Semua Bab One Shift, One Night : Bab 31 - Bab 40

Marriage.The word tasted like poison.I stared out the tinted car window as Chicago blurred past in cold gray streaks, my jaw tight enough to ache.Beside me, Lyra sat silently.Far enough to make the distance obvious.Good.That was exactly how it should be.The lawyers had finalized everything less than an hour ago.No wedding.No vows.No smiles.Just signatures.A legal transaction designed to stop the Kane empire from bleeding publicly.And now Lyra Olson was officially my wife.The thought made something dark twist inside my chest.Across from us, Lucas loosened his tie dramatically before muttering, “Well. That was the least romantic thing I’ve ever witnessed, and I once watched a billionaire propose through PowerPoint.”Neither of us answered.Lucas sighed heavily.“Tough crowd.”The silence inside the car became suffocating again.I looked away from Lyra instinctively.Because every time I looked at her now, my mind became a warzone.The woman from that night.The woman I se

Kane Manor became quieter after sunset.Too quiet.The kind of silence that made every footstep echo.By dinner, Lucas had somehow managed to turn the twins completely against me.“Uncle Lucas says rich people eat snails,” Maya announced suspiciously while staring at the elegant dishes placed across the dining table.Lucas looked deeply offended. “I said French people eat snails. Wealth has nothing to do with it.”Leo looked at him seriously. “You dated a French person.”Lucas pointed triumphantly. “Exactly. See? This child respects lore.”For the first time all day, Gabriel actually looked mildly irritated in a normal way instead of terrifyingly cold.“You’re teaching them nonsense.”Lucas shrugged lazily from his seat. “I’m building character.”Dinner itself felt strange.Domestic.Unnatural.Gabriel barely spoke unless it involved the twins. But every time Maya asked him a question or Leo quietly showed him something from his tablet, he answered with surprising patience.Not warmth

The tension in the mansion lingered long after Gabriel’s grandfather and Julian left.I could still feel it in the air during lunch.In the way the staff moved quieter than before.In the way Mrs. Dalton kept nervously glancing toward Gabriel’s study.And especially in the way Gabriel barely spoke at all afterward.He had disappeared into his office almost immediately after the confrontation downstairs.Locked door.Cold silence.The twins thankfully remained oblivious to most of it.Maya was busy trying on dresses from her new wardrobe while Leo sat beside her reading quietly like a tiny exhausted professor.I watched them from the couch, my chest aching softly.They looked happy here already.Too happy.That scared me.Because if this arrangement collapsed…Would they get hurt too?A knock interrupted my thoughts.Before I could answer, Mrs. Dalton entered carefully.“Mr. Kane asked if the children would like to have lunch with him.”Surprise flickered through me instantly.“With Ga

Third person pov:“You’re being too calm about this.”Lucy Kane, Julian's sister threw the stack of reports onto Julian’s desk with visible frustration.Paper scattered slightly across the polished wood, but Julian barely reacted.He remained seated comfortably in the leather chair behind his desk, lazily scrolling through stock reports on his tablet like his cousin’s scandal wasn’t dominating every financial headline in Chicago.Lucy stared at him in disbelief.“Did you even listen to the board meeting recap?”Julian finally looked up.“I listened.”“Then why are you acting like none of this matters?”Because it should have mattered.Gabriel Kane should have been cornered by now.The hidden children scandal alone should’ve weakened investor confidence.Then came the sudden marriage.The hospital collapse.The media frenzy.Everything should have created instability inside Kane Enterprises.Instead,Gabriel’s approval ratings somehow increased.Lucy paced across the office angrily.“T

Chapter 44Lyra’s POVSienna had insisted I leave the house.“Fresh air,” she’d said firmly, tugging me toward the car like I was a patient recovering from something I refused to name.Honestly, I didn’t argue.Kane Manor had started feeling like it was shrinking around me lately.Like the walls were quietly learning my name.So I went.We spent most of the afternoon in a quiet café downtown, far enough from the mansion that my shoulders finally relaxed for the first time in days.Sienna talked about something funny Lucas had done at a charity event.I tried to laugh.And I did.A little.But even then, my mind kept drifting.To Victoria.To Gabriel.To that smile she gave him.Like she still knew him in a way I didn’t.By the time I returned home, the sun was already dipping low behind the estate gardens.The house was unusually quiet.Too quiet.Mrs. Dalton greeted me politely. “Mr. Kane is in the study with a guest.”My chest tightened slightly.A guest.I nodded slowly. “Who?”She