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Chapter 32 Echoes of betrayal

Author: Moonchild
last update Last Updated: 2025-06-16 16:33:36

Eloise

Betrayal was something I was used to. I always thought betrayal would feel the same, like a clean, sharp thing. Like a knife sliding between my ribs, fast, precise and undeniable.

But this? This was something slower. A rot I couldn’t see, only sense. Something wrong beneath the surface that I couldn’t name, but felt in every fiber of me.

It started with a message.

Cass, a stylist I’d worked with once in Milan, slid into my DMs.

“Hey… did you collaborate with that big house on the capsule Jennifer dropped today? The designs scream YOU.”

I stared at the screen, the words blurring. My stomach went cold. I clicked the link he sent. Watched the video play on loop.

Jennifer. In a sleek black dress, her hair slicked back, smiling like she’d invented the sun itself. Models walked past behind her in pieces so achingly familiar I wanted to scream. The same raw, layered lines. The same textures I’d sketched late into the night. The same soul I’d poured into my work.

Mine. Stolen.
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    Eloise The beeping from the IV machine was soft, rhythmic, and slightly annoying. But it was the only sound I could focus on. Not the birds chirping outside the window. Or the muted buzz of hospital chatter in the hallway. Just the IV. Just that tiny, robotic reminder that I was still tethered to something. Healing, apparently. But it didn’t feel like healing. Not really. My back was propped against two stiff pillows, hospital gown itching my collarbone, and a dull ache throbbed somewhere beneath the stitches on my lower stomach. I’d stopped asking the nurses for painkillers. I wanted to feel everything now. The discomfort grounded me. I heard the door open before I saw him. My fingers tensed slightly against the cotton sheet. “Eloise,” my father said. His voice was steady and firm. Not like the last time. Not when he raised it across this very room in front of Jadeline and Jennifer. Not when he accused me of overreacting, of making a scene. “Hi,” I said simply, not moving to s

  • Once Upon a Marriage    Chapter 90 Lucian’s hand

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  • Once Upon a Marriage    Chapter 89 She has to go

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  • Once Upon a Marriage    Chapter 88 The visit

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  • Once Upon a Marriage    Chapter 86 Delete everything

    Jennifer POV I couldn’t feel my hands. They were trembling—numb at the fingertips, clammy, and stupid. I stared at them as I stumbled into the alley behind the antique store café, my chest squeezing tighter with every breath I managed to drag into my lungs. She dropped. She just dropped. I didn’t even kick her that hard. It wasn’t like I meant to—God, I didn’t mean to— My stomach flipped, bile pushing into the back of my throat. I bent over, bracing my hands on my knees, and threw up beside a dented trash bin that reeked of yesterday’s coffee grinds and old meat. The noise of the city filtered in through the pounding in my head. Honking. Distant music. A siren? No. No. Please, not an ambulance. I pressed both hands to my temples and squeezed, as if I could crush the sound out of existence. As if I could walk away the moment when Eloise’s body crumpled like a marionette cut from its strings. The blood—God, it spread so fast. It had soaked into her dress so perfectly it looked l

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