All Chapters of Switched at the Mafia Auction: Chapter 261 - Chapter 270

279 Chapters

Chapter 261: Stuck

~ Avelyn ~I nodded once, the motion small, almost automatic, before turning back toward the door they had come from. I could feel their eyes on my back as I moved, could feel the weight of everything we hadn’t said pressing into the space between us.But none of it mattered.Not anymore, certainly not right now.My hand found the door before I could think too much about it, my fingers wrapping around the handle as a strange, unfamiliar hesitation settled in my chest.This was it.Everything I had carried.Everything I had rehearsed.Everything I had buried and built up and held onto—It was all on the other side of this door. I exhaled slowly and pushed it open.The room was quiet but loud in my ears The steady sound of a monitor filled the space, rhythmic, unchanging, almost detached from everything else. For a moment, I didn’t step in. I just stood there, my eyes adjusting, my breath catching somewhere between my chest and my throat.And then I saw him.Whatever I had expected—It

Chapter 262: I loved you

~ Avelyn ~The taxi door clicked shut behind me, but I didn’t move right away.For a moment, I just stood there with my hand still resting on the handle, my legs refusing to cooperate, my chest rising and falling like I had run a mile instead of sitting through a silent ride. The driver said something—maybe asking if I was okay, maybe telling me to be careful—but the words didn’t register.Because I already knew where I was.I didn’t need to look up and I didn’t need to read the sign.My feet remembered before my mind could catch up.And when I finally lifted my gaze, the rows of headstones stretched out in front of me like a quiet accusation, like a place that had been waiting… patiently… for me to return.The air felt different here like the world had decided to hold its breath.I swallowed, my throat tight, and forced myself to move. One step. Then another. Gravel crunched faintly under my shoes, each sound too loud in the silence, each step heavier than the last.I told myself I w

Chapter 263: Love was cruel

~ Avelyn ~Sleep didn’t come.It lingered at the edge of my mind, close enough to feel like a promise, but never close enough to take me under. Every time I closed my eyes, something pulled me back up again—memories, voices, the steady echo of that flatline that still hadn’t left my ears.So I gave up trying.I lay there instead, staring at the ceiling of the hotel room, my body heavy and exhausted, but my mind… strangely awake. Too awake.My eyes burned from crying, swollen and sore, but the tears had stopped. There was nothing left to cry out, at least not for now. Just this hollow, aching quiet that settled deep in my chest.It felt… different. Not lighter.Only… clearer.A slow breath slipped out of me as I turned slightly on the bed, pulling the thin blanket closer around my body. The room was cold, but I barely felt it.What I felt instead was something far more unsettling.Understanding.It was almost ironic.The one thing I had been running from—him—was the very thing that pus

Chapter 264: You are his

~ Avelyn ~The question hung in the air longer than it should have.It wasn’t loud or aggressive. But heavy enough that it pressed against my chest, forcing my lungs to work harder just to draw in a breath.I didn’t answer immediately.I couldn’t.Because in that single moment, standing there with the door still half-open behind me and the early morning silence wrapping around us, I realized something I hadn’t prepared for.Kyle wasn’t supposed to be here.Not now.Not after everything.My fingers tightened slightly around the strap of my bag as I stepped fully into the room, closing the door behind me with more care than necessary, as if the quietness of it could somehow soften what was about to unfold.“I had to step out,” I said finally, my voice steady in a way I didn’t quite feel. “Something came up.”It sounded weak the moment it left my lips.I knew it.And from the way Kyle’s eyes darkened almost instantly, I knew he did too.“Step out,” he repeated, slower this time, like he

Chapter 265: A strange feeling

~Avelyn ~The door closed behind him, and the sound didn’t echo the way I expected it to.It didn’t slam. It didn’t shake the walls or rattle anything loose.It just… clicked.Soft and final. And somehow, that made it worse.I stood there for a long time after he left, staring at the same spot like if I didn’t move, I could undo it. Like the air would rewind, and he would still be standing there, still looking at me the way he did when he said those words.‘You were his.’My fingers curled slowly at my sides as his words sunk in.‘I tried to save you.’A breath left me, shallow and uneven.‘I can’t stop loving you.’My eyes shut briefly, like that would quiet it. Like that would stop his voice from replaying so clearly in my head.It didn’t.It only made it louder.I forced my eyes open again, but the room felt… different. Extremely still and empty. Like something had been pulled out of it and left behind a hollow I didn’t know how to fill.I should feel something.Anger. Pain. Anythi

Chapter 266: Wait for it

~ Avelyn ~I woke up already tired.Not the kind of tired sleep could fix. The kind that sat deep in my bones, heavy and unmoving, like something had settled there overnight and refused to leave.For a moment, I didn’t move. I just lay there, staring at the ceiling, listening to the quiet hum of the room. It was overwhelming still and normal.The birds did their usual routine chirps like nothing was coming.Like nothing was wrong.My gaze shifted slowly to the side and landed on Ciara.She was still asleep, her tiny chest rising and falling in soft, steady breaths, completely unaware of the weight pressing down on everything around her. One of her hands was curled near her face, fingers twitching faintly like she was chasing something in a dream.Something inside me loosened—just a little.I pushed myself up carefully, ignoring the dull ache that lingered in my body, and reached for her. She stirred the moment I touched her, a small sound slipping from her lips before she settled agai

Chapter 267: Didn’t look back

~ Avelyn ~The night didn’t feel different. That was the unsettling part.It settled over everything the same way it always did quiet, unassuming, wrapping the world in a kind of stillness that should have been comforting. The lights were low, the air steady, the faint hum of the room unchanged.But something in me had already shifted.I didn’t lie there this time.I didn’t stare at the ceiling or wait for sleep that wasn’t coming.At some point, maybe minutes, maybe longer I just moved with no hesitation and no second-guessing.Just… movement.My feet touched the floor softly as I pushed myself up, careful, instinctive. The room felt smaller in the dark, every sound louder than it should have been, even the quiet brush of fabric as I crossed to the corner.The bag was exactly where I left it.Ready.Waiting.My fingers curled around the zipper, pulling it open just enough to see inside. Everything was still in place, folded and arranged with the kind of precision that only came from

Chapter 268: Desperate

~ Avelyn ~Something didn’t feel right.The thought didn’t come loud or sharp. It settled slowly, like a thin crack spreading beneath the surface, quiet but impossible to ignore once it started.I kept walking anyway.There was no reason not to.The street stretched ahead, dim and mostly empty, the kind of silence that came with late hours when the world had already gone to sleep. My steps were steady, measured, each one placed with care as Ciara rested against me, her small weight warm and grounding.Too grounding.It made everything else feel sharper.Exposed.My grip on her tightened slightly as my gaze flickered around without turning my head fully. The buildings, the corners, the spaces between shadows—nothing moved. Nothing shifted.Still…That feeling lingered.I adjusted the strap of the bag on my shoulder and kept going, forcing my breathing to stay even. This wasn’t the first time I had walked through quiet like this. It wasn’t the first time I had left something behind with

Chapter 269: Who is the father?

~ Avelyn ~I woke to a darkness so complete it felt like it was pressing against my eyes, my chest, my entire body. My head throbbed, my throat dry. For a moment, I couldn’t even remember where I was or how I got here. Then it hit me, and the panic exploded. This wasn’t home. This wasn’t the hotel. This wasn’t anywhere I had ever been.“Ciara!” The name tore from my throat before I could think twice, and the sound ricocheted off the walls, swallowed by the dim, hollow space around me. My body shook as I forced myself upright, fumbling blindly for anything familiar. The room was small, cramped, and suffocating. A steel chair shoved against a wall, a metal table, a locker bolted in the corner. A tiny barred window sat high up, letting in a sliver of gray light, but nothing soft, nothing warm, nothing like home. Nothing for Ciara.Footsteps echoed somewhere beyond the door, metal clicking against concrete. My heart stuttered, and I pressed myself against the nearest wall, trying to disap

Chapter 270: Lose them forever

— Kyle —The room was quiet, almost oppressively so, yet every polished surface seemed to echo the words I couldn’t silence in my head. My foster parents had been talking about Aria for what felt like hours, a perfect girl for a perfect arrangement, their voices smooth and confident, layering logic over something I couldn’t quite reach anymore. I nodded once or twice, mechanically, my attention somewhere else entirely. Somewhere far away. Somewhere in another city where Avelyn had looked at me like I’d broken her world, her voice trembling, her hands frozen mid-gesture, and my own words, once sharp and sure, now replayed in my mind with the weight of regret.“She has to leave your heart now.”The words hit me like a physical blow. I hadn’t even registered my foster mother’s movement toward the door until she turned to me, her eyes soft but calculating, seeing through whatever fragile mask I thought I’d worn all these years. “You are to get married to another,” she said, a subtle, al

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