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Chapter 23: Seraphine
Tanggal publikasi:
2026-09-17 13:17:52
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My Husband's Stepbrother Is My First Love Chapter 36: The Trip That Wasn't
Aurelia's POVCassian surprised me two days later by suggesting we go away for the weekend....just the two of us, a small inn upstate he remembered me mentioning years ago, before any of this had become what it was."I think we need it," he said, uncharacteristically gentle, sitting across from me at breakfast. "Away from my mother, away from the office, away from everything that's been sitting between us lately."I wanted to believe it meant what it sounded like it meant.....an actual effort, not just another gesture that would dissolve the second something more urgent called his name. But I'd learned, over four years, exactly how much weight to put on promises made at breakfast tables."I'd like that," I said anyway, because some part of me, despite everything, still wanted to give him the chance to prove me wrong.He booked it that afternoon. I packed that evening, something cautiously hopeful loosening in my chest for the first time in weeks.*****The call came Friday morning, an
My Husband's Stepbrother Is My First Love Chapter 35: The Vow
Aurelia's POVI didn't go back to bed until nearly four. When I finally did, Cassian was awake, sitting up against the headboard, the lamp on his side already lit."Where were you?" he asked, not accusing this time. Just tired."Couldn't sleep. Got some water." I climbed in beside him, keeping distance neither of us commented on.He was quiet for a long moment, staring at the wall across from the bed. "I've been thinking, since the study. About Kael."My whole body went still. "Cassian.....""I'm not finishing the argument from earlier." He held up a hand, cutting off whatever I'd been about to say. "I've decided something, that's all. I want him off the gala entirely....not just working through Priya. Off it. I'll tell the board his division can still sponsor, but he doesn't need to be involved in the planning anymore.""That seems extreme.""Does it?" He looked at me, something steady and unreadable in his expression now that the anger had burned down into something colder, more del
My Husband's Stepbrother Is My First Love Chapter 34: What He Was Looking For
Aurelia's POVI found him in the study on Thursday evening, my laptop open on his desk instead of his own, the gala's shared email thread scrolled halfway down the screen."Cassian?"He didn't look up right away, his finger still scrolling, his expression unreadable in the lamplight. "You left this logged in on the kitchen counter.""I was going to check the vendor confirmations before dinner. I forgot to close it." I stepped closer, my stomach tightening at the sight of the thread he'd landed on.....three months of correspondence with Kael, dozens of messages, some purely logistical, others not quite."You two email a lot," he said, still not looking at me."It's a gala, Cassian. There's a lot to coordinate.""There's a lot of everything, apparently." He finally looked up, and something in his face wasn't angry exactly. It was worse than angry. It was careful, the way a man looks when he's deciding whether to believe something he already half-suspects. "March fourteenth. Eleven at ni
My Husband's Stepbrother Is My First Love Chapter 33: Steady
Aurelia's POVThe gala's press kickoff was scheduled for the following Tuesday....a small event for local media and major sponsors, meant to build buzz ahead of the actual night. I hadn't expected Kael to be there. Cassian's restriction had been clear enough, and Priya had been handling the sponsor-facing details for weeks.But sponsorships meant sponsors, and Kael's division was still the largest one on the list. He stood near the back of the room when I arrived, in conversation with a reporter, and neither of us acknowledged the other beyond a brief, careful nod.It should have been simple.... a press check, a few photos, and a short speech from Cassian as the CEO. It might have stayed simple, if Vivienne hadn't decided to attend."Aurelia." She found me near the step-and-repeat banner, her voice pitched for the small cluster of reporters nearby to hear. "I understand you'll be photographed alongside Cassian for the press release. How lovely, after everything.""After everything?" I
My Husband's Stepbrother Is My First Love Chapter 32: What He Chose Not to See
Aurelia's POVCassian didn't bring up the conversation from the memorial dinner again the next morning, or the morning after that. He went back to work the way he always did, distracted, buried in calls and quarterly reports, and I let myself believe, for a few days, that whatever had cracked open between us at the window might quietly seal itself shut again.It didn't.I noticed it first in small things. The way he'd glance up too quickly when my phone buzzed at dinner, like he was cataloguing who might be texting me. The way he started asking, almost casually, whether the gala committee still needed to meet as often as it had been. The way he'd go quiet whenever Kael's name came up in conversation, his jaw working like he was chewing on something he hadn't decided whether to say out loud.I told myself it would pass. I wasn't sure I believed it.*****The following week, Vivienne staged another dinner....smaller this time, just family, though "family" in Vivienne's vocabulary had c
My Husband's Stepbrother Is My First Love Chapter 31: The Memorial
Aurelia's POVVivienne announced the memorial dinner three days after the storm, timed, I was certain, to land exactly when the household still felt raw from what had happened at the venue."Five years since Richard passed," she said at breakfast, not looking up from her tea. "It seemed appropriate to mark it properly this year. A proper dinner. Family, close friends, a few board members who knew him well.""That's a lovely idea," Bianca said, seated beside her, already nodding along like she'd been consulted on the guest list herself.Cassian barely looked up from his phone. "Fine. Whatever you need."I said nothing. I'd learned, over the last few days, that saying very little was the safest way to move through a house where every word seemed to be weighed against me now.*****The dinner was held in the estate's largest dining room, the one usually reserved for board functions, a portrait of Richard Blackthorne hung freshly cleaned above the fireplace for the occasion. Twenty guests
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