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Chapter 22: I Brood
Tanggal publikasi:
2026-07-31 03:14:52
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The abandoned wife Chapter 23 — The Salons of Exclusion
InèsA few days later, the air takes on a deceptive softness. The autumn sun filters through the apartment shutters, drawing golden bands on the hardwood floor. I am in the kitchen when my mother enters, her coat still damp with drizzle, her face animated by a contained excitement."Inès, darling, do you have a minute?" she says, placing her bag on the table.I put down my cup, attentive. Her voice betrays something urgent."There's going to be an event," she announces, sitting down. "The engagement… of Ezran Veyrhal."The name falls like a stone. "When?" I ask."In a week. A large private salon, hand-picked guests."A cold current runs through me."We are not invited?" I stammer.My mother shakes her head, a nasty smirk at the corner of her lips."Of course not. We don't exist in their address books."I grip the edge of the table."And Gracias?" I say in a low voice.My mother tilts her head, savoring the information."They say Ezran has noticed her. What a comedy. Honestly, Inès, sh
The abandoned wife Chapter 22: I Brood
GraciasI brood over his words. An image comes back: the glass tower, the employees who froze at our passage, the appraising looks. I have already paid the price of imposed visibility; the prospect of voluntarily adding more jars me. And yet, a more pragmatic part of me glimpses the advantages of a measured gesture, of a ceremony that will lock down alliances and close doors to murmurs.I end up sighing, not in abdication, but in tired acceptance."Very well," I say. "If you prefer it elsewhere… but promise me one thing. That the place retains a sense of intimacy. That those who come do not turn the party into a hunt for appearances."He takes my hand with unusual gentleness, as if to seal the promise."I promise you. It will be discreet, chiseled, as you asked. The guests will be chosen for their weight, not their curiosity. And there will be strict rules: no uninvited press, no devices that could leak intimacy."I see in his eyes a sincerity that touches me. He is not giving me an e
The abandoned wife Chapter 21 — The Estate and the Return
GraciasThe days that follow are filled with comings and goings, visits, and trials. He introduces me to names: families I am hearing of for the first time, faces that seem everywhere and nowhere. He explains why they must be present, tracing alliances on an invisible map I had never seen. Sometimes, he takes my hand and shows me how to deflect a question, how to smile without giving away a part of myself.He surprises me. By his attention to detail, by the way he plans for a chair for my mother if she were to come, by his insistence that there be a room reserved for women traveling alone. His foresight is not cold: it is a safety net, a way of anticipating fragilities.And I, I get used to the idea that the world can learn my name at the same time it discovers its own vulnerability. I learn to receive compliments without falling apart, to answer greetings without trembling. The informal "you" makes these learnings less lonely. When I doubt, I no longer have to beg a strange benefacto
The abandoned wife Chapter 20 — The Familiar Address and the Celebration
Day is barely breaking, and already the house seems inhabited by a less foreign light. The rooms take breath again, the shadows stretch. Ezran has asked me to stay. He has said I must know every corner, that the dwelling must become familiar to me before it becomes ours. I walk the corridors with measured steps, as though each threshold I cross consecrates this place a little more to our future.We meet again in the kitchen at early morning. He has prepared coffee — a simple ritual that soothes me by its banality — and hands me the cup like an offering. His gestures are no longer merely those of a powerful man, but those of a companion who takes care. We sit face to face, and for the first time in weeks, the conversation does not turn on strategies or interdictions.He looks at me, serious, steadied by a quiet decision."There is one thing," he says. "I would prefer that you no longer address me formally."The sentence falls without emphasis,
The abandoned wife Chapter 19 — The Dwelling and the Empire
GRACIASThe car rolls through the silence, a silence heavy with unknowns. The city drifts past behind the tinted windows, its trembling lights like fireflies trapped in the night. I hardly dare ask where he is taking me. Ezran does not speak, but his hand rests near mine, within reach, like an invisible thread that keeps me from surrendering to panic.When we leave the avenue, I understand that we are going farther than the usual neighborhoods. Higher. More isolated. The gates of a majestic entrance open at our approach, without a sound, as if they already recognized his passage.The car stops before a vast dwelling with pale façades, illuminated by the lanterns of the garden. It is not an ostentatious palace, but a house that breathes solidity, calm, protection.He steps out first, then opens the door for me, a simple, almost gallant gesture."Come," he says softly.My footsteps echo on the stone path. The air smells of jas
The abandoned wife Chapter 18 — The Veil and the Crown
GRACIAI thought silence would be enough to protect me. That if I slowly sipped my pomegranate juice, if I held my breath, the evening would end without incident, like a luxurious parenthesis in this chaos. But I was wrong.He sets his glass down, without a sound this time, then folds his fingers before him. His gaze rests on me. No harshness. No visible calculation. Just that tranquil intensity that forbids me to look away."We need to talk," he says softly.His voice does not cut. It envelops, like a blanket laid over frozen shoulders. And yet, it makes me shiver.I straighten, nervous."About what?"He studies me, and I have the impression that he examines not only my face, but what I carry within me. As if the slightest vibration of my belly, the faintest echo of that life, already belonged to him."About you," he murmurs. "And the child."I clutch the glass between my hands. But I do not prote
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