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Chapter 26

作者: PaloMack. S.
last update 公開日: 2026-04-07 14:44:38

The sunrise over Verlaine didn’t bring warmth.

It brought a cold, grey clarity that made the steel of the museum spire look like a cage.

I woke with my head resting on Léo’s shoulder, the scent of wool and woodsmoke grounding me against the metallic chill of the unfinished structure. For a few quiet seconds, before the city fully came alive, I felt untouchable.

Then Léo’s phone vibrated against the concrete.

The sound was small—

But in the hollow skeleton of the thirty-eighth floor, it echoed l
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  • The Day I Stopped Loving Him    Chapter 41

    Maya’s POVThe city of Verlaine blurred into a smear of rain-streaked neon as the armoured SUV lurched away from the boutique. Streetlights stretched into golden fractures across the wet windshield, breaking apart every few seconds as we sped through intersections that no longer felt like roads—just risks.My heart was a frantic bird trapped in my ribs, drumming against the silk of my suit in uneven, panicked bursts. Each movement of the vehicle sent my body slightly off balance, like the world itself had lost its center of gravity.In the backseat, Chloe was strapped into her car seat, clutching a worn plush rabbit. Her eyes were wide, alert in that unsettlingly quiet way children get when they’ve learned not to ask questions. She didn’t cry. She never did during these runs.She just watched.She was used to the “hush-hush” games we played when the cameras got too close—but she wasn’t used to the way Léo was driving.The SUV felt different tonight. Heavier. More urgent. Like even the

  • The Day I Stopped Loving Him   Chapter 40

    Maya's POVThe Rue de la Paix was a gauntlet of flashing bulbs and high-octane chatter, but as I stood on the threshold of my own boutique, the applause felt like static. My hand was still cold from the weight of the brass key Léo had just tucked into my palm.“Smile, Maya,” Léo murmured, his breath brushing my ear as he stepped up behind me. His suit was a dark, impenetrable charcoal, and his hand on my waist was the only thing keeping me from vibrating out of my skin. “The world is watching. Don’t give them the satisfaction of seeing the cracks.”I stepped into the light. I was wearing a suit of my own design, ivory silk with shoulders so sharp they could draw blood. I cut the ribbon, the silk falling away like a shed skin, and the crowd surged forward.But as I moved through the sea of socialites and critics, my eyes kept darting to the back of the room. I wasn’t looking for a buyer. I was looking for a threat.“The Renauds don’t play defence,” Léo said into my headset as he moved

  • The Day I Stopped Loving Him   Chapter 39

    The morning of the boutique opening carried a tension that hummed beneath the surface of Verlaine like a live wire.Even the air felt stretched—tight, expectant, waiting for something to snap.On Rue de la Paix, the VOSS flagship stood in stark, deliberate defiance of its surroundings. Where the neighboring boutiques leaned into tradition—limestone facades, gold-trimmed windows, quiet old-money elegance—VOSS was obsidian and glass. Sharp lines. Dark reflection. A structure that didn’t ask to belong.It announced itself.Behind the floor-to-ceiling windows, mannequins stood like sentinels draped in the “Surgical White” collection—clean cuts, precise silhouettes, garments that looked less like fashion and more like declarations.And above them, catching the early light like a blade—VOSS.Not hidden.Not borrowed.Owned.I stood at the center of the showroom, the scent of fresh white lilies weaving through the sharper undertone of polished floors and new paint. It filled my lungs, stead

  • The Day I Stopped Loving Him   Chapter 38

    The museum site at dawn looked like a cathedral stripped of its soul—skeletonised steel rising into a bruised sky of grey and violet. The wind cut through the unfinished structure in sharp, restless currents, carrying the scent of wet concrete, ozone, and cold dust.Verlaine was still waking below us.And I stood thirty-eight floors above it, watching the city inhale its first breath of light.For three years, this place had been a reminder of everything I had lost.Now, it was the first thing I truly owned.“The foreman is downstairs,” Léo said.His voice cut cleanly through the wind.He was leaning against a structural pillar, hands buried in the pockets of his heavy wool coat, his posture relaxed in a way that only looked casual to people who didn’t know him well.“He’s waiting for sign-off on the cladding,” Léo added. “The Ashford logo’s already in the dumpster behind the site trailer.”That made something in me shift—not satisfaction exactly… but release.I turned toward him.Up

  • The Day I Stopped Loving Him   Chapter 37

    POV: MayaThe heavy scent of cedar oil and industrial steam usually acted as my tether, but today, the air in the workshop felt charged—like the seconds before lightning strikes a crane.I stood at the drafting table, my fingers tracing the jagged edge of a new blueprint. The lines were sharp, deliberate… but my mind wasn’t. It lingered somewhere else—caught in the quiet, devastating wake Daniel had left behind.“He’s spiralling.”I didn’t look up. I didn’t need to. I could hear Léo leaning against the doorway of the stitching room, the soft, rhythmic click of his lighter breaking the silence. It was a habit he only returned to when something inside him was wound too tight.“He’s not spiralling, Léo,” I said softly. “He’s evaporating. There’s a difference.”The clicking stopped.A second later, his boots crossed the floor—slow, grounded, deliberate. He didn’t stop until he was close enough for his presence to wrap around me, solid and unyielding. I felt the heat of him before I felt h

  • The Day I Stopped Loving Him   Chapter 36

    POV: Third Person (Daniel)The elevator ride down lasted sixty seconds.It felt like a lifetime.The scent of the loft clung to Daniel’s clothes—cedar, paper, and something softer beneath it. Something warm. Something human.A child.It followed him into the mirrored walls of the elevator, where his reflection stared back—perfectly dressed, perfectly composed… and completely hollow.For the first time in years, Daniel Ashford didn’t recognize the man looking at him.He looked like a success.He felt like an absence.The doors slid open.Daniel didn’t go to the office.He didn’t call his board.He didn’t even check his phone.He drove.Fast.The silver coupe cut through the rain-slick streets of Verlaine, tires hissing against asphalt, the city blurring past him like something he no longer belonged to.By the time he reached the detention center, the storm had settled into a steady, relentless fall.Fitting.The visiting room was exactly what he expected—sterile, unforgiving, stripped

  • The Day I Stopped Loving Him   Chapter 35

    POV: MayaThe industrial elevator hummed—a low, mechanical vibration that seemed to settle into the bones of the loft. I stood by the window, watching the rain blur the skyline of Verlaine into soft, shifting grey.Behind me, Léo paced.He didn’t try to hide it. His boots struck the concrete in mea

  • The Day I Stopped Loving Him   Chapter 34

    POV: MayaThe air in Courtroom 4B was dry, tinged with floor wax and the quiet, suffocating tension of high-stakes litigation. It was nothing like the velvet-draped rooms where Claire once ruled or the glass towers Daniel used to command. This place didn’t care about reputation.It cared about proo

  • The Day I Stopped Loving Him   Chapter 33

    POV: MayaThe park stretched wide and green between the glass-and-steel ribs of Verlaine’s financial district.For the first time in three years, the air didn’t feel heavy in my lungs.It felt… open.I watched Chloe run toward a patch of wild daisies, her yellow sun hat bouncing with every step—bri

  • The Day I Stopped Loving Him   Chapter 32

    POV: MayaThe courtroom felt like a vault.Sterile. Polished. Sealed tight with oak and fluorescent light.A far cry from the velvet-draped rooms where Claire Renaud had ruled for a decade. There was no champagne here—only the dry scent of paper, the quiet scrape of shoes against the floor, and the

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