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Chapter 26

Author: Bunnykoo
last update Huling Na-update: 2025-12-15 22:53:58

November was the month of the lie.

The tracker Damian had installed in Aria’s phone was a silent, blinking eye that never closed. It sat in her pocket, heavy as a stone, recording every keystroke, every location, every heartbeat of her digital life.

Aria knew she had to feed the beast.

If she stopped “communicating” with her fake boyfriend, Damian would know she was lying. He would come back. He would tear the apartment apart until he found the sketchbook.

So, she created a ghost.

She had gone to a public library in Queens, wearing a hoodie and sunglasses, and set up a fake number using a burner app. She saved the contact in her phone as him. No name. Just Him.

Every night, sitting alone in the sterile silence of the corporate apartment, she typed messages to nobody.

I miss you. The city is cold today. I wish I could see you.

She typed the words she wanted to say to Damian. She poured her longing, her loneliness, and her fear into the text box, and pressed send.

And somewhere, fifty f
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  • Forbidden By Her Sister's Husband    Chapter 37

    The email arrived at 8:00 AM on a Tuesday, breaking the sterile silence of the corporate apartment like a stone thrown through a glass window.Aria sat at the dining table a slab of cold, gray marble that looked more like a morgue slab than furniture—staring at the screen of her personal laptop. The cursor blinked at her, a rhythmic pulse of white against the blue light.Subject: Interview Request - Assistant Editor Position. From: The Radical Review.Aria read the subject line three times. Her heart, which usually beat with a dull, anxious thud, suddenly kicked into a frantic rhythm.The Radical Review. It was a small, gritty literary journal based in a converted warehouse in Brooklyn. It published avant-garde poetry and essays on urban decay. It had absolutely nothing to do with Cross Industries. It had no board of directors, no stock price, and certainly no connection to Damian Cross.It was a lifeline.Aria closed the laptop slowly, her eyes instinctively darting to the smoke dete

  • Forbidden By Her Sister's Husband    Chapter 36

    The day of the Vow Renewal.The heat had broken, leaving behind a crisp, perfect summer day that Cassandra claimed she had “manifested” through sheer willpower. The sky was a piercing blue, the kind that looked expensive in photographs.Aria stood in the bridal suite of the St. Jude’s Basilica, holding a bottle of hairspray like a weapon.“Higher,” Cassandra commanded, staring into the vanity mirror. “I want the tiara to sit up, not back. I’m not a debutante, Aria. I’m a queen.”Aria sprayed the curl. The chemical scent choked the air.She was wearing the silver silk dress Damian had forced her to buy months ago. It fit her like a second skin—cool, smooth, and restrictive. Around her neck, hidden beneath the high collar, was the silver padlock. On her wrist was the heavy steel watch.She was branded. Wrapped in his money. Bound by his gifts.“There,” Aria whispered, smoothing a stray blonde hair. “It’s perfect.”Cassandra turned her head left, then right. She smiled. It was a dazzling

  • Forbidden By Her Sister's Husband    Chapter 35

    The suitcase on Aria’s bed was open, gaping like a hungry mouth waiting to be fed.“Pack something slutty,” Cassandra commanded from the doorway of the corporate apartment. She was wearing oversized sunglasses indoors, holding a Starbucks cup like a scepter. “We’re going to Atlantic City. The Borgata. I booked the Chairman Suite.”Aria folded a beige sweater, her hands trembling slightly. “Atlantic City? Cassandra, the Vow Renewal is next week. Shouldn’t we be resting?”“Rest is for the dead,” Cassandra snapped. “This is my last hurrah before I re-commit to the prison of matrimony. I want tequila. I want blackjack. I want to dance on a table.”“I have work,” Aria tried, a desperate lie. “The Archives…”“Damian gave you the weekend off,” Cassandra said, smirking. “I asked him this morning. He didn’t look happy about it, but he agreed. Said something about ‘minimizing collateral damage’ if I went alone. So, you’re the chaperone. Pack.”Aria stared at the sweater. Chaperone.She wasn’t g

  • Forbidden By Her Sister's Husband    Chapter 34

    The padlock necklace was a cold, unyielding weight against Aria’s sternum.It was a small thing—a square of solid silver no larger than a thumbnail—but it sat in the hollow of her throat like an anchor dragging her down. It warmed against her skin, a constant, burning reminder of the man who had placed it there in the dead of night.To ensure you do not run again.Aria touched the metal through the fabric of her high-necked blouse. She was in the dining room of the Hale Estate. It was Sunday. The mandatory family dinner.She hadn’t taken the necklace off in three days. She couldn’t. There was no key. She had tried to pick the lock with a hairpin late one night, desperate to breathe without the reminder of his ownership, but the mechanism was complex, expensive, and completely unforgiving.Just like him.“Pass the wine,” Cassandra said, her voice cutting through the silence like a knife through silk.Aria jumped. Her hand

  • Forbidden By Her Sister's Husband    Chapter 33

    May in New York was supposed to be a season of rebirth. The magnolias were blooming in Central Park, dropping soft pink petals onto the pavement, and the air had finally lost its biting, winter edge. But for Aria Hale, May felt like a countdown to an execution. The date of the Vow Renewal was set for June 15th. Four weeks away. Every day was a fresh hell of logistics. Aria had become the unofficial wedding planner, the shadow secretary, the person who carried the binders and absorbed the stress so Cassandra could focus on “glowing.” Today was the venue walkthrough. Cassandra had rejected the idea of a garden party. “Too rustic,” she had declared. “I want God involved. It looks more expensive.” So they were at St. Jude’s Basilica. It was a cavernous, Gothic monstrosity of stone and stained glass in the Upper East Side. It was older than the city around it, a fortress of silence that smelled of b

  • Forbidden By Her Sister's Husband    Chapter 32

    The planning of the Vow Renewal was a slow, methodical execution.April bled into May. The city turned green, the air warming up, but Aria felt colder than ever. She spent her days in the basement archives and her evenings in the corporate apartment, surrounded by binders of white tulle samples and catering menus.She was building the altar for her own execution.Tik. Tik. Tik.The heavy steel watch on her wrist—Damian’s Christmas “gift”—counted down the seconds. It was too loose. It slid up and down her forearm, clinking against the glass table as she worked.It was 8:00 PM on a Thursday.Aria was in the apartment living room. Cassandra had sent over five different options for the renewal invitations.“Choose the best one,” Cassandra had texted. “I trust your boring taste. It’s ‘classy’.”Aria was comparing fonts.The electronic lock on the front door beeped.Beep. Whirrr.Aria didn’t

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