All Chapters of He Chose my Cousin, so I Chose Revenge: Chapter 91 - Chapter 100

The morning had begun the way most did after a storm of change. Not with a bang or a declaration, but with a return to rhythm. The boutique had been opened earlier than usual, the locks turned with a familiar weight, the lights flicked on in quiet sequence. The air was cooler than the forecast had promised, as though the city itself had paused to exhale after everything that had passed. Julian had not said much the night before, and I had not asked him to. We had walked together down the hallway of the apartment, brushed shoulders in the kitchen while water boiled, and exchanged glances that held more than language could contain. Some days had no need for words. Others required the stillness between them. That morning, I had dressed without urgency. No cameras waited outside. No press storm circled overhead. There was no headline that could carry the weight of what this day already meant. I pulled my hair back loosely, wrapped myself in a slate-blue coat I had not worn in months, an

The key was still in my coat pocket when a message arrived to my phone. It had only been a few hours since Julian and I stood together in the flagship space, surrounded by the scent of dust and beginnings. We had not spoken much after locking the door behind us. There was no need to narrate what had already settled between us. What we were building now did not require headlines or declarations. It required presence, intention, and something steadier than hope. Something more durable than ambition. I had just slipped off my shoes when I saw the message. It came from a number I no longer saved. But I recognized the cadence of his words even through the screen. Roman had always spoken in offers dressed as invitations. One last conversation. Just you and me. I stared at the message without moving. The apartment was quiet around me, dim with early evening light. Julian was still in the kitchen, setting mugs down, his gestures slow and familiar. I didn’t reply. Not yet. Instead, I r

The train ride out of the city passed in a rhythm that did not need to be named. I sat by the window, watching the buildings fall away into trees, fields, and the kind of stillness I had forgotten I once knew. The tracks hummed steadily beneath me, each turn and sway pulling me closer to a woman I had not seen in over a decade. She had not called. She had not written. But she had sent fabric.The letter had arrived two days earlier, handwritten in the sharp, slanted script I remembered from the edge of my mother’s studio notes. It had been folded carefully around a swatch of cloth that looked older than I was, the weave faintly uneven, hand-dyed in a tone that defied easy color. Somewhere between slate and smoke, but not quite either.She had signed the letter with only her initials.C.L.Clementine Lang.My mother’s mentor. The woman who taught her not just how to sew but how to see. When my mother spoke of her, it had always been with a reverence that softened her voice. Clementine

The sun was just starting to dip when we left the old boutique for the last time.We did not say much. The door clicked shut behind us, and the key in my hand felt heavier than it ever had before. I looked at the windows one final time. Inside, the lights were off, the forms neatly covered, the silence purposeful. It did not feel like abandonment. It felt like gratitude. The kind that comes when something sacred has been lived in fully, then gently released.We had outgrown it, not because it failed us, but because we were finally ready to stand in something new.Julian walked beside me, a few steps ahead at first, but then slowed until our pace matched. The sidewalks were familiar, but even they seemed different. We crossed the street without speaking, without needing to.Around the corner, the new space waited.It looked different at night. The windows reflected the glow from the streetlamps, turning the glass into mirrors that held more than just our shapes. They held something qui

It was a Thursday morning when I found out. The air in the boutique was still, not stagnant but expectant in that soft way it often was before something shifted. The new shipment of fabric had arrived the night before, stacked neatly in rolls by the front display. Claudia had opened early to receive it. Simone was somewhere in the back going over palette selections for the spring concept board. Helena had not yet arrived, but I knew she would.I was in the middle of sketching a neckline revision when I noticed the silence had stretched longer than usual. It was not discomfort. It was that particular quiet that often follows discovery. When I turned, Claudia was standing near the counter, her phone in her hand. Her expression was unreadable, but I could tell by the way she held herself that something had shifted.She didn’t look up. She only said, calmly, “You’re going to want to hear this.”I walked over without asking questions. She passed the phone to me, and I saw the title before