Novels by constanceajuebon3

.“It’s not the lies that kill you. It’s the silence between them.”The estate loomed ahead like a beast at rest—its breath held, its eyes closed, but nowhere near asleep. Leora stood at the gates, heart pulsing like war drums under her ribs. The iron arches opened with a mechanical hiss, like an inhale before a scream. Not a single guard challenged her. No dogs barked. No eyes met hers.Still, she felt watched.She wasn’t sneaking in.She was being let in.As if they already knew she was coming.And worse—they were waiting.She didn’t waste time going to her room. There was nothing in that cage of velvet and perfume she needed now. No gown or mask could prepare her for what she intended to do.Her heels clicked across the marble, sharp and purposeful, a deliberate sound that echoed down the hall like a challenge. She passed the chandelier-lit corridors, the cold-eyed portraits of Vortiga ancestors, and the grand staircase—all silent witnesses to countless sins.She stopped outside the

“Some ghosts don’t haunt you with screams. They haunt you with resemblance.”Leora stared at the violet.Pressed flat. Fragile. Dry as ash.And yet somehow, alive.Like it had been waiting—not just in this room, but across time. Across silence. Like it had known she’d return. That eventually, she’d come back here, open the book, and see it.Not as a flower.But as a message.A trace. A warning. A ghost trapped between pages.Her throat constricted as if the air had turned to smoke. “You told me she wasn’t real.”Mateo didn’t flinch.He didn’t look away.He just stood there, like a man already drowning, staring up at the storm.“I lied,” he said.The words landed hard—simple, heavy.Leora couldn’t breathe for a moment. The silence between them grew so dense it had weight, filling the space like fog soaked in regret.Her pulse pounded in her ears. Loud. Too fast. A rising drumbeat that matched the tremor in her hands.“You said the Girl in Violets was an old tale,” she whispered, “a par

“Some truths hide in silence. Others wait in flowers.”The streets still wore last night’s rain like a memory. Slick and glistening under the bruised morning sky, puddles stretched across the cobblestones, catching the dim light and tossing it back like shards of a shattered mirror.Leora walked through them without pause.Her hood was pulled low, but not to hide. Not really. There was no one here to recognize her—not in this part of the city, not at this hour. But the hood offered a kind of armor. A thin, fabric-bound silence. And that was enough.She moved like a shadow made flesh—quiet, fluid, purposeful. One alley bled into the next, each more narrow and silent than the last, until the city itself felt like it was holding its breath.Her own breath came slow. Measured.Like she was counting down to something.To confrontation.To confession.To the unraveling of the last lie she hadn’t dared name.But her mind wasn’t racing. It was too late for panic. Too late for second thoughts.

“Some fires don’t burn out. They just turn to smoke and stay in your lungs forever.”The fire had burned low.Its once-bold flames had withered to soft embers, crackling now and then as if whispering secrets to the dark. The grand fireplace, once a stage for roaring defiance, now sighed with dying light. Golden ghosts danced across the master suite, shadows curling along the walls like reluctant witnesses—like they didn’t want to leave.The silence was deep. Not restful. Not gentle. It was the kind that pried things open—the kind that sank teeth into old wounds and held on tight.Allerick lay on his back, one arm tucked behind his head, staring up at the ceiling as though it could offer him something—clarity, perhaps. Or absolution. But the ornate molding above gave nothing back. Just silence. Just the echo of things he hadn’t said.His chest rose and fell, slow and even, but there was nothing calm about him.Inside, his thoughts warred with themselves. Logic tried to reason. Guilt cl

“Love without trust is just a lie waiting to explode.”The storm had passed.But its ghost remained, haunting the air with charged silence—thick, electric, unnatural. The kind of stillness that felt like the world was waiting to exhale. The cracked windows of Allerick’s estate groaned under the weight of the wind, as though the house itself was exhausted from everything it had witnessed and no longer had the strength to keep its secrets.In the bedroom, the quiet was sharper than any sound.Leora sat on the edge of the bed, unmoving. A porcelain figure in a collapsing world. Her silk robe clung to her damp skin, still dewy from the shower she had taken in the hope—futile, naive—that hot water could cleanse away the day. The heat hadn’t touched her bones. The water hadn’t reached her guilt.Her legs were curled slightly, bare toes pressed into the floorboards, grounding herself in something real. Her hair, still damp, trailed over one shoulder like ink spilled across ivory. Droplets li

Back in the PresentThe fire crackled in the hearth, a slow, lazy burn that filled the study with the scent of charred oak and something older—like history refusing to fade. Shadows danced across the paneled walls, restless and agitated, but not nearly as restless as the silence thickening between them.Leora sat on the edge of the velvet sofa, spine straight, hands clasped tightly in her lap to still the tremor she couldn’t quite suppress. Her heart beat steady, but not calm. Not with the weight of his gaze on her.Allerick Valencia occupied the armchair across from her, still as a marble effigy. One hand curled around the handle of his cane, knuckles faintly white from the grip, though he didn’t lean on it. The other hovered near the untouched low-ball glass on the side table. The amber liquor inside rippled just slightly, like it, too, had grown uncomfortable under the pressure of unspoken truths.She hadn’t taken her eyes off him.And he hadn’t taken a drink.His face revealed not