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Chapter 4
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2026-02-10 17:30:12Chapter 4
The Cathedral of Saint Catherine was obscenely beautiful. Kate had been inside exactly three times before today but she'd never seen it like this. Every surface seemed to glow with candlelight. It was excessive. Elegant. Exactly the kind of wedding the Ashford family would throw. Kate smoothed down her navy dress for the hundredth time and tried not to fidget. Her entire family had claimed two rows on the groom's side—her parents, all six of her brothers, various sisters-in-law and a nephew who was already getting restless despite the ceremony not having started yet."Katie, stop twitching," her mother whispered, reaching over to squeeze her hand. "You look lovely."
"I'm not twitching," Kate whispered back, even though she absolutely was. She couldn't help it. Something felt... off.
Maybe it was the text conversation with Silver this morning. That strange question: *Does he seem happy to you?* What kind of bride asked that on her wedding day?
Or maybe it was the fact that Kate was sitting in the congregation instead of standing at the altar.
She'd begged Seris. Actually begged him, something she rarely did because Seris hated emotional manipulation and Kate tried never to use their friendship that way. But she'd wanted so badly to be part of the bridal party, to stand up there as a visible symbol of her support for his new marriage.
"Please," she'd said, three weeks ago over coffee. "Just ask her if I can be a bridesmaid. I know we're not close yet, but this could help. It would mean so much to me."
Seris had looked at her with those dark, unreadable eyes and said simply, *"No."
"Why not? I'm your best friend! It's traditional for—"
"I don't want you around Silver."
The words had hit like a slap. Kate had actually recoiled, coffee cup frozen halfway to her lips.
"What? Seris, what are you talking about?""Exactly what I said. I don't want you in the bridal party. I don't want you near her any more than necessary. Just... leave it alone, Kate."
He'd left before she could argue further, and she'd spent the next three weeks trying to figure out what the hell that meant. *I don't want you around Silver.* Like Kate was some kind of threat. Like her friendship with Seris was something shameful that needed to be hidden from his wife.
It had hurt. Still hurt, actually, like a bruise she kept pressing just to feel the ache.
"There's Seris," David murmured from her other side.
Kate looked up to see Seris at the altar, standing with his groomsmen—his younger brother Julian, two cousins, and his best friend from business school, Cameron. Seris looked perfect in his tailored tuxedo, his dark hair styled back, his expression carefully neutral.He didn't look happy. He didn't look nervous. He didn't look anything at all.
Kate's stomach twisted.
On the bride's side of the cathedral, she could see the Winters family. Silver's father, distinguished and proud-looking. Her mother, already dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief even though nothing had happened yet.
And Silver's siblings.
Kate had done her research, of course. She always did her research.Aradis Winters, the oldest at thirty, was seated in the front row with a young man in an impeccable suit who kept leaning over to whisper in his ear. Not a date, apparently. An assistant. Though the way Aradis's hand rested on the man's knee suggested "assistant" was doing a lot of heavy lifting.
Noel Winters, twenty-eight, sat beside another man—also introduced as an assistant, also sitting far too close to be strictly professional.
Kassian Winters, twenty-six, was doing slightly less well at the pretense. His "assistant" had an arm draped across the back of Kassian's pew, and they kept exchanging looks that made Kate want to roll her eyes. Just say you're dating. It's 2020, for God's sake.
And then there was Skylia Winters, Silver's identical twin.
Kate had been fascinated by Skylia from the moment she'd seen her at the engagement party. She and Silver looked exactly alike—same height, same features, same auburn hair—but where Silver was always perfectly styled and elegantly dressed, Skylia looked like she'd rather be anywhere else. Today, crammed into a bridesmaid dress the color of champagne, Skylia looked particularly miserable. She kept tugging at the neckline and shifting in her heels like they were instruments of torture. Her hair was pulled back in a style that was clearly professional work, but she had the expression of someone plotting murder.Kate felt a flash of kinship. She understood not quite fitting the mold your family expected.
"I can't believe they're all pretending those are assistants," James whispered, gesturing subtly at Silver's brothers. "Like we're all blind."
"James," their mother hissed. "Hush."
"I'm just saying, if you're going to bring your boyfriend to your sister's wedding, maybe don't insult everyone's intelligence by—"
"James Alexander Bridgerton, I swear to God—"
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Five Years As A DoorMat Wife: Her Time To Shine Chapter 34
Chapter 34"My parents—" she started."Are fine," Seris said. He sat beside her. His voice was very steady. "I called. They're in Bali. They're absolutely fine. There was a miscommunication. I'm sorry, Nadine."Nadine stared at him. "They're—""Fine. I promise."The color began coming back slowly."I fainted," she said."You did. It's completely understandable.""In a corridor.""Yes."She processed this. Then she looked past Seris to where Kate was standing with the expression she'd been maintaining, which was still impressive, and still clear, and still open."You told me—" Nadine started."I'm so sorry," Kate said. "The information I had was clearly wrong. I can only apologize."Nadine looked at her for a moment.Then she looked at Seris.Then, with the specific look of a woman who had fainted in a corridor and was reassembling her dignity and her understandi
Five Years As A DoorMat Wife: Her Time To Shine Chapter 33
Chapter 33"Go," Seris said. "Of course. Don't worry about this.""I'm so sorry," Nadine said, to no one in particular, the way people apologized when they were in shock about something that had nothing to do with being sorry.She started breathing in the shallow way of someone who was holding something together very carefully and wasn't sure how long they could hold it.Then the elevator doors opened.Not smoothly — they jerked once, then slid. Two building maintenance staff were on the other side looking relieved and slightly alarmed, which was the correct response to an elevator that had Kate Bridgerton on top of it.Kate guided Nadine out with a practiced care."I'll take her down," Kate said to the maintenance staff. "Can you call for medical—no, actually, I'll handle it. Come on, Nadine. My car is outside."They went.Seris watched them go.Then he looked at the maintenance staff. "What caused it
Five Years As A DoorMat Wife: Her Time To Shine Chapter 32
Chapter 32She was mid-thirties, Silver estimated. Very composed, very well-dressed, with the particular posture of someone who had been told this was a networking event and had dressed accordingly. She was standing close to Seris in the way of someone who had been told this was also possibly more than a networking event and was managing the ambiguity.Silver recognized the energy. She had been in that position once.The three of them stood in the elevator.Silver pressed herself into the corner in the way of someone who was absolutely fine and simply preferred corners.Seris had seen her. Of course he had — the elevator was not large. He had seen her in the half-second before the doors closed and his expression had done something brief and complicated that he had then arranged back into professional neutral.He pressed the button for the twentieth floor.The elevator began to move."Floor seventeen?" the woman said, read
Five Years As A DoorMat Wife: Her Time To Shine Chapter 31
Chapter 31Skylia had opinions.This was not new. Skylia had always had opinions — loud ones, specific ones, delivered at a volume and frequency that suggested she considered silence a personal failing. But she had been storing this particular set for three months, ever since the alliance decision, and they arrived on Saturday morning with the full force of something that had been waiting for its moment.Silver had made the mistake of mentioning the vote over breakfast.Not dwelling on it. Just mentioning it. A single sentence, factual, while she was pouring coffee: *The Bridgerton proposal carried. We move to execution phase.*Skylia had looked at her across the kitchen table.Then she had put down her fork."He did it on purpose," she said."Sky—""No, listen to me." Skylia pointed. "He did it on purpose. He was retaliating.""He was casting a tiebreaker vote in a professional setting—"
Five Years As A DoorMat Wife: Her Time To Shine Chapter 30
Chapter 30Silver was the first of the principals to leave.She said something brief to Edmund Winters on the way out, received a nod in return, and walked to the door with the same settled quality she'd walked in with.At the door she paused.She turned and looked back at the room once, the way you looked at a room you were going to remember.Her eyes moved across the space and landed, briefly, on Kate.Kate was looking at her.They held it for a second.Then Silver turned and walked out.---Seris was the last to leave from the Ashford side.Marcus went first, then the technical team, then Julian, who closed his notebook and put it in his bag and said something to Seris that Kate didn't hear. Seris shook his head once. Julian left.Kate was nearly ready to go.She had her folder closed and her bag on her shoulder when Seris crossed the room.Not toward the door.Toward her.She straightened.He st
Five Years As A DoorMat Wife: Her Time To Shine Chapter 29
Chapter 29Across the table, Silver had not moved. Her hands were still flat on the table. She was looking at the middle distance, which was the look of someone who had also decided to wait without performing the waiting.Their fathers, one seat back, were both still.Julian had his notebook open. He was not writing anything.Marcus Webb had his pen on the table and was looking at Seris.Seris looked at the Bridgerton proposal.He looked at the Winters counter-proposal.He turned one page in the Bridgerton document. Read something. Turned it back.He set the pen down.Then he picked it up again.Kate was still looking at the window. She was thinking about nothing. She had found, over the past three months, that the best thing to do when you were waiting for something you couldn't control was to think about nothing. It was harder than it sounded. She'd gotten better at it.Seris looked up.He looked at the room.He lo
Five Years As A DoorMat Wife: Her Time To Shine Chapter 24
Chapter 24She spent Sunday and Monday in the Winters Holdings offices.Her father had arranged a briefing with the core team. She came in at eight and stayed until six and by the end of the first day the team had a reasonable sense of her and she had a complete sense of them, which was
Five Years As A DoorMat Wife: Her Time To Shine Chapter 23
Chapter 23Silver looked at her father steadily. "I'm ready."Edmund Winters had been reading people in negotiating rooms for thirty years. He looked at his daughter for a moment with that skill fully deployed.Then he nodded. "Alright," he said. "Let me tell you where we are on th
Five Years As A DoorMat Wife: Her Time To Shine Chapter 21
Chapter 21She knew that. He had called because she'd mentioned it was going to be a long day and he had retained it and called, and they had talked for — she checked — thirty-eight minutes, which was considerably longer than logistics required.She noticed.She did not
Five Years As A DoorMat Wife: Her Time To Shine Chapter 20
Chapter 20By seven in the evening, the office had gone quiet.Most of the floor had cleared out by six. Kate was still at her desk with three documents open and a half-eaten sandwich that had been brought to her at five and had not improved with time.The counter-offer to Morrow C
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