her parents—moments wrapped in warmth that had, to her, always looked like love. Her father’s tenderness, his worry when her mother was ill… that couldn’t have been

how could it not be

came with a knock at the door.

pulled herself together, rose, and stood before the mirror, smoothing

asked, her tone warm and

the subtle shift in Freya’s mood. “He told me to come check