All Chapters of Married To A Monster: Chapter 71 - Chapter 79

79 Chapters

CHAPTER SEVENTY ONE

ZARA’S POVThe woods had a kind of silence that didn’t feel like peace.It felt like waiting — like the trees themselves were holding their breath with her.Zara sat on the edge of the abandoned cabin’s porch, knees drawn up, her arms wrapped around her stomach. She wasn’t showing yet, but her body… it knew. Every morning nausea. Every sudden fear. Every instinct whispering protect, protect, protect.Adrian moved around inside, setting new traps, reinforcing the door, checking the perimeter for the tenth time. He’d stayed awake all night. Again.“Eat something,” he called from the kitchen. “The baby needs it.”She stared at the ground. “I’m trying.”He stepped outside, crouched in front of her. “Trying isn’t enough. You’re not alone, Zara.”Her throat tightened. “I feel alone.”“You shouldn’t.” He touched her shoulder. “You have me. And you still have Lucien—”She shook her head violently. “Don’t say his name.”Adrian leaned back. “Fine. But you’re not going to pretend he doesn’t love

Last Updated : 2025-11-22

CHAPTER SEVENTY TWO

The word sisters hadn’t even finished echoing through the air when the room shattered into silence.Zara stared at Vanessa, chest tight, breath thin.Adrian went still beside her.Lucien froze behind them, jaw clenching like the world just tilted.But Vanessa—Vanessa smiled like she had waited her whole life to drop this bomb.“Don’t look so shocked,” she sneered. “You’re not the only Marino daughter. You’re just the one everybody protected.”Zara’s voice scraped out. “What the hell are you talking about? Protected from what?”Vanessa’s eyes glistened—not with softness, but with a hurt so sharp it cut the air.“From my life,” she snapped. “From the shadows I had to grow up in. From hiding. From pretending I didn’t exist so your father wouldn’t kill my mother.”Zara blinked but didn’t look away. “So this is why you hate me? Because you think I had everything?”“I know you did,” Vanessa hissed. “You had your father. You had a family. You had the Marino name. You had every privilege—the

Last Updated : 2025-11-25

CHAPTER SEVENTY THREE

No one is safe.The gunshot split the night.Zara’s scream caught in her throat.Adrian jerked forward, grabbing her arm.Lucien’s gun was already out.But the bullet hadn’t been aimed at them.It hit the ground—right behind Vanessa.Vanessa froze.Her pupils blew wide.Her lips parted in a soft, broken gasp.And then—“I SAID NOT YET!”Her voice cracked like glass.She spun toward the trees, shaking, hands balled into fists.“NOT YET! NOT YET! I SAID YOU WAIT FOR MY SIGNAL! YOU—”Her voice collapsed.Her knees buckled.And for one horrifying moment, Vanessa Moore—cold, calculating, vicious Vanessa—looked like a child punched out of her own body.She stumbled backward, clutching her chest.Lucien grabbed Zara, pulling her close on instinct, shielding her body with his.Adrian stepped forward, torn between anger and something else he didn’t want to name.“Vanessa—?” he started.She shook her head violently and screamed:“HE WASN’T SUPPOSED TO FIRE! HE WASN’T SUPPOSED TO—”Her voice

Last Updated : 2025-11-27

CHAPTER SEVENTY FOUR

ZARA’S POVThe moment Vanessa collapsed, Zara thought she was dead.One second she was screaming at Adrian, clutching her chest.The next, her knees buckled, her eyes rolled back, and she dropped into the dirt with a sound that didn’t sound human.“Shit—Vanessa!” Adrian caught her before her head hit the ground.Lucien spun around, eyes wide, face draining of color.“No… no, no, stay awake—Vanessa!”There was blood.Everywhere.Warm, dark, pouring through her fingers.“We need a hospital!” Adrian barked.Lucien grabbed him. “No hospitals. They’ll track us in seven minutes.”“Then what—Lucien, she’s dying!”Zara stepped forward, voice steady even though her heart was racing.“I can take it out.”Both men froze.Lucien’s eyes snapped to her. “Zara—this is a bullet wound. Not a scratch.”“I know.”Her voice didn’t shake.Her hands didn’t either.“I grew up around my father’s men. I’ve stitched stab wounds since I was fourteen. I know what to do.”Lucien hesitated only a breath—then nodde

Last Updated : 2025-11-28

CHAPTER SEVENTY FIVE

They spent the first hour pretending everything was normal.In the cold light of the safehouse’s single lantern, Lucien straightened a blanket, checked the bolt on the iron door, and moved like a man who wanted the world to know he could make it safe by sheer will. Vanessa lay on the cot, bandaged and pale, staring at the ceiling as if it held answers she’d never been given. Adrian paced with an energy that looked like restlessness and discipline braided together; he refolded the same map for the tenth time, then shoved it into his jacket pocket as if secrecy could be folded into fabric.Zara did not pretend.Her breath came in small, sharp pulls now. The baby pressed against her, a pinch of life that made her stitches of courage unravel whenever it remembered to move. At first it was small, a tremor that made her mouth curve and ache at the same time. Now it was nausea in the morning, dizzy spells by noon, and a weird, constant tiredness that sat under her ribs even when she slept. O

Last Updated : 2025-12-02

CHAPTER SEVENTY SIX

The silence that followed was the kind that could make you confess anything. Maybe it was the close shave of death or the timbre of the night, but the question that had been at the edges of everything they did—what do you have left when everything is taken?—saw fit to become a statement. Lucien’s hands, which had been rigid with the necessities of survival, reached and cupped hers. It was a small, defiant act of tenderness among ruins.“Lucien,” Zara said, breathless with something like courage, “if we don’t make it—”He cut her off with a sharp, rough kiss. It was not gentle. It was not ceremonial. It was the kind of hunger that had been starved for seasons. It was a claim and an apology rolled into a single motion. She answered because there was nowhere else to put the fear. Their mouths were fierce and immediate, each kiss an insurance against the world’s hunger.They moved back into the dark of the ravine like two bodies with a single heartbeat. Clothes were stripped with a clumsy

Last Updated : 2025-12-02

CHAPTER SEVENTY SEVEN

ZARA’S POVThe forest swallowed them whole.Branches snapped under their feet, leaves whispered warnings, the air felt too still—like the world itself was holding its breath, waiting.Zara kept walking.She refused to look weak.Not now.Not with a child inside her and death circling them from every direction.But every step made her chest tighter.Every breath burned.And the forest… the forest felt wrong.“Slow down,” Lucien murmured behind her.“I’m fine.”She wasn’t.Her vision flickered.Her stomach cramped.A cold sweat broke across her neck.Adrian glanced back at Vanessa—still pale, still stitched, walking slowly with one hand pressed to her bandaged side.“We can’t push like this,” Adrian said. “She’s not stable. Neither of them are.”Zara snapped, “I said I’m—”Her knee buckled.Lucien caught her before she hit the ground.“Zara!” His voice sliced through the trees. “Hey—look at me. Stay with me.”Her breathing stuttered. “I—just—need a minute—”“No.” His hand cupped the bac

Last Updated : 2025-12-05

CHAPTER SEVENTY EIGHT

ZARA’S POVThe smoke rose like a warning.Thin.Straight.Controlled.Not a wildfire.Not a signal for rescue.A message.Zara felt it in her bones long before she understood it.Her mother was there.Waiting.Watching.Pulling strings she didn’t even know existed.Her stomach tightened—not from the pregnancy this time, but from something deeper, older… a fear shaped like abandonment and betrayal.Lucien’s hand pressed against the small of her back.“You good?”“No,” she whispered. “But I’m walking.”Vanessa staggered but nodded toward the smoke. Her face was pale, sweat slicking her forehead, but her jaw was hard.“She’s there,” Vanessa murmured. “She always goes where the danger is lowest… and the damage is highest.”Zara swallowed. “How long have you known she was alive?”Vanessa’s eyes flickered. “Longer than you.”Lucien stiffened at that.Adrian looked between them but said nothing. The woods were too still. Too listening.Every crack of a twig sounded like a trigger.Every gust

Last Updated : 2025-12-06

CHAPTER SEVENTY NINE

A MOTHER’S CHOICEZARA’S POVThe clearing felt wrong the moment they stepped into it.Cold.Still.Unwelcoming.Like it already chose who belonged… and who didn’t.Zara’s hand pressed to her stomach as Lucien moved protectively in front of her.The tent flap pushed aside.Her mother stepped out.Alive.Breathing.Real.Zara’s chest tightened. “Mom…”But before she could take a single step—Her mother walked right past her.Straight to Vanessa.“Baby,” she whispered, taking Vanessa’s face gently. “You’re hurt. My God, what did they do to you?”Vanessa’s eyes filled with tears instantly. “I’m fine, Mom… just—just a bullet—”“Shh.” Her mother cupped her cheek. “My strong girl. My brave girl.”She kissed Vanessa’s forehead.Vanessa broke.Zara stood frozen.Her mother hadn’t looked at her.Not once.Not even a glance.Lucien’s jaw tightened beside her.Adrian stepped forward carefully. “We have Zara here too—she needs—”Her mother cut him off sharply.“She can wait.”The words slammed int

Last Updated : 2025-12-11

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