Novel-novel oleh Requeza Imoh

Elena POVShe waited until they were back at his apartment before she asked. “Did you know Theo might be there?” she said. Nikos looked at her across the counter. “Before we walked into that ceremony room,” she continued. “Did you know he might come?” He paused for a moment. “I knew he existed,” he said. “Irene told me about him in the corridor. That he was somewhere in the building.” He paused again. “I didn’t know he would be at the ceremony itself.” “But you knew he was there before we went into the reception,” she insisted. “Yes,” he admitted. “And you didn’t tell me.” “I was trying to handle it before it became something you needed to handle,” he recalled. Elena picked up her wine and set it back down without drinking. “Nikos.” “I know.” “We have had this exact conversation before in this kitchen about this specific pattern.” She looked at him steadily. “You decide something is yours to manage, you manage it alone, and I find out afterward, and we stand in a room exactly

Elena’s POVThe coverage landed early hours in the morning.Elena was already awake when it did, sitting at the kitchen table in Nikos’s apartment in one of his shirts with her hands wrapped around a coffee mug. She had her phone face down on the table and she was actively choosing not to turn it over.Nikos came in from the bedroom already dressed, and looked at her sitting there with the phone face down and said, “How bad is it?”“I haven’t looked yet.”He raised an eyebrow. “You’ve been awake for an hour.”“I’m aware.”“Elena.”“I’m building up to it.” She picked up her coffee. “Sit down and build up to it with me.”He sat across from her and poured himself coffee and for a moment they just sat in the early morning.“Richard called last night,” she said. “After we got back.”“What did he say?”“He said Katrina was fine. He said the reception was manageable.” She looked at her mug. “He also said Jamie hasn’t stopped asking questions.”“What kind of questions?”“Jamie with follow-up

Nikos POVThe sitting room felt smaller than it had a minute ago.Nikos watched his father standing at the window in a suit that was a bit too big for him.“Explain that,” Nikos said.“Which part?” his father replied. “The part where you faked your death and then showed up at your widow’s wedding because you wanted to know if Irene was safe.” He met his father’s gaze. “Start there.”Alexandros moved from the window and sat in one of the two chairs by the fireplace. He looked up at his son ,but Nikos didn’t sit down.“I’m not going to act like what I did to her was okay,” Alexandros said. “I’ve moved past that. I spent twenty years pretending it was okay, and it produced nothing useful.” He paused. “What I did to Irene was the worst thing I have ever done.”He stared at his hands. “Everything that followed was a result of that one moment of weakness.”“You didn’t fail to fight for her,” Nikos said. “You paid her to disappear.”“Yes.”“There’s a difference between those two things.”“I

The garden became very quiet around him.“Say that again,” Nikos said.“I saw him.” Theo’s jaw was set. “Twenty minutes ago. I’ve known his face for thirty years, and it was him.”Irene stood beside him, completely still. She wasn’t looking at Theo. Instead, she stared at the garden wall with an intense, blank gaze as if her mind had wandered far away.“Irene.” Nikos turned to her. “Did you know?”“No.” Her voice was soft. “I was told he was dead. The letter arrived eighteen months ago. His lawyers contacted me to inform me that the settlement obligations had passed to the estate.” She paused. “I believed it.”“Someone wanted you to believe that,” Elena said.Nikos looked at her. She stood still, her arms at her sides.“He faked his death,” Nikos said. He voiced the thought because saying it out loud made it feel real enough to act on.“That would explain the timing,” Elena said carefully.“The documents Irene gave you. She handed them over because she thought he was dead and there wa

Elena POVThe reception had moved into the main hall by the time Elena slipped out of the ceremony room.She had lasted exactly four minutes.She had told Jamie she needed air.He had looked at her with those watchful eyes.“You’re not going to do something reckless, are you?” he asked carefully.Elena had offered him the look that meant I absolutely am, and I need you not to interfere.Jamie sighed heavily.“That expression is exhausting.”“I’ll be back.”“Elena”“I’m just checking something.”“Those are famous last words.”But she had already turned away because Nikos had been gone for forty minutes.The corridor outside was still.The strange way wedding venues became empty once everyone migrated toward celebration.Elena paused for a second, listening. Then she started walking.The main reception hall was full when she found it.At the far end of the room, Richard and Katrina stood near the windows.Elena admired them deeply for that.Then she saw him.She didn’t know his face, but

Nikos POVThe corridor outside the ceremony room was long, pale, and hushed.Nikos closed the door behind them, and the sound of the room disappeared almost completely.Irene stood a few feet from him with her coat still on and her hands still clasped. Her eyes were doing something different today, and he noticed it immediately.“You said twenty minutes,” she said. “Start talking.”“I think you’re the one who needs to talk,” he said.“You came here for a reason. Tell me what it is.”She looked at him. “You know what it is.”“I know part of it. I want to hear the rest.”She was quiet for a moment. Then, “She married him. Katrina. She stood beside that man for twenty years while I was living in a flat in Edinburgh.” She took a breath. “She knew about me. I know she knew, and she married him anyway, built a life on top of mine, and now he’s dead, and she gets to stand in a room full of people and do it again, and everyone applauds.”“She married Richard,” Nikos said carefully. “Not my fa