Entwined With Karma のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 51 - チャプター 60

The house had never felt so large. Every room seemed to echo with an invisible tension, thick in the air between Jason and Kendall. They had fallen into a tense silence after their disagreement, neither of them prepared to confront the other. The distance between them felt wider than the walls between their rooms, even when they passed one other in the halls and exchanged brief comments. Jason sat on his bed's edge and gazed down at his phone. Another missed call from Kendall. Despite seeing her name appear on the screen and witnessing the call come through, he was prevented from answering it for some reason. It wasn't like he was unwilling to speak with her. He was at a loss for words.---The days that followed were filled with brief, hollow exchanges. When they spoke, it was only about logistics—the bills, the schedule for the week. Anything personal felt too raw, too dangerous to touch. Their unsaid tension built up between them like a wall, brick by brick, getting stronger every

Jason was seated at his desk, the dim light in the room created by the soft glow from his phone screen. The pictures, the incriminating, cursed pictures, looked back at him, a continual reminder of the mayhem that was simmering beneath the surface. His mind raced with a thousand ideas every time he saw them, none of which solved the problem.He had been repeating this image over and over in his head for days, attempting to come up with an explanation for the inexplicable. What had occurred, or what he thought had happened, how was he going to explain it to Kendall? There were too many blanks in the night with Isabella for him to be able to claim with confidence that nothing happened. And these photos... they were damning. If he showed them to Kendall, would she believe he had been set up? That nothing happened? Would his apologies really matter to her, or would her inability to forgive such betrayal be too great? In an attempt to relieve the strain accumulating behind his eyes, he ma

Kendall was sitting in their bedroom at the window, staring out into the night with her fingers idly tracing down the curtain's edges. The far-off city lights flickered, but her thoughts were not on the lovely scenery. For weeks now, Jason had been aloof, even frigid, and each time she attempted to connect with him, it seemed as though he was getting farther away. There was more to it than just the long hours and nonstop work excuses. Something darker.Kendall was unable to ignore it any longer. Jason's actions had undergone a significant shift, and the distance between them was growing daily. Her gut twisted at the thought of the late nights, the rushed phone conversations, and the way he dodged her queries. Despite her best efforts to ignore them, the doubts persisted and cast a long shadow on her perceptions of their relationship.---As the days passed, Kendall started to notice things that she had never noticed before. Jason's jaw was clinched as though he was waiting for terribl

Kendall was immediately smacked by the hospital's sterile odor as soon as she entered. Though her face did not reveal the agony whirling inside her, her fingers were clenched around the strap of her bag, her knuckles white. Alicia walked beside her, trying to keep the mood light with gentle conversation, but Kendall was barely listening. She managed to nod occasionally, picking up bits of what Alicia was saying, but her thoughts were elsewhere.She briefly glanced down at her growing belly while contemplating, "Can you experience both happiness and fear simultaneously?” "This baby... my baby... what if my illness causes this precious life that is growing inside of me to suffer?” A surge of guilt tightened her chest, the weight of her secret almost suffocating. She hadn’t told Jason. She hadn’t told anyone except Alicia. She felt her gut clench up at the prospect. Alicia's voice interrupted her train of thought. "Hey, you’re doing great, you know? We’ve been through so much, and look,

Jason leaned back in his leather chair, eyes unfocused as he scrolled through emails on his laptop. Meetings, investor updates, business proposals—it was the usual mix of corporate life that normally grounded him. Today, though, the routine couldn’t settle his restless mind. The dull glow of his office lights felt too harsh, the ticking of the clock too loud. His mind wasn’t in the room; it was elsewhere—on her.Then his phone vibrated on the desk, the soft buzz cutting through the quiet tension. Jason’s heart skipped a beat as he hesitated. He already knew who the message was from. With a quick exhale, he reached for the phone. Sure enough, the notification flashed on the screen from an unknown number. Isabella.With a quick swipe of his finger across the screen, the message opened. Another image, explicit and degrading, with a caption that made him shudder: "This is just the beginning.” Imagine what your business partners would think if they saw this.”Jason's eyes narrowed in shock