Lahat ng Kabanata ng Sleep With Me, Dear Husband: Kabanata 31 - Kabanata 40

Chapter 31Fine LinesA quiet hum settled over Gianna’s apartment, the kind of silence that spoke more loudly than words ever could. The low jazz tune trickling from the Bluetooth speaker barely filled the corners of the room, its melancholy saxophone curling like smoke around the cluttered edges of her world.Dinner had already been half eaten, and yet Gianna still sat opposite Alec, her fork idle in her hand, her eyes trailing the line of condensation slipping down her wine glass. She wasn’t used to entertaining guests, especially not ones who sat as comfortably as Alec did, as if he belonged here, as if he’d been invited.The scent of garlic and seared steak hung in the air, too warm for the room, too intimate for what this was supposed to be.She exhaled slowly.What was this supposed to be?Alec, on the other hand, was maddeningly unreadable. He sat with perfect posture, his expression calm, his knife slicing into what remained of his food with measured control. Every movement wa

Chapter 33Paper CastlesThe after-party glow had faded. All that remained in the Alfredo building was the muted hum of vacuum machines echoing from distant corridors and the faint scent of champagne lingering in the air like a half-forgotten memory.Helena stood at the center of Kenzo’s office, illuminated by the soft lamplight bleeding through sheer curtains. Her fingers traced the edge of his mahogany desk: a desk she once imagined sitting across from as partners, not adversaries.The gala was over, but the echo of their balcony conversation hadn’t left her. His words: “I won’t chase you”, rang louder than the music that had once filled the ballroom. They weren’t cruel, only… resigned. That scared her more.The door clicked softly. She didn’t have to look to know it was him.“You left your coat,” Kenzo said, holding it loosely by the collar. His voice lacked sharpness tonight, tempered by something quieter, a weariness, perhaps.She turned slowly, meeting his eyes. “Maybe I didn’t

Chapter 35The morning sun filtered through the floor-to-ceiling windows of Kenzo’s penthouse, bathing the entire space in a muted golden hue. But warmth had nothing on the cold tension in the room.Kenzo sat at the dining table, flipping through his emails with a mug of untouched coffee in front of him. Gianna had sent him the finalized reports for the quarter, along with updates on investor concerns over the recent PR turbulence.Another sigh escaped his lips.He had barely slept the night before. Helena’s proposal kept playing on repeat in his mind—three months. Just three months. She hadn’t explained why, and when he pressed her, she gave nothing.He still couldn’t tell if she was sincere or playing a long game.A soft knock at the door snapped him out of his thoughts.He wasn’t expecting anyone.He opened the door cautiously, and there she was again.Helena.Dressed in cream pants, a white blouse tucked neatly, and sunglasses pushed up her head, she held a paper bag in one hand a

Chapter 37Tension on All SidesKenzo sat alone in his office, the silence around him thick and heavy. The late afternoon sun filtered through the half-drawn blinds, casting sharp lines across the floor. He wasn’t reading the file in front of him anymore. His eyes had been stuck on the same paragraph for the last ten minutes. He leaned back in his chair with a sigh and closed the folder.Something wasn’t right.Helena had been too calm lately. Too… graceful. And that scared him more than her usual persistence. She wasn’t arguing. She wasn’t barging into his life unannounced: well, not as often. She was helping. Quietly. Discreetly.Like she was preparing for something.He rubbed a hand across his jaw. The damage to his company had slowed thanks to some recent PR shifts. Positive blog posts, social media cleanups, quiet buyouts of fake headlines. He hadn’t arranged any of it. Gianna hadn’t either.Which only left one person.Kenzo’s eyes narrowed.“Helena,” he muttered.His phone buzze

Chapter 39Secrets Weigh HeavyThe morning sun filtered into Helena’s townhouse, falling in soft streaks across the marble floor. She stood quietly by the window, one hand resting against the glass. The city moved outside: cars, people, life, but her own world felt stuck in place. A hollow, quiet tension hung in the air.Three days. That’s how long it had been since Kenzo last spoke to her.No calls. No visits. No messages. Not since the day she showed up at his office and saw the guarded expression on his face when she’d brushed off his questions, again. Not since he caught her wavering mid-conversation and she laughed it off too quickly.He hadn’t pushed that day. But she saw the doubt in his eyes. And the silence that followed? It echoed louder than any confrontation.She told herself it was better this way. The less he knew, the less he could resent her for later. She wasn’t ready to unravel everything, not yet. Not until she could breathe through the weight of it herself.Still,