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Chapter Eight: What Marcus Knows

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last update تاريخ النشر: 2026-04-30 17:15:09

Marcus showed up on a Saturday with no warning and a paper bag of pastries that smelled like butter and good intentions.

Gloria let him in. I heard his voice from my room: warm, easy, filling the hallway the way Damien's silence usually did and by the time I came out he was already in the kitchen, opening cupboards like he owned the place.

"You moved the spices," he said when he saw me.

"By function," I said. "Not alphabet."

He grinned. It was the kind of grin that
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  • The Replacement Bride   Chapter Eight: What Marcus Knows

    Marcus showed up on a Saturday with no warning and a paper bag of pastries that smelled like butter and good intentions.Gloria let him in. I heard his voice from my room: warm, easy, filling the hallway the way Damien's silence usually did and by the time I came out he was already in the kitchen, opening cupboards like he owned the place."You moved the spices," he said when he saw me."By function," I said. "Not alphabet."He grinned. It was the kind of grin that arrived fully formed, nothing held back. Nothing like his brother's."I like you," he said simply. "Tea or coffee?"Damien was at the office. Saturday meant nothing to him as far as I could tell. Hours were just hours, days were just containers for work. Marcus seemed to operate on a completely different frequency and understanding, one where weekends were sacred and pastries were a legitimate reason to visit someone.We sat at the kitchen counter and he asked me real quest

  • The Replacement Bride   Chapter Seven: Pick a Fight

    It started with a phone call I was never supposed to know about. Not his bur Mine. I was in the kitchen on a Friday afternoon, on the phone with Adaeze, my old foster mother, doing the thing I always did when I called her like pretending everything was fine while she pretended to believe me. She was 71 and sharp as a tack and she had never once in 20 years bought anything I was selling but she accepted my version of things because she understood that some people need to carry their own weight before they can put it down. I didn't hear Damien come in. I was laughing at something she said, actually laughing, the kind that catches you off guard, and I had my back to the doorway and by the time I turned around he was already there. Leaning against the frame. Not eavesdropping exactly. Just present in the way he always was, occupying space quietly and completely. I wrapped up the call. Told her I loved

  • The Replacement Bride   Chapter Six: Temporary

    I heard it on a Tuesday.Eleven days into the marriage. Eleven days of coffee outside my door and silence at breakfast and his hand at my back at events and small things I was collecting without meaning to, the way you pick up stones on a walk and only notice the weight of them when your pockets are full.Eleven days and I had almost convinced myself this was fine.I was coming down the hallway with a book I'd found in the study — a proper one, old and worn at the spine, the kind that meant someone had actually read it — when I heard his voice from behind the half open door of his office.Not raised. Damien never raised his voice. That was the thing about him. He was the kind of quiet that carried."She's a temporary solution, Gerald. That's all."I stopped."The Zhao deal closes in six months. The girl knows what she signed. It's clean, it's contained, and it keeps the board satisfied until we can renegotiate the original terms."The girl.I stood very still in the hallway. The book

  • The Replacement Bride   Chapter Five: For Appearances

    The first public appearance was a charity gala on Thursday.Damien's assistant a sharp, efficient woman named Claire who communicated primarily in bullet points came to the penthouse Wednesday morning with a garment bag, a briefing document, and the energy of someone defusing a bomb on a schedule."The Zhao family will be in attendance," Claire said, laying everything out on the dining table with military precision. "Four board members, two spouses. You'll be introduced as Mrs. Cole. Questions about how you met, refer to the approved statement." She slid a card across the table. I looked at it.We met through mutual friends. It was unexpected. The best things usually are.I read it twice. "He wrote this?""He approved it." Claire said it carefully, which told me everything about who had actually written it.I pocketed the card. I already knew what I'd say and it wouldn't be that.The dress was burgundy. I hadn't chosen it. Claire had, with an eye for what photographed well and what co

  • The Replacement Bride   Chapter Four: Black, No Sugar

    I woke up at 5 a.m. and didn't know where I was.That lasted about four seconds, the ceiling was too high, the sheets too soft, the silence too complete and then yesterday came back in full, the way a wave comes back after it recedes. Quiet and then all at once.I lay there for a while. Watching the room get light.The windows in my room faced east, which I hadn't noticed the night before, and the sunrise came in slowly — pale grey first, then a thin gold that moved across the floor like it was being careful not to wake anyone. It was the kind of morning that would have been beautiful if I'd been in any condition to appreciate it properly.I wasn't.I got up, showered, dressed. Old habit keep moving, don't let the morning get heavy. I'd learned it young, in houses that weren't mine, in rooms I knew I'd eventually leave. You make the bed. You get dressed. You give the day something to work with.By six-thirty I was restless enough to do something about it.I found the kitchen after two

  • The Replacement Bride   Chapter Three : Separate Rooms

    The penthouse was exactly what I expected and nothing like I was prepared for.Floor to ceiling windows. Ceilings so high they made you feel small in a way that was probably intentional. Everything in shades of charcoal and cold white and the kind of grey that costs money to achieve. It was beautiful the way a museum is beautiful and impressive, immaculate, and not designed for anyone to actually live in.I stood in the entrance with one bag.One. Because that was all I'd had time to pack, ten minutes in my flat while Damien's driver waited downstairs and my neighbour watched from her doorway with enormous eyes and zero shame.Damien's housekeeper, a small neat woman named Gloria who regarded me with cautious warmth, showed me to my room. It was bigger than my entire flat. The bed alone was bigger than my entire flat. There were fresh flowers on the dresser; white peonies, expensive, lovely and I stood looking at them for a long moment before I realised someone had put thought into t

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