Chapter Twenty One: Coffee

(Alondra's POV)The cafe was on a small side street off the Gran Vía.It was the kind of place I had loved before my life had a "before" and an "after." A wide window full of soft morning light. Wicker chairs out on the pavement. A blackboard propped by the door with the day's specials written in a curling hand. The smell of fresh bread reaching out into the street the way my father's bakery used to reach out into our own.The driver pulled up at the corner and I told him I would walk the last block.He did not like it. I could see him not liking it in the small set of his jaw. But I had been Dante's wife in name for over a month now, and somewhere along the way I had learned the small trick of holding a man's eye until he understood that "no" meant "no", and he nodded once and let me out without an argument.I walked the last block on my own.The morning air was cold and clean on my face. The pavement was busy in the way Madrid is busy at that hour, women with bags, men with coffees,

Chapter Twenty-Three: Dinner

(Alondra's POV)The driver pulled up to the front of the estate and I let myself sit in the car for one extra breath before I got out.The warmth of the morning was still on my skin. Camille's laugh was still in my ears. I did not want to walk through those doors and feel both of them go cold, so I held them in my chest for a second longer, like a hand cupped around a small flame, and then I opened the door and stepped out and let the gates of my real life close behind me.The hall was quiet.I crossed it on soft feet and turned toward the staircase that led up to our wing, already mentally untangling the messy bun from my hair and looking forward to the cool of my own room. I made it three steps past the open door of the living room before a voice stopped me."Alondra."I turned.Dante was sitting in the dim of the living room. He was on the long couch, and his suit jacket was off, draped over the arm beside him, and the top two buttons of his shirt were undone. His hair was slightly

Chapter Twenty-Three: Mine to Keep

(Alondra's POV)The spoon sat in the sauce.A small dark stain was spreading slowly into the white linen around it. I could not lift my eyes from the place where it had landed. I could feel three sets of them on me at once, the patriarch's slow and weighing, Carmen's bright with her own cruelty, Dante's I could not read because I was not brave enough yet to look up.The room was so quiet I could hear the wine settle in Carmen's glass.She lifted it to her mouth.I watched the small motion from under my lashes, and I watched her swallow, and set the glass back down with a small satisfied click.Then I heard the soft sound of a fork being laid down on the edge of a plate. It was only that the room had gone so still around it that everyone in it heard it as if he had thrown the fork against the wall. Dante set the fork down at a clean exact angle on the white china, he lifted the napkin from his lap, and folded it carefully along its existing creases, and he laid it down beside his plat

Chapter Twenty-Four: Between Vows

(Alondra's POV)I do not know what woke me.The bedside lamp was still on low from the night before. My phone said three forty-seven. I lay there for a moment.Then sat up and pulled the silk robe off the foot of the bed and tied it around my middle. My hair came loose out of the messy braid I had slept in. I crossed the cold floor in bare feet and I opened my door before I could talk myself out of it.The hallway was dim. The wall sconces had been turned all the way down. At the far end, near the head of the staircase, Dante and Miguel stood together by a small leather travel bag. Dante was in a dark grey shirt and dark trousers, his sleeves already rolled back. Miguel had his coat over one arm and a phone pressed to his ear, speaking in soft fast Spanish.They both looked up when my door opened.Miguel's eyes flicked from me to Dante and back, and then a small slow grin spread across his face. He said something quietly into the phone, ended the call, and lifted the bag onto his sho

All Chapters of A Bride for the Wrong Brother : Chapter 21 - Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty One: Coffee

Chapter Twenty-Three: Dinner

Chapter Twenty-Three: Mine to Keep

Chapter Twenty-Four: Between Vows