تسجيل الدخولمشاركة
THE NIGHT THE QUIET WON FOR A MINUTE
تاريخ النشر:
2026-08-01 17:51:02
أحدث فصل
MARRIED TO THE MAFIA KING THE NIGHT THE PROMISE STARTED TO CRACK
CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO:“I don’t believe you anymore.”Theo’s voice cut through the kitchen the next morning like a blade. He stood by the table with his backpack already on, lunchbox in one hand, eyes fixed on Dimitri with a steadiness that didn’t belong on a child’s face.Dimitri set his coffee down carefully. “What don’t you believe?”“That you’re staying.” Theo’s jaw was tight. “You keep saying it. You said it when the bag was by the door the first time. You said it last night. But the bag keeps coming out. So I don’t believe you.”June stood a little behind him, quiet, her sketchbook hugged to her chest. Anna sat in her high chair watching everyone with wide eyes. From the nursery monitor came the soft sounds of the baby stirring.Lyra felt the air leave the room.Dimitri crouched down so he was level with his son. “I unpacked it. I put it away. I’m still here.”“For now,” Theo said. “That’s what it feels like. For now. Like you’re only staying until the quiet gets too loud again.”
MARRIED TO THE MAFIA KING THE NIGHT THE QUIET WON FOR A MINUTE
CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE:“I packed the bag again.”Dimitri said it while standing in the dark bedroom doorway, jacket on, the same duffel from weeks earlier hanging from one hand. Lyra sat up so fast the baby monitor wobbled on the nightstand.“No.”“I didn’t leave.” His voice was flat, scraped raw. “I got as far as the front door and turned around. But I packed it. I stood there with my hand on the knob like a coward and tried to talk myself into disappearing for a few days so I wouldn’t keep poisoning this house with whatever is wrong with me.”Lyra threw the covers back and stood. “Put it down.”“I already did.” He let the bag drop to the floor with a dull thud. “It’s empty. I took everything back out in the hallway. But I wanted to go, Lyra. For a minute the quiet felt so loud I thought the only way to protect any of you was to remove myself from the equation.”Her hands curled into fists. “You don’t get to decide that. You don’t get to stand in our home and calculate whether your chi
MARRIED TO THE MAFIA KING THE COST OF STAYING
CHAPTER SEVENTY:“I can’t keep being the only one who believes we’re safe.”Lyra’s voice was low and shaking when she said it. She stood in the kitchen with her hands braced on the counter, back to him, like looking at him would make the words harder to hold onto.Dimitri stopped in the doorway. “What is that supposed to mean?”“It means I’m tired, Dimitri.” She turned. Her eyes were red, but her voice stayed steady in the way that meant she had already cried and decided to keep going anyway. “I’m tired of checking your face every time a door closes too hard. I’m tired of watching you fight yourself in the middle of the night. I’m tired of our kids learning how to read the temperature of this house before they even ask for breakfast.”“I’m doing what I said I would.”“You’re surviving what you said you would.” She took a step closer. “There’s a difference. Surviving looks like almost calling Viktor at two in the morning. Surviving looks like flinching at plates and bookshelves and the
MARRIED TO THE MAFIA KING THE NIGHT HE ALMOST WENT BACK
CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE:“I almost called Viktor and told him to bring it back.”Dimitri’s voice came from the dark side of the bedroom at 1:48 a.m. Lyra had been half-asleep. The words yanked her fully awake.She sat up. “What did you just say?”“You heard me.” He was sitting on the edge of the bed, elbows on his knees, staring at the floor. “An hour ago. I had the phone in my hand. I was going to tell him the experiment failed and I needed the gun back in the house by morning.”Lyra’s chest went tight. “And?”“And I didn’t.” He let out a short, bitter breath. “But I wanted to. God, I wanted to. The house got quiet and my head started building scenarios again. Someone at the back fence. Someone who knows the kids’ rooms. Someone who waits until I’m stupid enough to believe we’re safe.”She turned on the lamp. The sudden light made both of them flinch. “So you sat here in the dark planning how to undo the one thing we just fought to do.”“I sat here trying not to.” His voice rose. “There’s
MARRIED TO THE MAFIA KING THE FIRST LOUD SOUND WITHOUT IT
CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT: The plate shattered on the kitchen tile so hard the pieces skittered under the cabinets.June flinched. Theo froze with a glass halfway to his mouth. Anna started crying at the sharp noise. In the nursery, the baby let out a startled wail through the monitor.Dimitri was moving before the last shard stopped spinning. His hand went to his hip — to the place the gun used to live — and closed on nothing. The empty space seemed to knock the air out of him. He stood there in the middle of the kitchen, breathing too fast, eyes scanning windows and doors that showed nothing but the ordinary afternoon.Lyra set the dish towel down slowly. “It was a plate, Dimitri.”“I know.”“Then why do you look like someone just kicked the door in?”He didn’t answer right away. His hands flexed at his sides, open and useless. “Because my body still thinks that sound comes with people who want to hurt us. And I don’t have anything in my hands.”Lyra’s voice stayed quiet, but it carried
MARRIED TO THE MAFIA KING THE THING HE COULDN'T PUT DOWN
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN:“You’re actually doing it.”Lyra stood in the doorway of the study, watching Dimitri open the safe. The gun sat inside on the felt lining like it had been waiting for them. His hand hovered over it for a long second before he picked it up.“I said I would,” he answered, voice flat.“Saying it and doing it aren’t the same thing.” She crossed her arms, but it looked more like she was holding herself together than closing him off. “If you’re going to change your mind, do it now. Don’t put it in a box and then spend the next month resenting me for it.”Dimitri turned the weapon over in his hand once, checking it out of pure habit, then set it on the desk. “I’m not changing my mind. I’m just… saying goodbye to the version of me that needed it every hour of the day.”“That version kept us alive.”“And now it’s costing us the life we stayed alive for.” He looked at her, eyes tired. “You were right. June flinched. Theo watches the doors. You hold your breath every time I
قد تعجبك أيضًا
Can't Win Me Back
Ginger Sue3.0M وجهات النظرHIS REGRET (Ex-Husband wants Me Back)
Major_Canis1.7M وجهات النظرForceful Marriage: Young Master's Mute Wife
A Lake’s Depth1.2M وجهات النظرYour Uncle’s My Husband Now—Back Off, Ex!
June2.0M وجهات النظرTHE LAST DANCE
Osmosis_writes✍️114 وجهات النظرPregnant With The Alpha's Forbidden Child
Leach36 وجهات النظرLie To Me In Diamonds
Eria’s40 وجهات النظرBetrayed by my mate's first love
Glory 34 وجهات النظر
