LOGINShare
CHAPTER TWELVE
publish date:
2026-09-24 21:02:08
Latest chapter
One Year as Mrs.Carusso CHAPTER THIRTEEN
MEGAN'S POV I don't know how I kept my face still.Arian's fingers tightened around mine under the table, just once, just briefly, and I held onto that like it was the only solid thing in the room, because everything else had started to feel like it was tilting sideways in slow motion.Lucas Valmoria's hand rested on that folder like he owned every person sitting at this table, and maybe in his head he did. He was patient about it, which was somehow worse than if he'd just opened it. He wanted us to sit with the not-knowing. He wanted to watch us sweat through the crystal and the heavy silver while he decided how much of whatever was inside to actually use.Chloe was still looking at me.I made myself look back. I refused to be the first one to drop my eyes."Perhaps," Arian's father said, voice careful, "we should let whatever is in that folder stay in the folder for now, Lucas. This is a family dinner, not a deposition."Lucas smiled. "Of course. I only want clarity. For everyone's
One Year as Mrs.Carusso CHAPTER TWELVE
ARIAN'S POV The phone kept vibrating in my hand like it wanted to crawl out of my skin. My father’s name sat there in black letters, steady and unforgiving. Megan hadn’t moved. She was still standing a few feet away, arms wrapped around herself, the engagement contract lying open on the nightstand behind her like a loaded gun neither of us could pretend not to see.I answered.“Arian.” My father’s voice came through sharp, already mid-thought. “Lucas Valmoria called twenty minutes ago. He’s proposing a formal partnership. Full merger talks between Valmoria Group and Z. He wants a joint family dinner. Tonight. Both sides at the table. He’s framing it as the natural next step now that Chloe is back in the picture and the old arrangement is still technically on paper.”I closed my eyes. Of course he was.“I told him we’d host,” my father continued. “Eight o’clock. You will be there. With your wife. The board already knows about the offer. If they sense any weakness in your marriage, the
One Year as Mrs.Carusso CHAPTER ELEVEN
Megan's POV The house had gone quiet in that heavy way it did after midnight, the kind of quiet that pressed against the windows and made every little sound feel louder than it should. I lay on my back staring at the ceiling, the sheets twisted around my legs, my mind still stuck on the way Arian had looked at me before he left. Like he wanted to say more. Like whatever was sitting between us was bigger than the room.I couldn’t sleep. Every time I closed my eyes I saw his face, the tension in his jaw, the way his hand had hovered near the door as if he might turn back. I kept replaying the evening—Chloe’s soft voice at dinner, the way she’d watched him, the way he’d watched her when he thought no one noticed. Something was off. I just didn’t know how off yet.A soft knock pulled me upright.My heart jumped. For one stupid second I thought it was him. I swung my legs out of bed, bare feet hitting the cold floor, and crossed the room before I could talk myself out of it. I pulled the
One Year as Mrs.Carusso CHAPTER TEN
Arian's POVChloe's hand didn't move from my chest even after I made it clear I wanted it gone."You can stop performing now," she said quietly, once Megan had disappeared back toward the dining room. "I know this marriage isn't real, Arian. Did you really think you could hide something like that from me?"I kept my voice even, though something cold was already settling into my chest. "I don't know what you think you know.""Please." She let out a short laugh, stepping back just enough to study my face, clearly enjoying whatever she saw there. "A contract wife, married within a week of some sudden emergency, the board suddenly satisfied overnight? You've never once in your life done anything that fast unless you were solving a problem, not falling in love." She tilted her head, smiling in a way that used to almost work on me, years ago, before I'd learned exactly what was underneath it. "I know you, Arian. Better than you'd like."I thought about denying it outright, running through t
One Year as Mrs.Carusso CHAPTER NINE
Megan's POVThe house had been different all day, and I felt it before anyone said a word to me about why.The staff moved faster than usual, polishing surfaces that were already spotless, arranging flowers in the dining room with the kind of care I hadn't seen them give anything since the wedding itself. Dorothy kept glancing at me throughout the afternoon with something that looked uncomfortably close to pity, though every time I caught her at it, she busied herself with something else before I could ask why.It was Arian who finally told me, an hour before dinner, standing stiffly in the doorway of my room like the words cost him something to say."Chloe's joining us tonight," he said. "I should have told you sooner. I'm telling you now."I already knew the name. I'd heard it in a hallway weeks ago, hushed and careful, a name the staff weren't supposed to say out loud. Hearing it now, finally attached to a face I hadn't seen yet, made my stomach drop in a way I wasn't prepared for.
One Year as Mrs.Carusso CHAPTER EIGHT
Megan's POVI found the place by accident, three days into a life that was starting to feel less like mine with every passing hour.It was a small community kitchen tucked between a laundromat and a flower shop, the kind of place that rented out counter space and ovens by the hour to anyone who needed them. I'd wandered in on a whim, restless after another silent dinner and another night alone in a bed too big for one person, aching for something that felt like it belonged to me instead of to the Carusso name.Baking had always done that for me. Flour on my hands, something rising in an oven, the particular quiet of measuring and waiting — it was the one thing that still felt exactly the same as it had before any of this happened.I was elbow-deep in dough when I noticed the woman at the station beside mine, humming quietly to herself over a tray of what looked like cinnamon rolls, flour dusted across one cheek like she hadn't noticed it was there.She was already elbow-deep in her ow
You May Also Like
ONLY YOU
Rosa Kane787.1K viewsBogus Billionaire
Shining Riviera797.2K viewsThe CEO's Ten Million Dollar Wife
R.C.BRIE15713.3K viewsMadam Winters’s Fight For Her Children
Summer Wine1.2M viewsThe Billionaire's Perfect Stranger
Daniel Ita 54 viewsLady Dy — The CEO's Mysterious Passion
Mitha Souza45 viewsThe Billionaire's Fortune Bride
Ap. Nightshade 51 viewsPregnant After One Night With My Brother's Best Friend
Bloodygoddess56 views
