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CHAPTER 92: THE MORNING AFTER

last update publish date: 2026-07-07 05:11:58

The morning face, the unguarded version, and in it something that was complicated and warm and the grief of the admitted thing and underneath all of it, running underneath like the fountain ran underneath everything —

The love.

The maternal love that had been the primary fact of my life since before I could name it.

“Tell me,” I said.

She looked at the garden.

“He is a good man,” she said.

Third time. Four people now. The words had been said by so many people in so many rooms that they had accu
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  • HER MOTHER’S HUSBAND   CHAPTER 138: THE GATE CONT’D

    “Because Reeves had found Cole’s name,” he said. “In connection with Raines. The investigation into Raines — it predates your father, Bella. Reeves was looking at Raines’s network before Thomas ever came to me with the proposal.” He paused. “Cole was one of the peripheral names. Someone who moved money for people in Raines’s orbit.”I looked at him.“You knew Raines was dangerous,” I said. “Before my father brought you the proposal.”“I knew Cole was connected to someone dangerous,” he said. “I didn’t know the name Raines until later.”“But you knew the network,” I said.He was quiet.“Dominic,” I said.“Yes,” he said.“When my father came to you with the proposal,” I said. “When he told you another investor had already committed. When you saw the shape of the investment and turned it down—” I stopped. I assembled the pieces. “Did you know who the other investor was.”The drive.The October morning.The closed gate.He looked at the house.“I suspected,” he said.I looked at him.“You

  • HER MOTHER’S HUSBAND   CHAPTER 127: THE GATE

    BELLA’S POV“Don’t let him leave,” Dominic said into the phone.The gate.Daniel Carr, who had been in custody and was now out on bail and had apparently spent his first free morning driving to an estate address he had gotten from somewhere and was standing at the intercom asking to be let through.I stood up.“Sit down,” Dominic said.“No,” I said.He looked at me.“I’m not sitting in the kitchen while Daniel Carr stands at my gate,” I said.“He’s not your gate,” he said.“He’s at the gate of the house I live in,” I said. “Close enough.”He looked at me for a long moment.“Stay behind me,” he said.“I’m not staying behind anyone,” I said.He pressed his lips together.We went to the front door.The gate camera showed Daniel on the small screen by the door — the intercom system, the live feed. I looked at it before we went out.Daniel Carr.Six months since I had seen him. He looked the same and he looked entirely different, the way people looked when you had learned something about t

  • HER MOTHER’S HUSBAND   CHAPTER 126: PRENTISS ROAD CONT’D

    I looked at the fountain.The water moving because that was what it did.“Dominic,” I said.“Yes,” he said.“Does Cole still exist?” I said. “As a problem. If Daniel’s message goes anywhere, if he uses what he knows about that night — does Cole become a problem.”He was quiet.“Cole died four years ago,” he said. “The connection died with him.”I absorbed this.“So Daniel’s leverage,” I said.“Is limited,” he said. “The fact of my being in the vicinity that night, the limited statement — that’s what he has. Nothing that ties me to Cole anymore.” He paused. “He’s hoping I don’t know that. He’s hoping the threat of the connection is enough.”I turned from the window.“He doesn’t know Cole is dead,” I said.“No,” he said.“Then his message is a bluff,” I said.“Largely,” he said.I looked at him.“Largely,” I said.He looked at the table.“The limited statement,” he said. “The fact that I withheld information from the original investigation. That’s real. That has consequences regardless

  • HER MOTHER’S HUSBAND   CHAPTER 125: PRENTISS ROAD

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  • HER MOTHER’S HUSBAND   CHAPTER 124: THE WEEKEND CONT’D

    The rain doing the thing it had been doing all day, the October insistence of it.I leaned down and kissed him.Not the dining room birthday kiss. Not the soft careful library first kiss. Something in between — the warmth of two people who had been in a house together all day with the rain outside and had arrived at the end of the day’s patience with the careful.He kissed me back.His hand moved from my knee.I shifted from the arm of the chair.The library.The rain.His hands and the close range of him and the warmth of the adjacent chair becoming the no-longer-adjacent chair, the two of us in it, the book on the floor where it had fallen.After a while — not long, the specific not-long of two people who had been careful for three months and were finding the edges of the careful — he pulled back.Just far enough.The close range.His forehead against mine.“Monday,” he said.Not a stop. The acknowledgment.“Monday,” I said.I stayed where I was.He stayed where he was.The rain.“I

  • HER MOTHER’S HUSBAND   CHAPTER 123: THE WEEKEND

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    BELLA'S POVI should have walked away the moment I heard the sound.That was the smart thing to do. The right thing. The thing any normal person would have done, turned around, gone back to their room, closed the door, pretended they'd heard nothing.But I have never, apparently, been particularly

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    I looked at my phone. It was Jennifer, my friend. But Jennifer wasn't hearing me, in fact, the call kept cutting out. Neither of us could hear each other properly.The call ended.I dropped the phone in frustration and headed to the bathroom to take a bath.The bathroom was absolutely gorgeous. Mar

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    BELLA’S POV For a second, neither of us moved. He just stood there, holding my underwear, his dark eyes locked on mine.I snatched it from his hand and shoved it behind my back. "I, I'm sorry. My bad.""I'm just going to take this and leave," he said, his voice tight. He grabbed whatever he'd been

  • HER MOTHER’S HUSBAND   CHAPTER 2 : THE MOST TEMPTING MOMENT

    BELLA’S POVHis hands were still on my waist. His breath was warm against my neck.And for one insane, terrifying second, I wondered what it would feel like if he didn't let go.I forced myself to sit up straighter, pulling away from him."Sorry," I mumbled.He didn't respond.The car kept moving.

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