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Chapter 3
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The Stand-In Vampire Wife Who Walked Away Chapter 12
Elena's POVAfter I left James, I'd assumed my life was going to look a certain way.Lonely. Quiet. With a tear in it that wouldn't quite close.That isn't what happened.I started over. I rebuilt a routine. I healed in pieces.James never gave up. He apologized to me more times than I can count. I never accepted any of it.It was slow at first, and hard. But bit by bit things steadied. The clients came back. My hand for design came back.The past loosened its grip on me. When I thought of those years now, when I thought of him, it was like watching someone else's life — something to sigh over, nothing to feel.The seasons turned. Time did its work on me. It was almost as if I'd come back to where I'd been six years ago — to the night before I met James.I had assumed I'd just learned how to live alone.And then there was the man.Nothing engineered about it. No omen. We met on a perfectly ordinary work project, and he walked into my life.He didn't ask after my past. He didn't try to
The Stand-In Vampire Wife Who Walked Away Chapter 11
Elena's POVWhen I came to, the curtains were only half drawn. Cold light slid through the gap and bleached the ceiling.The air smelled of antiseptic. Faint, but heavy on the chest.It took me a few seconds to figure out where I was.My body felt heavy. Wrung out.I shifted a little. A dull pain went through my stomach.It wasn't only the pain of a wound. There was an emptiness with it.I went still.My hand drifted down to my belly. It was flat and quiet. Nothing kicked back.I didn't cry. I didn't make a sound. I just looked at the ceiling for a long time, let my breathing fall apart, and pulled it back together.Somewhere along the way, I'd picked up this habit of holding things in.The door opened.The footsteps were quick.I didn't have to look to know.James stopped beside the bed and didn't speak.I didn't look at him.The silence stretched out.Then there was a quiet, heavy sound.He'd gone to his knees."Elena."His voice was raw, like he'd been awake too long."I'm sorry."H
The Stand-In Vampire Wife Who Walked Away Chapter 10
James's POVBy the time I got to the wasteland, the fire had lit up half the night sky.The truth was, I'd known something was off the moment Vicky left the manor that day.The perfume on her was heavier than usual, thick enough to make my head ache. And she had specifically told the staff to talk me out of going anywhere.I didn't stop her. I followed at a distance.The moment I saw her arrive at the door of Elena's studio, I knew. None of the unease I'd been carrying for weeks had been my imagination.Vicky had been lying to me.That perfume of hers had been covering her own scent. It had been jamming my ability to track Elena.That's why I hadn't been able to find her. Not because Elena had vanished without a trace. Because Vicky had blocked every road that led to her.I followed her out to the wasteland. From a long way off, I caught the smell of lamp oil.The next second, the fire went up.My chest seized like a fist had closed around my heart."Elena!"I went in like a madman.Th
The Stand-In Vampire Wife Who Walked Away Chapter 9
Elena's POVShe set my coffee cup down on the desk like it was hers.I stood in the doorway, and every other thought in my head went out. The instinctive sense of danger flooded everything else.I stepped back. My hand went toward my phone.She saw it. The corner of her mouth lifted. "Try it."There was nothing playful in her voice. "Call the police. Or shout for someone outside."She tilted her head toward the door. She gave the people in the corridor a contemptuous glance."I promise you, the second any of them walks in, I'll kill every person in this building.""And then I'll pin all of it on you."She glanced at my face. She gave a small, mocking shrug."You and I have the same face, don't we?"My fingers stopped moving.She walked closer. The perfume on her was thick enough to turn my stomach.I forced myself level. I held her gaze. "Why?" I asked, plain. "I agreed to the divorce. I left him. You got everything you wanted."There was a pause in her face. Not hesitation — something
The Stand-In Vampire Wife Who Walked Away Chapter 8
Elena's POVThe day I left James, I didn't look back.I didn't take anything with me. Just one suitcase.I had already given him back the pendant.Walking out, I touched my throat without thinking.It was empty.The wind hit my collarbone. I noticed the cold.That was when I understood I'd gotten used to it being there.Used to it enough that it would take time to stop missing it.I didn't go straight to a new city.I went, first, to where we'd met.The terrace at that gala.I stood there a long time.The night wind came down off the height, cool. The lights of the city spread out in the distance, like a quiet sea of stars.That year, I had stood on this same terrace.Alone.He had walked over and started talking to me.In that moment, I'd taken it for fate.Looking back now, it had been a farce.I gave a small laugh. I didn't stay long. I left.Some places aren't worth lingering in.Stay too long, and you only embarrass yourself.After that, I went to the seaside town.It was the plac
The Stand-In Vampire Wife Who Walked Away Chapter 7
James's POVAfter that night, I barely went back to the manor. I'd lost any kind of routine. Without meaning to, I started turning up in places where she might be.The café she used to go to. The studio she had collaborated with. The street where she always bought her fabric and supplies. I went to all of them. I even stood for a long time outside the gallery she had once mentioned in passing.She wasn't anywhere.It was as though the city had swallowed her whole — no trace, no thread, no direction to follow.For the first time, I understood. When she had said she would disappear from my world, she hadn't meant it as a threat or a test. She had meant it.The realization shook me.I had assumed she wouldn't really go.Even after she signed those papers, even after the words she'd said, I'd told myself she would stay in this city. She had built her life here. I'd thought she wouldn't be able to leave it.I had underestimated her resolve.She had left me no opening at all.It was late whe
