LOGINShare
The Mansion Behind the Gates
publish date:
2026-08-09 00:55:40
Latest chapter
Married To The Forgotten Heir The Man Who Disappears Into Work
By the fourth day, Aurora had stopped setting two places at the table.Damien left before she woke and returned well after midnight, and the pattern had settled into something Aurora recognized with a tired, familiar ache ... .not cruelty exactly, just a man retreating so completely into work that there was nothing left of him to bring home.“He’s been at the office since six this morning,” Howard said, setting a cup of tea in front of her at the kitchen table. “Same as yesterday. And the day before.”“I’m aware,” Aurora said, wrapping her hands around the warm mug. “I’ve counted.”“You could call him.”“I could.” She stared out the window at the darkening garden. “I don’t think it would change anything tonight.”Howard didn’t argue the point, which told her he agreed more than he wanted to say out loud. He’d been kind to her all week, filling the silence Damien left behind with small stories about the house, quiet company over meals she otherwise would have eaten alone, but even his
Married To The Forgotten Heir A Promise to Stay
Damien didn’t move. He stood frozen by the counter, coat half on, his eyes fixed on the phone lighting up with that single word.Father.Aurora crossed the kitchen fast, close enough to see the muscle working in his jaw, the sudden pallor returning to skin that had only just started to regain its color from last night.“Damien.”“I need to go,” he said, but his hand didn’t move toward the phone, and his feet didn’t move toward the door either. He simply stood there, caught between two directions, neither one apparently bearable.“You don’t have to answer that,” Aurora said.“I know that.” His voice was tight. “I’m aware of that.”“Then look at me instead of the phone.”He didn’t, not at first. The screen kept glowing, kept buzzing softly against the counter, an insistence that felt almost cruel in how ordinary it looked, just a phone ringing, nothing at all like the weight it clearly carried in this house.“I’m not asking you to explain anything today,” Aurora said, stepping closer. “
Married To The Forgotten Heir The Question He Won’t Answer
Aurora stayed a moment longer in the chair, watching him take that question back almost as soon as he’d asked it, his eyes clearing further with every second of daylight, something guarded sliding back into place behind them.“Because you needed someone to,” she said simply. “That’s really all it was.”He studied her, something unreadable in his expression, and then pushed himself up slightly against the headboard, wincing at the effort. “You should have gone to bed. This wasn’t your responsibility.”“I know it wasn’t. I stayed anyway.”“You keep saying that.”“It keeps being true,” Aurora said, setting the damp cloth aside. “How are you feeling?”“Better.” He rubbed a hand over his face, some of his usual composure returning with each passing minute, like watching a door swing slowly shut. “Thank you. For last night.”“You can thank me by telling me what’s actually going on.”Something in his jaw tightened immediately, the softness from moments ago retreating fast. “Aurora.”“I’m not
Married To The Forgotten Heir The Illness He Hid
Aurora got Damien to the couch in the living room, half-carrying, half-guiding his weight down onto the cushions before her arms gave out entirely.“Damien. Stay with me.” She knelt in front of him, pressing the back of her hand to his forehead the way she’d once seen someone do at the orphanage, and felt heat radiating off his skin that had nothing to do with the temperature of the house. “You’re burning up.”“I’m fine,” he mumbled, eyes half closed, the words slurred with exhaustion. “I just need to sit for a minute.”“You collapsed.”“I didn’t collapse. I stumbled.”“You collapsed into my arms,” Aurora said, standing up fast. “I’m getting you medicine. Don’t move.”She found the bathroom cabinet upstairs stocked with more prescription bottles than any single person should reasonably need, most of them unfamiliar, until she found something that looked like a basic fever reducer and a glass she filled with water from the tap. When she returned, Damien had sunk further into the couch,
Married To The Forgotten Heir Cooking for a Stranger
Aurora stood in the kitchen at six in the evening, staring at a chicken she had no real idea how to cook, and told herself she was not doing this for him.She was doing it for herself. Or that was the story she kept repeating while she pulled up recipes on her phone and tied on an apron she’d found hanging in the pantry, still stiff with disuse. Don’t wait up. Fine. She wouldn’t wait up exactly. She would simply be awake, doing something useful, and if dinner happened to still be warm when he walked through the door, that was coincidence, not devotion.She burned the first attempt at rice. She salvaged the second. By seven, the kitchen smelled like something almost edible, and Aurora allowed herself a small, private moment of pride standing over the stove, stirring a sauce that had finally stopped looking like a mistake.By eight, the food was ready and Damien wasn’t home.By nine, she’d reheated it twice.“He’s not coming,” she told the empty kitchen, setting the pan down harder than
Married To The Forgotten Heir Burnt Toast and Bad Mornings
The kitchen was larger than any apartment Aurora had ever lived in, all pale marble and gleaming steel appliances she didn’t fully understand, and she stood in the middle of it at seven in the morning, determined not to let last night win.She found eggs in the refrigerator, bread in a drawer she hadn’t expected to be a drawer, and a pan hanging from a rack overhead that looked expensive enough to be nervous around. She turned the stove on, cracked two eggs into the pan, and immediately set off the smoke detector trying to figure out which burner was which.“Okay,” she muttered, waving a dish towel at the ceiling until the alarm cut off. “Okay. We’re fine.”She wasn’t fine. The eggs were already going rubbery at the edges, and the toast she’d slid in a moment ago was taking its own sweet time, the toaster apparently as unfamiliar with her as she was with it.She heard footsteps in the hall and froze, spatula in hand, half-formed apology already rising in her throat before she even tur
You may also like
The Breaking Point of Love
Cloudsearcher4.3M viewsTriplets on Secret Mission
Lamour Toujours1.3M viewsTo Be Yours Again
Taylor1.0M viewsBound to the CEO
wandering jedi699.8K viewsGoodbye, Mr. Reynolds: I Have Nine Months to Live
PENNY WRITES84 viewsBURN FOR ME.... Mr COLE
shadow usama60 viewsIn Your Pucking Dreams, Captain
Josie Quinn77 viewsThe Shadow Luna
Livinus Chima61 views
