Falling For My Ex's Dad (Clarissa and Gabriel) novel Chapter 166

Clairessa’s POV

As soon as the door slammed shut, it felt like my entire world collapsed.

A sharp, jarring pain tore through my chest, and I clutched at my heart instinctively, as if holding it might stop it from breaking apart.

My legs buckled beneath me, and I crumpled to the floor, gasping for air as a sob ripped from somewhere deep inside me.

I tried to silence it—to swallow the sound—but it was no use. I didn’t just cry.

I broke down.

Tears streamed down my face, falling freely onto the wooden floor beneath me.

Gabriel’s last words echoed in my head again and again, each repetition cutting deeper into my already shattered heart.

“We’re done. Nothing is ever going to happen between us again.”

But it wasn’t just the words.

It was the look in his eyes.

A look that will haunt me forever.

Disgust.

Disdain.

Like I was a mistake—a betrayal he regretted ever letting into his life.

And what hurt the most wasn’t just losing him… it was knowing that someone who once loved me so deeply, so fiercely, could now look at me like I was the most vile thing he’d ever seen.

And the worst part?

I had no one to blame but myself.

I did this.

My mind flashed back to that day—when Adrian kept calling and I lied.

Gabriel had every reason to doubt me, but he chose to trust me anyway. He asked me—begged me—not to hurt him.

He opened up about his past, his trauma. He let me in.

And I still lied.

One lie turned into two, then three, until I was drowning in them—and pulling him under with me.

He gave me his heart, his fears, his history. I knew how deep his scars ran, how much pain he carried… and I still chose to lie.

I destroyed what we had.

And it broke me in ways I never imagined. I did the one thing I swore I wouldn’t—I reopened wounds he trusted me to protect. I was supposed to be different. Safe. Honest.

I wept so hard, it felt like my lungs might give out.

Because I hadn’t just lost a man.

I’d lost the man.

I curled up on the floor, trembling as sobs shook me. It felt like something inside me had broken beyond repair.

My cries echoed through the room, filling the silence Gabriel left behind.

He is the love of my life. Every beat of my heart, every glimmer of light in my soul—it all belongs to him.

What we had may have started with revenge, but what came after… that was real. So real it terrified me.

And when I caught him in bed with Nicole… deep down, I wanted to believe it. I needed to believe it. Because if he had betrayed me first, maybe it would make my own guilt easier to bear.

But I was wrong.

Gabriel didn’t cheat. And I knew him well enough to recognize the truth in his eyes.

No one had ever loved me the way he did.

No one had ever looked at me like I was worth everything.

Not even Adrian.

Adrian could never compare.

Gabriel loved with a kind of fierce tenderness I didn’t know existed.

He saw me—truly saw me—in ways no man ever had. He cared for me, protected me, respected me. Gave me the things I didn’t even know I needed until I had them.

He challenged me. Cherished me. Made me feel like I mattered.

The reasons I loved him could go on forever.

—---

II didn’t know how long I stayed on the floor, shaking and whispering apologies into the empty air. My cheeks were soaked, my throat dry and aching, and every breath felt like it tore my chest open again.

Time seemed to slip away—minutes, maybe hours, I couldn’t tell. All I knew was that I couldn’t breathe without hearing Gabriel’s voice echoing in my head.

“I want you out of my house—now. Not a second later, or I swear, Clairessa, I’ll make you pay.”

His final words.

I wasn’t scared for my safety—I knew Gabriel would never physically hurt me. But the fury in his voice... that terrified me.

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