All Chapters of The silence between us : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

The air in the estate’s grand library was heavy with the faint scent of old parchment and cedar polish. Morning light filtered through the high arched windows, casting golden stripes across the long mahogany table where Gabriel sat. His hand rested lightly over the unopened envelope from the night before, his gaze fixed on it as though he could burn through the seal with will alone.Lucy stood near the tall shelves, one hand brushing along the spines of weathered volumes, her mind too restless to read a single word.The soft click of the double doors breaking the stillness was like the crack of a whip. Both turned at once.Patricia Benjamin stepped into the room as if she owned it.She wore cream silk and a tailored blazer, the sort of effortless elegance that announced she wasn’t here for reconciliation. Her gaze swept over the space, lingering on Lucy with a faint smile before sliding to Gabriel.“Signor Fernandez,” she said with a smooth nod, her accent faintly sharpened for formal

Lucy awoke before dawn, the room still bathed in shadows. The shutters had been drawn tight against the night, but a pale ribbon of light managed to slip through the narrow seam, cutting across the bed in a silver line. She blinked against it, her body heavy with exhaustion, though her mind refused the comfort of sleep. The weight of the previous evening pressed on her chest: Joana’s venomous presence, John’s unexpected return, Gabriel’s confession of fears he had kept buried for years. It had all left her restless, tossing in a silence too loud to endure.She turned her head slightly. Gabriel still lay beside her, his breathing deep and even, though she knew well enough he was not truly asleep. She had learned in the weeks of their strained cohabitation that Gabriel rarely surrendered fully to rest. Even in slumber, there was tension in him his jaw clenched, his hand curled as if ready to rise against unseen threats. The man carried battles in his very bones, and she wondered if he e

Lucy held the letter as though it might scorch her skin. Even after she folded it back into its ivory envelope, her hands trembled with the same unease that had possessed her when she first read the Madrid seal. The parchment was thick, the script elegantly formal, but beneath its polished presentation lurked a threat she could not ignore. She slipped it into the drawer of her writing desk and pushed it closed, as if wood and brass could barricade her from its demands.But the weight of it lingered.Dinner that night stretched in suffocating silence. Gabriel sat at the head of the long oak table, a storm coiled in his expression though he said little. His knife cut through roasted quail with surgical precision. Lucy sat at his right, too conscious of her every movement, pushing food around her plate. Between them, candles flickered against crystal glasses, but their light felt colder than ever.She tried to speak, but the words withered before reaching her tongue. Should she tell him?

The morning of their departure unfolded with the kind of quiet that made Lucy’s skin prickle.The estate, usually alive with the bustle of servants and the murmuring of voices drifting from the kitchens, seemed muted, as though every corner of its marble halls and manicured gardens held its breath. The sun was bright over the terracotta rooftops, gilding the roses in the courtyard, but it offered no warmth to the tension in her chest.Lucy sat at the edge of the balcony that overlooked the vineyards. A tray of untouched breakfast lay beside her coffee long gone cold, a croissant she hadn’t even broken. Her hands twisted in her lap, restless, restless. Sleep had evaded her, leaving her eyes shadowed, her thoughts a tangled knot.Madrid. Just the name felt like a weight pressing against her ribs. She could still feel the folded letter hidden at the bottom of her jewelry box, the one she had found tucked in her stepmother’s scarf two nights ago. Words she had not been ready to read, word

The night was restless. Lucy could not sleep, not with the image of Patricia still imprinted in her mind the gleam of that crimson dress, the way her stepmother’s words had sliced through the fragile peace she and Gabriel had been trying to build. Each step through the grand halls of the Madrid estate echoed like a reminder of the fractures widening between her old life and the new one she was struggling to survive.Her bare feet brushed against the cool marble as she paced. The corridors were dimly lit, shadows stretching long and narrow across the painted walls. It was well past midnight, yet her thoughts spun endlessly. Patricia’s threats were not idle, Lucy knew that. Her stepmother was a woman who thrived on destruction, a predator who had never once hesitated to sacrifice others if it meant gaining control. And now, she had set her eyes on Gabriel’s empire.Lucy pressed a trembling hand against her chest, feeling the erratic rhythm of her heartbeat. She had chosen to stay. She h