Jordan watched the two women disappear into the main house.
Malvina peered through the gates, then looked back at him. "Boss, should I ring the bell again?"
He shook his head. "No. They're never going to let me in."
He placed the gifts he had bought on the ground by the gate, snapped a photo of them, and sent it to Isabella. Then he recorded a voice memo: "Isabella, I bought a wellness hamper for your mother. I wanted to apologize to her face-to-face. I made too many mistakes in the past, and she doesn't want to see me."
Isabella was in the passenger seat on her way home with Harold when she received the message. She glanced at the photo of the gifts sitting on the pavement and typed back: "My mother doesn't need anything. Take your things back."
"You can't take back a gift once it's given. I left it at the gate. Bring it inside for her when you get back."
"I was wrong about everything."
"Are you drunk?" Isabella could hear the slur in his voice and easily guessed his state.
Jordan let out a bitter laugh. "I had quite a few drinks, yeah. A little drunk, maybe. But I'm not apologizing because I'm drunk. I'm... I got drunk so I could find the courage to come here and apologize."
Isabella's reply was icy. "The past is in the past. My mother isn't going to hold a grudge. Just don't ever disrupt our lives again, and we'll be fine."
Jordan didn't reply.
After a long silence, he stumbled back to the car, looking completely defeated, and told Malvina to drive him home.
As she pulled away from the curb, she offered gently, "Boss, why don't we go to my place? If you go home, your wife is probably just going to scream at you again. You really need to get some proper rest."
He hadn't slept well in days.
During the day at the office, he was surviving purely on coffee.
Even though he had never promised to divorce Natalie and marry her, he had given Malvina plenty of perks. He bought her the car she wanted, and the new apartment she asked for—a fully furnished place that didn't even require renovations.

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