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Chapter 9
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The Girl He Saved, the Woman He Lost Chapter 11
"No," I said. "I never read it."Adrian watched me for a moment.Then I added, "It doesn't matter now."And maybe it didn't.After the life I had made for myself, the girl I had once been felt far away. Too earnest. Too willing to turn devotion into love.Adrian looked as if he wanted to say more.In the end, he only said, "Wait here."I stepped out onto the landing while he went to his study.A moment later, I heard his wife inside."Lucian Vestri?" she said. "Wasn't he the one who went missing after that family war last winter? I thought everyone assumed he was dead.""Shh," Adrian said.When he came back, he was holding a small leather case.He placed it in my hand without a word.I opened it.Inside lay the missing stone from that old ring.For a second, I couldn't breathe."He found it," Adrian said quietly. "Before you disappeared."I closed the case.It felt heavier than it should have.By the time I got back to the coast, the sky had already gone dark.My house was still the sa
The Girl He Saved, the Woman He Lost Chapter 10
He agreed too quickly.Maybe that should have warned me.Instead, I used it.Before he left, he caught my wrist and pressed a folded note into my hand.Then he was gone.North.After the stone.That was all the opening I needed.I packed before dawn.Adrian and I had already agreed on the timing. No one knew where we were going. By noon, we were on the road south.The farther we drove, the easier it became to breathe.I bought a small house near the water, just as I had promised myself.Mia and I spent the first week making it livable.After that, life turned quiet.And for the first time in years, ordinary felt like peace.Sometimes neighborhood boys kicked a football over the wall and came to ask for it back.Sometimes the bakery had already sold out of the pastries I liked by the time I got there.Those were the worst things that happened.Adrian stayed only long enough to make sure I was settled.Once the trouble around his brother's place at school had passed, we went our separate
The Girl He Saved, the Woman He Lost Chapter 9
Adrian opened the door first.Rain and cold rushed into the house with him.Lucian stood on the step, soaked through, one hand pressed to his side. In the other, he held my sketchbooks tight against his chest, wrapped in wet plastic."Elena," he said. "I got them back."For a second, no one moved.Then Adrian stepped in front of me. "What the hell are you doing here?"Lucian barely looked at him."I need to speak to her.""No," Adrian said.I said it too.Lightning flashed across the yard. For one white second, he looked less like Lucian Vestri and more like a man who had finally run out of excuses."Elena," he said again, quieter now. "Please."I should have shut the door.Instead, I stepped forward and took the sketchbooks from his hands.They were damp at the edges, but he had kept them safe."Now leave," I said.He didn't move."I called off the wedding."Behind me, I felt Adrian go still.Lucian kept his eyes on me."I don't want you married to him."A bitter laugh rose in my thro
The Girl He Saved, the Woman He Lost Chapter 8
"Yes," I said. "I married him.""You can't be serious.""I am."For the first time since we had walked into that house, Adrian moved closer to my side.His gaze cut to Isabella."You knew?"She said nothing.When he looked back at me, something in him had gone dark.Then his eyes shifted to Adrian."This is the man?" he asked quietly. "The one who thought he could take you out of my house?"Adrian stiffened, but before he could answer, I caught his sleeve."It's a marriage," I said. "Not your business.""Not my business?" Lucian repeated.His voice was low now, dangerous in a way that made the whole room seem to tighten around him.Then he turned to Isabella again."She lost her parents in one of our wars," he said. "If anyone owes her, it's us. More than a room. More than a name.""And whatever this is." His gaze flicked once to the ring on my hand. "It doesn't count."The room went still."A courthouse signature. No families. No public notice. In our world, that is not the same as a
The Girl He Saved, the Woman He Lost Chapter 7
That night, after Mia went to bed, I sat by the window and counted what I had left.Not much.A good part of it had already gone toward securing Leo's place. What remained had to cover travel, rent, and whatever came after.My eyes drifted to the stack of sketchbooks by the wall.I had filled them over the years without meaning to show them to anyone. Rings. Bracelets. Earrings. Pendants. Some rough, some finished. At St. Helena, drawing had been one of the few things I was truly good at. One of my instructors used to say she would know my linework anywhere.The sketches were the only things I had left that might still be worth something.The next morning, I took them into the city.The first atelier I tried was small and discreet, the kind that made custom pieces for old families and women who never asked the price.The jeweler flipped through one of the books, then looked up at me strangely."Where did you get these?""I drew them."His expression changed. He tapped one sketch."Thi
The Girl He Saved, the Woman He Lost Chapter 6
When we left the row house, Lucian walked out beside me.The late sun stretched across the street in long bands of gold. For a second, it felt too much like the past.Then he spoke."You didn't have to lie to them."I kept walking. "About what?""About being married."I stopped and looked at him."I didn't lie."Something in his face tightened."The day your rooms were searched," he said, "Sofia's maid overstepped. She was dealt with."I said nothing."Your suite has been put back in order," he went on. "You can come back."A short laugh almost slipped out of me.Come back.I turned to face him. "And what exactly would your wife think of that?"He frowned. "What does Sofia have to do with it?"The question landed harder than it should have.I looked at him for a long moment.Then I said, very calmly, "You don't get to say things like that anymore, Mr. Vestri."He went still.I had never called him that before. Not once.His voice dropped. "What is that supposed to mean?""It means you'
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