Winning Back His Ex's Wife's Broken Heart by Hayley

Chapter 42

Sarah's

pov.

I didn't think much of it when Richard first started sending those messages. At first, it was a simple "Congrats on the deal!" or "Hope the expansion's going well!"

I'd glance at my phone, roll my eyes, and go back to my emails, telling myself that it was nothing. But slowly, those little check-ins started to pile up, and I couldn't ignore them. "Why is he doing this?" I muttered to myself one evening, staring at another message from Richard that read,

"Heard about your new office space! Sounds exciting!" My thumb hovered over the reply button for longer than I'd care to admit, but I put the phone down instead.

I wasn't about to start up a casual text relationship with my ex-husband like we were long-lost friends.

Emma's voice played in my head. "You're not a robot, Sarah." Right, not a robot. But still, I was trying to move on, and Richard's friendly little notes weren't helping. Days passed, and it didn't stop. It was always something small, nothing intrusive, but it was consistent.

No requests to meet up, no pressure. Just... support. Was this the same Richard?

One afternoon, I was in the middle of reviewing some financial reports when my phone buzzed again.

I glanced at it, fully expecting another Richard message, and wasn't wrong. This one was short: "Just saw the feature in the magazine. Proud of you."

I let out a groan. "Proud of me?" I muttered under my breath. Since when was Richard, Mr. Emotionally Constipated, proud of anything I did? The man barely noticed when we were married, and now he's a cheerleader?

Shaking my head, I fired off a quick reply without thinking: "Thanks." The moment I hit send, I regretted it. I didn't want to encourage him.

But then again, was it so bad that someone cared enough to check in? I sighed, feeling a strange mix of irritation and something else.

***

I was in no mood to go, but it was one of those things you couldn't skip without raising

up, expecting the usual rounds of polite

he looked annoyingly good, standing by the bar with a glass of

beeline for the

a kid testing the waters before jumping into the deep end. "I didn't think you'd be here." I gave him a tight smile. "It's for charity.

chuckled, and I hated that the sound of

myself for not finding an excuse to

really been doing well, Sarah. I've been keeping up with your business... and, well, I'm proud

did something. I could feel

second time he'd said he was proud of me, and for some stupid

said, trying to keep my voice neutral. "It's been a lot of hard

knew you had it in you. I just wish I'd

have admitted something like that. I didn't know what to say, so I went with

something sad in

not exes with a tangled past, not a woman and a man with years of hurt between

you're doing well,

was some angle, some hidden agenda. But I didn't see

for the first time

I really do. But we can't go back. I've worked hard to get to this point, and I'm not going to let anyone-especially you-get in the way of that." He nodded, but there was something hopeful in his expression. "I'm not asking for that. I just... I

I wasn't sure, but I didn't have the energy to fight

giving him a small smile. "But

a smile. "I can do

deep-just small talk about business, the event, and some random things that reminded me

to let him waltz back into my life just because he

the event, I lay in bed staring at the ceiling. I couldn't stop thinking about our conversation.