All Chapters of Becoming Mrs. Blackwood: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

~ LENA ~“You can tell me anything.”The words echoed in my head seconds after he said them.Anything.How could I tell him that I wasn’t the woman he thought I was?How could I tell him that his real love was somewhere out there while I was here living her life?How could I tell him our marriage and every moment we’d shared was built on a lie?Right now, I looked into his eyes and saw nothing but concern staring back at me.No suspicion. No doubt. Just plain trust.And somehow that made it all worse.He took my hand and pressed a kiss against my knuckles, his dark eyes holding mine, silently urging me to let him in, to tell him what was wrong, to unburden the secret crushing my chest finally.It was tempting. So dangerously tempting. But not enough to make me forget the consequences.Because I could almost see what would happen the moment the truth left my mouth.I could see the confusion, the disbelief, the way his face would harden once it sank in—the knowledge that I wasn’t Kim. T

~ LENA ~I stood in the middle of the bedroom, arms crossed over my chest as I stared at the flowers I’d abandoned on the bed. Just minutes ago, I was holding them, admiring them. Now I stared at the bouquet with growing unease, as if it was something sinister looking at me.The flowers were breathtaking. Their delicate fragrance drifted through the room, and their soft, colorful petals brightened the pale bedding. But all I could think about was the note that had been hidden inside and the stranger who had sent it.Slowly, I looked down at it, still clutched in my hand, reading it for the umpteenth time.YOU’RE STILL AS BEAUTIFUL AS I REMEMBERA shiver ran through me.The message wasn’t threatening. It sounded romantic. Affectionate. Familiar. And that was what bothered me.It seemed whoever had written it knew Kimberly. The Kimberly who had existed before Nathan.Who could it be? An ex-boyfriend?But if that was the case, then why send flowers now?Why send them here?And why not le

~ LENA ~I entered the bedroom and closed the door behind me. The soft click of the lock sounded loud in my ears.For several seconds, I stood there with my back pressed against the door, staring at nothing.My body was still shaking, my mind still reeling from what I’d just heard.The conversation replayed itself over and over again in my head.“You were supposed to fake it! Fake being sick! Not send yourself to the hospital!”“It worked, didn’t it?”“Very soon, he’s going to be completely mine.”A shiver rippled through me.What kind of woman deliberately makes herself sick?A dangerous one. A desperate one. A woman willing to do anything to get what she wanted.And Ashley wanted Nathan. She’d always wanted him, ever since they were kids.Not in the harmless, childish way Rosa had described. Not in the way a younger sister admired an older brother. No. This was something darker. Something uglier.A part of me had always wondered if I was imagining things. Now I knew I wasn’t. Every

~ LENA ~I froze. Every thought in my head vanished at once.For one long, terrible second, all I could do was stare. I stared at both of them wondering if I was dreaming. Was this some kind of joke? A prank? Or something else entirely that I couldn’t understandNathan and Ashley were both asleep in the same bed. Ashley lay curled against his side, her head resting on his chest beneath his chin. One of her arms was draped across his stomach, while Nathan’s arm rested around her shoulders.The sight was so intimate it made something inside me recoil.They looked… I swallowed hard. They looked like a couple. Comfortable. Too comfortable. Like two people who had fallen asleep in each other’s arms countless times before.The thought hit me so hard that I stumbled back a step.No. No, this couldn’t be. I shook my head against what my mind was telling me. Nathan wasn’t like that. Everything I knew about him screamed that he wasn’t that sort of man. He would never have anything intimate to d

~ ASHLEY ~Poor Kimberly.I lifted my cup of tea to my lips so the smile threatening to escape wouldn’t betray me.Across the table, she sat as straight as a porcelain doll, pretending nothing was wrong. To anyone else, she looked calm, but I knew better.I’d seen the fear in her eyes the moment she walked into the dining room and saw the flowers sitting proudly in the center of the table. It was exactly the reaction I’d been aiming for when I insisted Mirela display them in the dining room instead of the kitchen counter where she’d kept them before.I watched her covertly. Her shoulders were stiff beneath the pale blue dress she wore, her fingers wrapped around her cup like a vice. She’d barely taken a sip from her coffee. Every few seconds, her eyes drifted nervously toward Nathan, searching his face to know what he was thinking since he hadn’t said much. She was so uneasy, it almost made me feel sorry for her.Nathan hadn’t argued. He hadn’t asked many questions. He hadn’t even loo