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Chapter 17

Penulis: TemsRay
last update Terakhir Diperbarui: 2025-06-16 04:30:35

Mum was humming. Again.

She’d been doing that a lot lately walking lighter, smiling fuller, floating around the house like someone had peeled a heavy coat of burden off her shoulders.

I was at the dining table, nursing a half-eaten piece of toast, when she walked in from the back garden, wiping her hands on her apron.

“You won’t believe what happened today,” she said, cheeks glowing like sunrise. She reached for the kettle, poured herself some tea, and sat beside me without waiting for a response.

“Mrs. Delwunco called me into the sitting lounge. I thought something was wrong, you know, with the menu or the gala schedule, but” she giggled, actually giggled, “she said it was time I stopped working in the kitchen.”

I blinked, slowly setting down my tea. “Wait what?”

Mum nodded, eyes shining. “She said I need to rest. Take time to focus on your wedding. That they’ve already started looking for someone else to take over the kitchen team permanently.”

My throat tightened.

“She said… after
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  • One Heart, Which Brother?   Chapter 24

    I took it without a word.The photographer began directing us: hands on shoulders, fingers laced, cheek to cheek, pretending to laugh, gaze into each other’s eyes. I did it all.I smiled like the world was my fairy tale.I held his hand like it was the most natural thing in the world.And when he whispered “You’re doing great,” between shots, I smiled wider because I knew the cameras were still rolling.For a brief second, he brushed his lips over mine. Light. Practiced. Polished.It was for the cameras.All of it was for the cameras.“Let’s take a few shots in the garden,” the photographer chirped.We moved like puppets into the next scene.“Just a few more poses. Then a solo of the bride-to-be.”Bride to be, the words echoed.Standing alone now, bouquet in hand, the hem of my gown trailing along the trimmed hedges. Daphne watched from a distance, her phone in hand but her eyes locked on me. I wondered what she saw. Her best friend in love? Or a stranger wrapped in satin and lies?Af

  • One Heart, Which Brother?   Chapter 23

    Come in,” he said, offering his hand.I didn’t take it.Instead, I followed him in silence.The house was breathtaking. Minimalist, but luxurious. Art lined the hallways, not just paintings but sculptures, real ones, museum-level pieces. I didn’t understand how this place wasn’t on the cover of every magazine.“What is this place?” I finally asked.“Our getaway,” he said simply.I blinked. “Our what?”“Our honeymoon home. One of them,” he added with a shrug, like it was normal to collect getaway mansions. “But more than that… I thought it could be your place. Your sanctuary.”He led me to the back patio where the view took my breath away. An infinity pool sparkled beneath the sun. The ocean beyond it stretched wide, endless. There was a hammock strung between two olive trees. A library visible through a glass wall. Everything was perfect.Too perfect.“I wanted you to see it,” he said. “Because after all this madness, the wedding, the public stuff you deserve somewhere that’s just for

  • One Heart, Which Brother?   Chapter 22

    The wedding was in five weeks and two days.I counted it like my life depended on it. Because maybe it did.I stared at the invitation card again, reading every letter as if repetition could change the words printed in thick golden ink. But they remained the same unchanged, permanent, final.“The Delwunco and Madison families joyfully invite you to celebrate the union of their beloved children: Ruben Alexander Delwunco & Lia Madison.Date: Saturday, September 23rd Time: 2:00 PM Venue: The Glass Garden Hall, Dels Estate, Crestview.”I read it once. Twice. A third time.Still the same.Still a lie.I had imagined my wedding day once, years ago. Not in great detail just the soft outlines of hope. Something small. Personal. A person who chose me not because they needed to look straight to the media or sign billion-dollar papers, but because they loved me for who I was.But now… there was a dress fitting next week. A meeting with the event stylist tomorrow. Menu tasting on Sunday. Every

  • One Heart, Which Brother?   Chapter 21

    The morning after I overheard everything, the world still spun like it didn’t care I’d just unraveled.Birds chirped. Sunlight poured into my room with the audacity of joy. And the staff moved around the Delwunco estate with their usual swift efficiency setting up chairs for meetings, checking floral deliveries, arranging linens I no longer cared about.But I was different.I stood in front of my closet like a soldier about to choose her armor. For the first time in weeks, I didn’t feel like a puppet.I felt... awake.I wore black. Not just any black. Sleek. Clean. Dangerous. The kind of black that demanded space and offered no apologies. It clung to my body like the truth, zipped high at the back and cut low at the front barely appropriate for a bride-to-be, but I no longer cared for appearances unless I controlled them.I found Ruben in the garden that afternoon, discussing photo setups with a celebrity wedding planner. He glanced over his shoulder when he saw me, lips parting into

  • One Heart, Which Brother?   Chapter 20

    I was getting used to the taste of cake.Not in the way most brides do. Not with excitement or glee or the sweet weight of dreams come true. No, I was learning how to bite through layers of frosting and fondant while pretending not to taste the bitterness in the air.Three-tiered cakes. Six-tiered cakes. Red velvet, champagne, caramel, pistachio. Every bite tasted like plaster to me.Daphne sat beside me, quietly flipping through a binder of design options. She didn’t say much. We’d grown comfortable in this almost-mended friendship her silence no longer angry, just exhausted. I could see it in her eyes sometimes. A question she didn’t dare ask out loud. Maybe because she was afraid of the answer.Ruben, as usual, was the center of attention. Gesturing. Commanding. Smiling with a politician’s polish and the swagger of a man who always got what he wanted.I was too tired to resent him.At least until that night.After the cake tasting, my mum asked if I’d walk back to the kitchen with

  • One Heart, Which Brother?   Chapter 19

    The morning light poured in too early, too eager like it wanted to drag me into another day I hadn’t agreed to.I’d barely opened my eyes when my phone buzzed with a reminder:"10:00 AM - Bridal Magazine Interview (Delwunco PR team arranged) - Dress up!! Now.I wanted to throw the phone across the room.But I didn’t. Because, this was my life now. Press releases. Photoshoots. Carefully staged smiles. Questions I didn’t want to answer about a man I didn’t love, and a wedding I didn’t want.The Delwuncos had arranged a feature in one of the country’s most elite wedding publications. A full-page spread. Ruben and I on the cover. The “golden couple” of the season. A fairytale written in diamond-encrusted lies.And yet—I got up.I showered. Let the glam team in. Let them touch and paint and perfect.Even when my reflection no longer looked like me, I said nothing. Because silence was easier than resistance.Daphne wasn’t around this morning. She had errands, Ruben said. Probably coordinati

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