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111. The Bracelet
Date de publication:
2026-09-26 18:07:50
Dernier chapitre
The Wife He Chose Too Late 111. The Bracelet
Claire's POV The brush was halfway through my hair when I saw her.I stopped in front of the mirror, my hand still raised, because for one strange second the bedroom was gone and I was standing beneath the warm lights of the gala again. Music drifted through the ballroom, low enough that conversations carried easily over it, and people moved between the tables in dark suits and evening dresses while chandeliers threw small flashes of gold across the polished floor.Damien was near the entrance, speaking to two guests.I could see him clearly enough to recognize the expression on his face, the polite concentration he wore when he was listening to someone he needed to take seriously, and then my attention moved past him.Tiffany was standing nearby.I remembered looking at her without knowing why.She had one hand resting lightly against her waist, and when she lifted the other to adjust a strand of hair, something at her wrist caught the light. Gold, delicate and narrow, with a dark s
The Wife He Chose Too Late 110. The Security Footage
Damien's POV The first thing I noticed when Detective Reynolds started the footage was how ordinary the corridor looked.That bothered me more than the damage itself.On the screen, the service passage behind the gala venue was nothing but concrete walls, a metal door, and a strip of fluorescent lighting that made everything look drained of color. There were no guests there, no music, no champagne glasses being carried past, none of the noise that had filled the rest of the building that night.Just an empty corridor then someone appeared.The image had been enlarged and enhanced, but the improvements only made the figure more distinct without making the person identifiable. The face remained hidden by the angle of the camera and the shadow beneath the brim of a cap. A long, light-colored coat moved across the frame, and one shoulder dipped slightly as the person walked.I leaned closer.The figure stopped at the restricted door.Reynolds paused the footage."We couldn't get the face
The Wife He Chose Too Late 109. Ou Son
Claire's POV The examination room was cooler than I expected.I sat on the edge of the table with the paper beneath me crinkling whenever I shifted, one hand resting over my stomach while Damien stood beside the chair with his coat folded over one arm. The blinds were half-closed against the afternoon sun, leaving the room washed in pale strips of light, and somewhere beyond the door a printer hummed before falling silent again.I had been trying not to wonder about the baby's sex.That was a lie.I had wondered every day.Damien had too, although he had been careful not to make a prediction. Every time I asked him what he thought, he found some diplomatic way of refusing to answer, which I had eventually decided meant he had an opinion and didn't trust himself to defend it.The doctor entered carrying the familiar tablet, smiled at us, and began preparing the equipment."How are you feeling?""Good," I said. "A little tired.""Anything unusual?""Nothing that concerns me."Damien lo
The Wife He Chose Too Late 108. The Nursery Door
Claire's POV The nursery door was still open when I reached the hallway, and the soft light spilling through it made the rest of the penthouse seem strangely distant.I stopped there for a moment, one hand resting against the frame.Inside, Damien was sitting on the floor beside the crib with his back against the wall, a screwdriver loose in one hand and a small instruction booklet lying open beside his knee. One of the crib's side panels was already attached, and several pieces of wood were arranged neatly beside him as though he had spent the last hour trying to convince himself that assembling furniture was a task worthy of the same concentration he gave everything else.He looked up when he heard me."You've been standing there for a while.""Have I?""Long enough for me to wonder whether I've assembled it incorrectly."I stepped inside and looked at the crib."It doesn't look incorrect.""That's not the same as saying it's correct."I laughed and crossed the room.The nursery sm
The Wife He Chose Too Late 107. The Woman Who Wanted Him
Damien's POV By the time the rain began tapping against the windows, most of the executive floor had emptied.I liked the office better after everyone left. During the day, there were too many voices, too many footsteps, too many people appearing beside my desk with questions they could have answered themselves if they had bothered to read the emails I sent them. At night, the glass walls reflected the lamps and the city lights until it became difficult to tell where the office ended and the darkness outside began.Damien was still working.His office door stood open, and every so often I could see him moving behind the glass. He had taken off his jacket and loosened his tie, and there was something almost painfully familiar about the sight of him like that. I had known him in expensive suits and formal dinners, under wedding lights, in airports and hotel rooms, in the quiet hours after arguments when neither of us knew what to say next.I had known him before Claire or at least, I h
The Wife He Chose Too Late 106. The Assistant
Damien's POV I waited until the penthouse was quiet before opening Tiffany's employment file.Claire had gone to bed nearly an hour earlier. I could hear the faint movement from the bedroom whenever she turned over, followed by long stretches of silence. I had learned to recognize the difference between her sleeping peacefully and the restless nights that sometimes followed a difficult memory, and tonight she seemed calm.I wanted to leave it that way.The conversation we'd had earlier kept returning to me, particularly the detail she had remembered about Tiffany watching us across a room. Claire had been careful not to turn an incomplete memory into an accusation, and I respected that. She had told me exactly what she remembered and, just as importantly, what she didn't.That left me with something I could work with.Facts.I opened the personnel system on my laptop and pulled up Tiffany's employment record.Her file was shorter than I expected.I had appointed her myself.That fact
The Wife He Chose Too Late 7. The Explanation
Claire's POVDamien stood in the foyer for a moment as though he wasn't entirely certain he wanted to be there and the sight alone told me more than I wanted to know.His suit jacket was gone. His white shirt was creased in places that suggested he had been wearing it far longer than intended. Dark
The Wife He Chose Too Late 6. The Morning After
Claire's POVDamien wasn't home, of course he wasn't.I stepped inside anyway, but the apartment felt different. Larger somehow. Colder. The silence seemed to stretch endlessly through the empty rooms, and for the first time since discovering I was pregnant, fear settled heavily in my chest. It wasn
The Wife He Chose Too Late 5. The Woman Who Left Him
Claire's POVThe moment I saw the name on Damien's phone screen, something inside me went completely still.Tiffany Morgan.For a second, I wondered if I had imagined it. The restaurant seemed to fade around me, the soft glow of candlelight and the murmur of nearby conversations becoming distant an
The Wife He Chose Too Late 4. A Dinner for Two
Claire's POVThe message remained open on my phone long after I had finished reading it.Outside the penthouse windows, Manhattan glittered beneath the deepening evening sky, its countless lights stretching toward the horizon like stars scattered across black velvet. Normally I loved this view. The
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