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chapter 81
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2025-05-07 10:42:48
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The chef and The charmer chapter 124
Evelyn’s POVIt started with an email. Simple. Unassuming.Subject: “Local Food Program Needs Guest Chef for Youth Series”It was from an old culinary colleague—Nina Ramsey—someone I hadn’t heard from in years. We’d trained together at Le Cordon Bleu back in cold spring, pulling all-nighters and swapping recipes like secrets. After school, we took different paths. I went straight into restaurants, then a cooking contest, while she stayed grounded, doing nonprofit work, building community gardens, organizing local food drives.Her message was short:“Hey Evelyn, I’m helping a youth center downtown with a cooking series. We need someone to teach a few classes—basic stuff, but we want someone the kids can relate to. Someone who cares. I know your calendar’s probably insane, but… would love to have you, even just once. Let me know.”I stared at the email for a long time.Part of me instinctively reached for an excuse—TV interviews, press obligations, an ongoing chaos. But the truth wa
The chef and The charmer chapter 123
Evelyn’s POVIt started with a silence that stretched too long.Every day that passed without a word from Morgan felt like a thread unraveling inside Damian. I saw it in the way he lingered by the windows after the kettle clicked off. The way he reread old emails as if some hidden meaning might appear if he looked hard enough. The way he jumped—physically startled—at every unknown number on his phone. Each ring held the same thin hope, and each silence after it, the same dull crash.“She’s not like this,” he kept saying. “Even at her worst—she never disappears.”And he was right.Morgan Blackstone did not vanish. She orchestrated. She calculated. She made an event out of every move, each gesture curated, even her silences purposeful. She announced her exits like a queen abdicating a throne. She had a flair for dramatics—but never without intention.But this? This silence? It didn’t feel strategic.It felt final.And the not-knowing—that was what gnawed at him the most.He wasn’t askin
The chef and The charmer chapter 122
Evelyn’s POVI stared at the unsigned TV contract for the fifth time that morning.Something in me ached—not from fear, not from lack of opportunity. But because I knew this wasn’t the time. Not for me.Not yet.I picked up my phone and called Chris.He answered on the third ring, cheerful and chaotic as always. “Yo! Chef-turned-TV-star, what’s the—”“I’m not signing it.”Silence.Then: “Okay. Talk to me.”I sat down at the edge of the kitchen table, the light filtering through the window dancing on my fingertips.“I thought I wanted it. Maybe part of me still does. But I’m not ready—not for the camera, not for the pressure. Not for people picking me apart before I’ve even put myself back together.”Chris didn’t speak for a long time.Finally: “I’ll call the producer. Don’t worry about it.”“Are you mad?”He snorted. “Mad? Evelyn, I respect the hell out of you for knowing your limit. The deal will still be there when you are ready—if you ever want it. And if not, there are other kitch
The chef and The charmer chapter 121
Evelyn’s POVSomething is not right with Damian. I can just feel it.He’s been staring into space and seems like to be distracted a lot. I’ve tried to ask him what’s up, but he just brushes it off and says, “I’m fine. There’s nothing to worry about.”Sighing, I continue to stir at the soup on the stove. Despite everything I’ve been through, cooking has always been something that grounds me. Although I lost my spark and momentum for a while, through the help of therapy, I’m slowly getting the spark back.But I’m far from ready.The deal with the TV producer still lingers at the back of my mind, and to be honest, I don’t think I’m ready for something this big.an invitation came by text later that nightChris texted me like he always did—no punctuation, no warning, and maximum enthusiasm:“house thing. Friday night. you + Damian. wine mandatory. i’ll cook unless you wanna. bring your face.”I showed Damian the message while brushing my teeth. He leaned on the doorframe, half-smiling.“W
The chef and The charmer chapter 120
Damian’s POVThere was a moment during the kidnapping when I stopped fighting.It wasn’t the ropes that did it. Or the sting of Lawrence’s backhand. It wasn’t even the blood—mine or Chris’s.It was Evelyn.The way she looked at me across that cold, concrete floor, her body curled around a broken rib and a bruised dream. Her eyes held fear—but worse, they held blame. Not for what I’d done, but for what I hadn’t stopped.For all my power, for all the empires I’d built—when it really counted, I couldn’t protect her.And in that moment, something inside me collapsed.I wasn’t Damian Blackstone, CEO, strategist, king of boardrooms.I was just a man who’d failed the one person who mattered most.After the rescue, I went home, scrubbed the blood off my skin, and stood in front of the mirror.I didn’t recognize the man staring back.I’d lost weight. Color. Certainty. The edges of my jaw had sharpened in places that didn’t feel like strength. My eyes had sunk into shadows that no sleep could u
The chef and The charmer chapter 119
Evelyn’s POVIt started with a photograph.I’d been cleaning out the drawer beside the bed when I found it—creased at the corners, stuck to the bottom of a journal I hadn’t opened in months. A photo Damian had snapped one lazy Sunday long before everything unraveled.I was in the kitchen, hair messy, apron dusted with flour, laughing at something he’d said. A smear of raspberry jam stained the corner of my mouth.We weren’t even trying, back then.Just living.But I stared at that picture for a long time.Long enough to remember that somewhere in me, the dream of family hadn’t died.It had just gone quiet.The next morning, I placed the photo face-down on the counter, poured two mugs of coffee, and waited for Damian to shuffle into the kitchen like the half-asleep oracle he always was before 9 a.m.He blinked at me, smiled, and sipped.“You’re too awake. What did I miss?”“I was thinking about adoption.”He paused, mid-sip.I watched him. Studied every subtle shift in his expression.N
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