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Chapter 77
publish date:
2026-04-24 00:38:16
Latest chapter
What We Pretended To Be Chapter 92
Maria: I woke up thinking about the one thing Daniel had not done. He had not brought Noah up again. He had not asked for another explanation. He had not pushed me into one of those quiet corners where he says very little and somehow still leaves me feeling overexamined. He had simply let it go, at least on the surface, and I had spent the last two days learning that Daniel’s version of letting something go was somehow worse than anger. Anger would have been easier. Anger had shape. You could answer anger. You could fight with it and call it progress. This was different. He had folded the whole thing away with that unnerving control of his and kept moving, and I was left with the deeply unpleasant awareness that I had hurt him badly enough for silence to seem more useful than another argument. That sat with me more than I wanted it to. I was in the kitchen the next morning, standing over tea I had already forgotten to drink, when I thought about the beach. Not in detail. Just the
What We Pretended To Be Chapter 91
Maria: By midday, the house had started looking slightly less like Daniel and slightly more like it could tolerate me. Not much, just enough to be noticeable if you knew where to look. A small stack of books on the table near the window, my mug wedged between his immaculate row of identical white cups like an act of quiet rebellion, a cardigan folded over the arm of a chair, a candle on the dresser I hadn’t lit yet but liked seeing there anyway. Tiny things. Easy things. The sort of details that didn’t ask too much of me, which was useful, because the larger reality was still sitting somewhere in the background — too large to examine directly. I had moved into Daniel’s house this morning. I had arrived with luggage and legal documents and the sort of polite silence that follows a wedding and an unresolved argument, and now I was in our bedroom rearranging a bookshelf like that was the part of this worth focusing on. Honestly, it was either that or spiral. I checked my phone f
What We Pretended To Be Chapter 90
Maria: For a while after Daniel stopped speaking, the room stayed still. Not tense, not calm either — just spent. Whatever sharpness had been left in the argument had burned itself out somewhere between his silence and mine, and what remained was quieter than anger and heavier than either of us seemed interested in naming. I sat at the edge of the bed with half my hair still pinned and the weight of the day still clinging to me, and watched my husband pour himself another drink like the motion mattered more than the glass. He looked tired in a way I had never seen on him before. Less polished, less composed, like holding himself together had become expensive and he was finally feeling the cost of it. I hated that he was right. I hated more that I had known it before he said a word. For a while neither of us reached for anything else. He drank. I took apart what was left of my wedding one pin at a time, setting each one on the bedside table in a neat little line like control could
What We Pretended To Be Chapter 89
Daniel: By the time the reception began to thin, I had perfected the expression required to survive my own wedding. It turned out marriage, at least in public, was mostly posture. A hand at Maria’s back. A measured smile. Just enough warmth to satisfy the room. We moved through congratulations like we had rehearsed it, which, in fairness, we had. Family first. Investors second. Friends somewhere after that. Everyone eager to congratulate us on a union they believed meant romance, legacy, inevitability. It was remarkable what people would project onto two attractive people standing close enough together in expensive clothes. Maria was good at it. Better than good. She moved through the room with that particular grace of hers, all polish and dry wit and elegant restraint. My mother was emotional. Hers was worse. Isabelle had already cried twice and was pretending she had not. Lily looked insufferably pleased with herself. Marcus looked like he was enjoying a private joke at everyone’
What We Pretended To Be Chapter 88
Maria: He did not raise his voice. He did not need to. The room behind him was still warm and loud and comfortably careless. Glasses clinked. Someone laughed too hard at something Marcus had probably said. My mother was still talking to Daniel’s mother with the kind of intensity usually reserved for political negotiations and floral arrangements. Nothing had changed. And yet somehow everything had. I looked at him, then at the phone in his hand. He turned the screen toward me just enough. “WALKER HEIR SEEN WITH SUSPECTED EX BOYFRIEND, NOAH. CLOSURE TALK OR REKINDLING?” Another headline sat beneath it. “WALKER HEIR SEEN IN PRIVATE PARK WITH RUMORED EX WHILE ENGAGED TO ROTHFIELD BILLIONAIRE SON.” For one brief, ugly second, all I could think was Evelyn. Of course. Of course she had smiled like that. Of course her surprise had arrived dressed as gossip and timed for maximum damage. I lifted my head and found her across the room. Champagne in one hand. That same pol
What We Pretended To Be Chapter 87
Maria: I answered Daniel the next morning because at some point ignoring him had started to feel less principled and more juvenile. His messages were still there when I opened my phone. Practical. Clean. Three simple questions about the house, as if we were discussing a renovation and not the architecture of an entire life I had not fully admitted was about to become mine. “Would you like anything changed before you move in?” “Do you need a workspace?” “What would make it feel more like yours?” I stared at them longer than I should have. Morning light spilled across the kitchen counter, warm on the marble. Then I typed the first honest answer that came to mind. “A room with natural light. Shelving. Somewhere quiet enough to think.” I read it once, nearly deleted it, then sent it. His reply came almost immediately. “Done.” I frowned at the screen. Then another message. “Anything else?” I should not have smiled. It was barely eight in the morning and I was standing in my k
What We Pretended To Be Chapter 19
Daniel:I don’t check my phone when I wake up.That part is intentional.There’s a rhythm to my mornings — quiet, ordered, predictable. If I start letting small things interrupt it, everything else follows. I’ve learned that the hard way.So I get up. Shower. Dress. Coffee.Same sequence. Same pace
What We Pretended To Be Chapter 18
Maria:“I don’t think I’m competing with him anymore.”It doesn’t sound dramatic.That’s what makes it worse.Noah says it like he’s stating something obvious. Something he’s already accepted.I try to respond.“That’s not—”The rest doesn’t come.Because I don’t know what I’m correcting.He doesn’
What We Pretended To Be Chapter 16
Maria:I almost turn back.Not dramatically. Just a quiet pause at the gate, hand hovering near the bell like I forgot why I came.It shouldn’t feel like this. It’s just dinner.But it’s not just dinner.It’s his space. His world. Somewhere I’ve never really been, even when we used to know each oth
What We Pretended To Be Chapter 15
Daniel: “Why wouldn’t I?” It comes out clean. Easy. Like it belongs there. Maria doesn’t answer right away. I can feel her eyes on the side of my face, searching for something I’m not ready to give. I keep my gaze fixed on the road, fingers steady on the wheel. It’s easier this way. If I look
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