SILENT BETWEEN TWO HEARTS
Harry DuBois is the name everyone knows. At 6'4", sharply dressed, with silver at his temples and a velvet voice, he commands attention the moment he enters a room. Owner of DuBois Fine Arts & Jazz Lounge, the town’s cultural heartbeat, he offers a haven for music, poetry, and taste. Women adore him, men envy him, and all assume he’s living the dream.
But Harry is haunted.
Beneath success lies a past that won’t let him go, a tragedy he never speaks of. For Harry, love isn’t just risky, it’s dangerous. He’s a single father to Naomi, his teenage daughter, the only light he’s allowed to stay. Yet even with her, there are walls.
When new art curator Elena Rivera arrives from New York to partner with his lounge on a revival series, a celebration of Black art, music, and history. Harry is drawn to someone he hasn’t been with in decades. But Elena has secrets, and she’s starting to notice cracks in Harry’s perfect image.
As past and present collide, Harry is forced to confront the pain he has buried for over 25 years. A love lost, a betrayal unforgiving, and a night that changed everything. The question is: can Harry finally allow himself to feel again, or will the past claim him once and for all?
อ่าน
Chapter: CHAPTER HUNDRED AND TWELVE: Unfolding ChaosThe rhythm of wedding preparations had begun to pulse quietly through Elena’s life, careful and deliberate, as though every step forward was taken with measured intention. Nothing was rushed. Nothing was announced with certainty. There was no date yet, only direction. The absence of a fixed timeline was intentional, strategic even. Elena understood the language of visibility, and she knew that sometimes the strongest statement was to proceed without flinching.La Rivera would not shrink.If anything, it would stand taller.From the outside, it looked like a celebration was underway, design sketches circulating discreetly, venues discussed in hushed tones, fashion houses reaching out with proposals. Inside, however, Elena remained watchful. Threats had not vanished simply because the truth had been exposed. If anything, they had grown quieter, more calculating.And then the whispers began.It started as industry murmurs, soft conversations exchanged at private investor dinners, hints d
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-01-05
Chapter: CHAPTER HUNDRED AND ELEVEN: When Silence Becomes PowerThe next phase did not begin with announcements or celebration. It started with intention.Elena understood something most people did not: silence after danger was never neutral. It could be read as fear. Retreat. Damage control. And Elena Dubois had spent too many years building La Rivera to allow the outside world, even for a second, to believe it had been shaken.So when the wedding plans resumed, they did so deliberately, strategically, and visibly.Not loudly.Not recklessly.But unmistakably.La Rivera would not flinch.The decision was made in a closed-door meeting that included only Elena, Harry, and three members of senior management who had proven, beyond doubt, that their loyalty was to the institution, not to noise, not to panic, and certainly not to power plays.“The wedding will proceed,” Elena said calmly, her hands folded on the conference table. “But the date will remain open.”There were glances exchanged.Harry already understood.“This isn’t hesitation,” he added.
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-01-05
Chapter: CHAPTER HUNDRED AND TEN: The Enemy That Didn't LeaveThe next development came quietly, too quietly.It was Elena who noticed first.The absence of noise.For days after the failed maneuver and the discreet arrest, La Rivera existed in a strange calm. No threats. No emails. No anonymous articles. No movement on the financial fronts that had been aggressively probing its foundations.To anyone else, it would have looked like victory.To Elena, it looked like regrouping.“They’re not gone,” she said to Harry one morning as they reviewed reports in her office. “They’re recalibrating.”Harry nodded. “People like this don’t retreat. They reposition.”And then, almost as if summoned by her words, the past returned wearing a new face.The call came from a private number Elena hadn’t seen in years.She didn’t answer it at first.Something about the timing felt deliberate.When it rang again minutes later, she picked up.“Miss Dubois,” the voice said smoothly. “Or should I say… Mrs. Dubois.”Elena stiffened. Harry, seated across from her, immedi
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-01-05
Chapter: CHAPTER HUNDRED AND NINE: Silence After StormThe silence that followed Elena’s decision was not empty, it was charged.It settled over the house like a held breath.Harry moved first, locking doors, checking windows, confirming security feeds without being asked. Naomi watched him from the staircase, realizing for the first time that love, when tested at this level, stopped looking like tenderness and started looking like vigilance.That night, Elena didn’t sleep.She sat by the window, the city lights stretching endlessly before her, and replayed the man’s words again and again.Refusal makes you interesting.She had never wanted to be interesting to men like him. The next morning, La Rivera woke to whispers.Nothing concrete. Nothing provable. Just enough unease to unsettle.A curator resigned unexpectedly.A scheduled international artist postponed indefinitely.An anonymous article surfaced online questioning La Rivera’s “long-term governance stability.”Elena read it calmly.This was the pressure phase.“They’re testing our
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-01-04
Chapter: CHAPTER HUNDRED AND EIGHT: The Lingering DangerThe message did not come immediately.That, Elena learned, was part of the design.Weeks passed after the investor event, the one where the unknown man had watched without blinking, without applauding, without leaving a trace. Life at La Rivera settled into a rhythm again, but it was a guarded rhythm, like music played softly so no one outside the room could hear it.Elena trusted patterns more than peace.And the pattern was clear: whoever remained in the shadows was patient.Harry felt it too, though he rarely said it aloud. He had become attuned to the smallest changes: the way Elena paused before entering a room, the way Naomi instinctively scanned crowds, and the way security reports now felt less like protocol and more like survival manuals.Still, they refused to live like fugitives in their own lives.That refusal became an act of defiance in itself.La Rivera hosted a new exhibition titled Resilience, curated quietly but powerfully. The pieces spoke of endurance without victi
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-01-02
Chapter: CHAPTER HUNDRED AND SEVEN: Echoes Of ControlThe days after Naomi’s return unfolded with a strange duality of relief on the surface, vigilance underneath.La Rivera reopened quietly at first. No grand announcements. No celebrations. Just doors unlocking again, light returning to the halls, art breathing back into the space as if it, too, had survived something dangerous. Visitors returned cautiously, then steadily, drawn not just by curiosity but by respect. What had happened was not spoken of publicly in detail, but people sensed it.La Rivera had been tested, and it had not broken.Elena insisted on normalcy for Naomi, even as security tightened around them. Naomi returned to campus with protection she didn’t ask for but accepted without protest. The experience had changed her. Not in the way fear hollows people out, but in the way clarity sharpens them.She was quieter now.More observant.More intentional.One evening, Naomi sat with Elena on the terrace, watching the city lights flicker to life.“I don’t think I’ll ever be
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-01-02
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