After I Stopped Loving Him novel Chapter 1120

Only Jordan and Natalie remained in the quiet ward.

Jordan pulled up a chair and sat beside her bed.

Looking at Natalie's pale face and swollen eyes, memories of how fragile she had been during her last miscarriage surfaced. A flicker of genuine heartache pierced his chest.

It wasn't that he didn't love his wife anymore. It was just that too much had happened, driving an invisible wedge between them.

He reached out, gently brushing a thumb across her cheek. "You've been through hell, Nat. You look awful. Once you're out of here, you need to rest and rebuild your strength."

"Jordan, it hurts," Natalie whispered. "It really hurts. I don't want to go through this a third time."

"You won't. Next time, it'll be our child, and we're going to bring it into the world."

He lowered his voice to soothe her. "We're still young. As long as you recover, we'll have kids of our own."

The couple had already finalized their terms.

No divorce.

They had to have at least one child, ideally two.

Without a child, the Gates family would stop backing him, terrified he'd just find another woman to give him an heir.

But if he and Natalie had a child together—even a daughter—the Gates family would have no choice but to continue supporting their son-in-law for the sake of their grandchild.

His father was too biased. Banking on Jackson splitting the estate fairly was a pipe dream. The Gates family was his only true leverage; their business partnerships were the only thing keeping his father's favoritism in check.

"I'm sorry, Jordan," Natalie said, her eyes welling with fresh tears.

This time, he was a ghost. Yes, he was traveling for business, but his emotional distance was undeniable.

He wasn't just letting go of his feelings for her; he seemed ready to burn their friendship to the ground entirely.

Was Isabella's hold on him really that absolute?

"If a project requires his personal attention, it must be massive," Jordan reasoned. "Even he probably doesn't know how long it'll take. He'll come back when it's handled."

"He's busy. Stop pestering him. Once he's back, he's going to go right back to obsessing over Isabella anyway. She's with Harold now, and Ethan isn't going to just let that go."

"And don't try to intervene. That's Ethan's private life. We're just his friends. We have no business sticking our noses into his love life."

"But Isabella... Nat, you're targeting her and wishing her dead because of Ethan, aren't you? But Isabella didn't do anything wrong. She was tricked into that marriage and pushed into a divorce because of you."