Home / Romance / Married For The Show / 036. The Recording

Share

036. The Recording

Author: Silver Quil
last update publish date: 2026-05-13 04:27:21

RAINA

The chance came on a Tuesday afternoon.

I almost missed it.

I was carrying a stack of fresh towels to the master bedroom. One of the many duties I performed as Mrs. Rowland.

The marriage was fake, but the role wasn't. Castor expected his household run perfectly. His shirts pressed. His meals on time. His towels changed twice a week. And I did it all with a smile because that's what kept the peace.

Castor's study door was open. Not all the way. Just enough.

His voice leaked through the ga
Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App
Locked Chapter

Latest chapter

  • Married For The Show   071. Almost

    RAINAThree days later and Sylvester's words still sat in my head like a stubborn headache.I hadn't deleted those texts, couldn't bring myself to stop staring at them.Like a dam being let loose, he'd said all the things he wanted to do to me.And what was worse? I couldn't tell him to stop.He'd thrown the decision into my lap and walked away.~Tell me you don't want me.~I hadn't answered.Because I couldn't.The realization sat heavy in my chest all day, every day.By Friday night, it was unbearable.We were supposed to meet at the diner at eight.Eight o'clock came and went.I checked the diner door for the fifth time.Nothing.The waitress topped off my coffee and gave me a sympathetic smile."Still waiting on someone?""Apparently."I looked down at my phone. No messages. No missed calls.Sylvester was late.Not five-minutes late. Not traffic late.An hour late.That wasn't like him.I called again.Straight to voicemail.A knot formed in my stomach.This case was dangerous. Th

  • Married For The Show   070. Temptation

    RAINAA week rolled by after touching myself to the thought of Syvelster Brian.We met twice for case work. Once at the bookstore cafe. Once at a diner on the north side that he'd picked because nobody from Castor's circle would be caught dead eating there.Both times he behaved.Both times he was professional. Focused. He went through the intel. Asked the right questions. Took notes. Didn't flirt. Didn't touch me. Didn't mention the texts or any other of the incidents that had happened between us in the previous weeks.Both times the air between us was so charged I could barely sit still.It was in the pauses. The half second where his pen would stop moving and his eyes would lift from the notes and find me and something would pass between us that neither of us acknowledged. Then he'd look back down and keep writing and I'd take a breath and pretend my heart wasn't doing something reckless.By Friday, I'd almost convinced myself that we'd found a rhythm. A steady ground where two adu

  • Married For The Show   069. The Text

    RAINAI woke up slowly.For the first time in weeks, my body didn't jolt awake with that familiar knot of dread in my chest. I came to the surface gently. Like rising from deep water. The sheets were cool against my skin. The morning light was soft through the curtains. My limbs felt loose and heavy in a good way.I lay there for a moment, not moving, not thinking.Then the memory of last night came back.The bath. The hot water. My hand between my legs. His name in my head while my body came apart.Heat flooded my face.I pressed my hands over my cheeks and lay there like a teenager who'd just done something she couldn't take back. My skin was warm under my palms. My stomach was doing something fluttery and stupid that I was too old to be feeling.But I felt it anyway.I lay there for another minute. Letting it stew. The embarrassment, the warmth and the strange, reckless excitement that came with both.Then I reached for the burner phone.I pulled it from behind the panel in my clo

  • Married For The Show   068. Falling For Syvelster Brian II

    RAINAAfter my meeting with Sylvester at the bookstore, I went over to visit my mother at the restaurant.We spent the rest of the afternoon talking about the business, the ongoing campaign and every other small topic. Whenever she tried to ask questions about my marital life, I side-stepped and changed the subject. The sun had set in the sky when I finally made my way home.The house was quiet when I got back.Castor was upstairs. I could hear the faint sound of his study door closing as I came through the kitchen. Maria had retired to the servants quarters in the east wing. The hallway lights were dimmed to their evening setting.I went to my room in the south wing. Closed the door. Locked it.I stood there for a moment in the dark. Just going over my day.~I'll try not to think about you tonight.~The words floated in my mind.His voice was still in my ear. His scent was still on my skin. Despite the time I'd spent with my Mom, the heat in my belly hadn't faded. It had followed me

  • Married For The Show   067. Falling For Syvelster Brian

    RAINAThe Next Day.After Syvelster's daring texts last night, I worked up the courage to tell him I wasn't coming to his apartment anymore.He'd suggested the cafe without missing a beat. A small place at the back of an old bookstore on the east side. The kind of place where people came to read, not to be seen. He said he'd been there before. Back table. No foot traffic. No cameras.I told myself this was better. Public. Safe. Professional.I walked in at two o'clock in the afternoon carrying a folder of notes Maria had helped me put together. Names. Dates. Staff rotation schedules not at the mansion alone, even up to the Rowland holdings. Everything organized. Everything in order.Speaking of which, Maria seemed to know a lot about the Rowland family and their enterprise. I guess fourteen years was enough time to really know a family in and out.But what suprised me more was her willingness to help without asking questions as to why I needed this information and what I wanted to use

  • Married For The Show   066. The Other side

    SYLVESTERThe campaign speech was due tomorrow.I'd been sitting at my desk for four hours. The laptop was open. The cursor was blinking on a half-finished paragraph about infrastructure reform that I'd written and deleted three times.Infrastructure reform.I couldn't even say the words in my head without her face replacing them.She'd stood in the middle of my living room this evening with her arms crossed and her jaw set and told me it couldn't happen again. She'd called it a mistake. Said she wasn't thinking clearly. She'd used the word professional like it was a wall she was building between us, brick by brick, while I watched.I'd let her build it.Then I'd asked her one question and the whole thing came down.Did you like it?The silence that followed was the loudest thing I'd ever heard. She hadn't said no. She hadn't said yes. She'd just stood there with her arms crossed and her eyes full of something she was fighting so hard to keep inside that I could see the effort in her

  • Married For The Show   038: The Second Meeting

    RAINAA week had passed since I saw Sylvester.After our first meeting, he'd chosen the spot for our second.The motel was on the far side of the city, the kind of place truckers used when they didn't want to be remembered. Two stories. Concrete walkway. A flickering sign that said vacancy in faded

  • Married For The Show   037. Earning Teddy's Trust

    RAINAI found him in the greenhouse on Thursday afternoon.I had not gone there looking for him. Or maybe I had. I was not sure anymore.Sylvester's words had been sitting in my head for a week. ~Just be friendly. Let him see that you see him as a person.~ I had been walking the parts of the hous

  • Married For The Show   035. Denial

    SYLVESTERI watched her taillights disappear around the bend of the church road.Then I sat there.The engine was off. The windows were up. The parking lot was empty and dark and the only noise was the sound of my own breathing, which was slower than it should have been. Her scent was still in the

  • Married For The Show   034. Meeting Point

    RAINA The drive was short. Twenty minutes through quiet streets. Past closed shops. Past the long stretch of road that led out of the wealthier neighborhoods and into the older parts of the city. I kept both hands on the wheel. I checked the rearview mirror more times than I needed to. I told my

More Chapters
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status