《Her Rebirth, His Regret 》全部章節：第 11 章 - 第 20 章

MAEVE "I need a reason," Alexander said. Not asking. Demanding, his jaw was tight and his eyes fixed on my face like the answer was already somewhere in my expression and he was simply waiting for me to stop hiding it. I looked at him standing there under the street lights and thought about all the reasons I actually had. Because in another life you held my sister the way you were supposed to hold me. Because I died on a concrete floor outside a hospital window and the last thought I had was your name. Because our child never got the chance to breathe. Because you spent three years looking at Dorothy exactly the way I spent three years waiting for you to look at me. I couldn't say any of that. I pulled in a slow breath through my nose and let it out. "I've neglected myself for a long time," I said evenly. "I've been so focused on you that I stopped paying attention to what I actually wanted. What I felt for you — I don't think it was love. Not really. I think it was an obses

ALEXANDER I couldn't sit still. I had been home for forty minutes and I had already loosened my tie, taken it off entirely, poured two fingers of scotch, set it down without drinking it, and was now standing at the floor-to-ceiling window of my apartment staring out at the city with my jaw so tight it ached. How dare she. That was the thought running laps in my head, hot and irrational and refusing to slow down no matter how many times I told myself to drop it. How dare Maeve just walk away from me on that dance floor and climb into Andre's car like I wasn't standing right there. Like I hadn't crossed an entire room for her. Like what I had done meant absolutely nothing. Which it didn't, I reminded myself. Because she means nothing. She's a friend. That's all she has ever been. Unable to stop my thoughts from running wild and replaying the night over and over again, I picked up my phone and called Romy. He answered on the second ring, his voice is deep with sleep and a part of

MAEVEHe stopped a few feet away and when he spoke his voice was low, almost too controlled, his blue eyes narrowing in my direction."Is this actually a date?" His gaze flicked once to Andre before coming back to mine. "With him?" The sneer in his tone was clear, his lips twisted into a frown like the thought of it was beneath him entirely.I gritted my teeth, annoyance pulsing through my veins. Who does he think he is to look down on Andre? To meddle in a choice I've made for myself for the first time in years?"Yes." I shrugged. "How is it any of your business?" The tone of nonchalance stuck, thank God.Andre shifted beside me. "She's already made her choice, man. Maybe it's time to accept that and let go." He sounded slightly impatient, shifting on one foot and then another under Alexander's intense scrutiny I've been a subject of that glare one too many times in the past two days... I did not blame Andre for being uncomfortable.Alexander's blue eyes held the man in his gaze l

MAEVE My phone buzzed in my bag and I almost let it ring out. I had declined Alexander four times already and my thumb knew the motion by heart now. But when I pulled it out and saw Romy's name on the screen I paused."One second," I told Jane, and answered.What Romy told me in the next two minutes made the whole café fall completely away. I sat there with the phone pressed to my ear and heard the words and felt them hit me like a ton of bricks.Christ.I lowered the phone."Maeve." Jane leaned forward across the table, her eyes searching my face. "You've gone completely white. What happened?""We need to go to the police station," I said. My voice came out level, which surprised me. "Right now, Jane."She stared at me. "Why? What did he—""Now. Please."We went.The precinct on West 35th smelled of burnt coffee and floor cleaner and the fluorescent lights made everything look slightly worse than it probably was. Jane and I sat across from an investigator in a small windowless room

ALEXANDER I had been watching the door all morning and Maeve had not come through it once.She had walked in with the Meridian contracts, set them on my desk, glanced at Dorothy for approximately half a second, and walked back out. No hesitation in her step. No tightness around her eyes. Not even a hum of acknowledgement that would show what she saw bothered her.Nothing.I had planned the whole thing, if I was going to be honest with myself about it. Dorothy working as my assistant was strategically convenient for several reasons but the primary one was currently at lunch. Without even a word to me.I had expected Maeve to knock on my door. To manufacture some excuse — a scheduling question, a missing file — and use it as an opening. Then Dorothy's presence would naturally come up and I would explain and from there the birthday party conversation was straightforward. I had wanted to invite Maeve. Had been trying to find the right angle to do it since she told me she wasn't coming, a