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Semua Bab She died a wife, Returned a flame: Bab 21 - Bab 30

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Chapter 21: A Dangerous Shift

Sheila’s POVI lay awake that night, staring at the ceiling of the tiny maid’s quarters. My lips still tingled with the phantom of a kiss that had never happened. For a moment, I had almost let myself fall into his arms, into his pull, into the weakness that had destroyed me once before. Adrian Drake had nearly kissed me, and the frightening part wasn’t that he wanted to. It was that a part of me wanted it too.I pressed my palm against my mouth as if to scrub away the thought. Fool. How could I forget? This man had once sworn to love me, then burned me alive without hesitation. He had traded my life for his comfort, my loyalty for his lies. And yet, standing so close to him again, feeling the heat of his breath, my body had trembled in ways I hadn’t expected.That was the danger of living two lives. Rachel, the maid, was supposed to blend in, silent and unnoticed. Sheila, the wife who had died in flames, was supposed to haunt from the shadows. But sometimes, the lines blurred. So

Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-09-18

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Chapter 24: Vanessa’s Web

Vanessa’s POVI can’t breathe anymore. Every time I look at Adrian, I feel him slipping further from me. It’s in the way his eyes linger on her; Rachel. That maid. That intruder who somehow wormed her way into this house and now walks through these halls as if she belongs.It makes me sick.And yet, beneath the sickness, there’s fear. A gnawing fear that I know too well.I’ve always been second-best. Always the woman on the sidelines, watching someone else shine while I pick up the scraps. Men wanted me, yes, but never enough. Never more than the woman before me. Adrian was supposed to be different. Adrian was supposed to be mine.I trapped him with the one thing no man can walk away from a child. Or at least, that’s what I told him. That lie is the only chain binding him to me, the only reason I wake up in this mansion instead of some small, rented apartment where no one even knows my name.But now… he looks at her.I can’t let this happen.I wait until nightfall before slipping ou

Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-09-18

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Chapter 23: Ghosts of fire

Sheila’s POVThe mansion was far too quiet that morning, but not in a peaceful way. It wasn’t the kind of silence that let you breathe. It was the kind that pressed on your chest, heavy and humming with secrets. Every tick of the grandfather clock sounded too sharp, like a knife against glass. Every shadow seemed to twitch at the corners of my vision, as if the walls themselves were hiding whispers I wasn’t meant to hear.I balanced the breakfast tray in my hands, my steps light, my breathing even lighter as I climbed the stairs. It was ridiculous, really, how cautious I had become in this house. One wrong move and I wasn’t sure if I’d be shoved out or destroyed completely.Vanessa had been on edge for days. She snapped at the staff for the smallest things; a crooked napkin, a glass that wasn’t polished enough, a step taken too loudly. Her moods came like storms: sudden, violent, gone, then back again. But beneath her cruelty, I noticed something else. Fear.I’d catch it in the tremor

Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-09-19

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Chapter 24: The First Strike

Adrian’s POV The more I tried to reason with myself, the less sense any of it made. Rachel wasn’t Sheila, science had already told me that. And yet, every time I looked at her, every time I heard her voice or caught her laugh floating down the corridor, my chest tightened the same way it had with Sheila. I told myself it was lust, nothing more. But lust didn’t haunt a man in his dreams. Lust didn’t make you see ghosts in the curve of someone’s smile. I had become restless, pacing the halls like a prisoner in my own home. And wherever I went, Rachel seemed to be there too. Folding laundry, dusting shelves, arranging flowers in the hall. She moved quietly, gracefully, almost like she belonged here more than Vanessa did. I hated how my eyes searched for her even when I told myself not to. And Vanessa noticed. She tried to draw me in, touches that stayed for long, dresses cut lower, laughter that rang fake in the dining room but all it did was sharpen the irritation under my sk

Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-09-22

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Chapter 25: The Dangerous Discovery

Sheila’s POVI’d been watching Adrian closely these past few days, and something in him had shifted. His words to Vanessa had grown shorter, colder. His touches, once indulgent, were absent. Yet when his eyes landed on me, Rachel, the maid. I saw a flicker that terrified me more than his hatred ever had. A mix of suspicion, longing, and something darker.Vanessa noticed too. She snapped at the staff for the smallest mistakes, her paranoia spilling into the air like poison. Every slammed door, every clipped word, was proof of her losing control. And while she hissed at a trembling maid over the wrong tea temperature, I slipped quietly down the hall.Her bedroom was forbidden ground, but chaos had opened the door for me.I entered silently, heart hammering. The space reeked of roses and expensive perfume, yet underneath was something sour, desperate. Drawers stood neatly shut, a jewelry box glittered on her vanity. My eyes swept over polished surfaces, looking for anything, documents, r

Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-09-22

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Chapter 26: The Unraveling

Sheila’s POVI had never heard the mansion so loud. Their voices cut through the walls like blades, every word sharper than the last.“You are losing your mind, Vanessa!” Adrian’s roar echoed down the hallway.My hands trembled as I froze near the staircase. I shouldn’t have been listening, but the venom in his tone pinned me in place.“You think I don’t see it?” Vanessa’s voice cracked, high and wild. “The way you look at her. Like she matters. Like she belongs here more than I do!”A pause. I could almost see Adrian’s face in my mind, stone-cold, lips pressed in anger.“You’re unstable,” he spat. “This paranoia, this obsession, it’s embarrassing. You’ve turned this house into a nightmare.”The sound of something breaking followed, a glass, maybe, shattering against the floor. I flinched.“You don’t get to call me unstable when you’re the one chasing a maid like some lost puppy!” Vanessa’s voice shook with rage. “Do you think I don’t notice? Do you think I’m blind?”I pressed my back

Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-09-23

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Chapter 27: Vanessa Unleashed

Vanessa’s POVThe house had turned against me.I felt it in the way the staff avoided my eyes, bowing their heads quickly, as if they carried secrets between their teeth. I felt it in the way Adrian’s gaze drifted, no longer fixed on me but on her. Rachel. That name was poison on my tongue, sweet on his. Every day it grew louder in my head, as if the very walls of this mansion whispered it when I walked past.And I hated her for it.I hated the way she moved through my home, calm and unshaken, as though she belonged more than I did. A maid, yet she had managed to worm herself into every corner of Adrian’s attention. His eyes, his words, even his silences bent toward her, while I, his wife, was left clutching at scraps of affection that no longer tasted real.The morning had started like any other, but something in me snapped when I saw them together in the corridor. She had been carrying a basket of linens, and he stopped her. His hand brushed hers for a moment too long, his voice dro

Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-09-23

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Chapter 28: Poisoned

Sheila’s POVTonight, the air felt heavier than usual, as if something dreadful waited to happen.Vanessa sat at the head of the table beside Adrian, her hand resting protectively on her stomach. She had chosen a silk gown the color of blood, her favorite way of drawing attention to herself. The other staff and I served quietly, moving like shadows. I kept my head lowered, but my eyes were everywhere. I had learned that survival depended on watching before speaking.The dinner started as usual. Adrian’s expression was cold, unreadable, while Vanessa tried to force laughter into the room. She told a story about a friend’s party, her voice high-pitched, her hands fluttering too much. Even the other servants exchanged glances. Something about her energy was wrong.I felt it too. The way she glanced at me from time to time, her eyes sharp and unblinking, made my skin crawl. She had been restless all week, whispering to her phone in dark corners, pacing her bedroom late at night. She was p

Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-09-25

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Chapter 29: Ashes of Softness

Sheila’s POVThe mansion was heavy with silence the morning after Vanessa’s collapse. The air felt stale, as if fear itself had sunk into the walls. Servants moved around stiffly, their whispers carrying sharp edges. Whenever I walked past, conversations broke off, eyes darting away from mine. To them, I was poison. The woman who might have killed the mistress of the house and her unborn child.I kept my head down and played the obedient maid, but inside I burned. I knew Vanessa had staged her performance. I had seen the smug glint in her eyes beneath her tears, the satisfaction in the way she pointed at me while bleeding on the floor. Yet knowing the truth and proving it were two very different things.Adrian avoided me that morning. He left early for the company, his face carved from stone. He had spoken only a few words to the butler, none to me. But I could feel him watching, even in his absence. His suspicion lingered like smoke after fire.I needed answers. I needed proof. Not j

Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-09-25

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Chapter 30: The Masked Flame

Sheila’s POVI iron my apron until the crease is exact. I arrange my hair until there is not a stray hair out of place. I practice the tilt of my head in the mirror, the small smile that suggests humility and no danger. He must see me as harmless. He must feel the protectiveness curl like a net toward me. That net is my tool.I move through the day as Rachel, the maid who does things quietly and well. I bring plates, I set off saucepans, I fold sheets with the patience of someone who knows how to hide sharpness in gentle hands. When Adrian is at the table, his presence is like a low pressure that rearranges the room. I keep my hands steady, keep my eyes on whatever I am doing. I answer when spoken to and step back when his gaze rests.He watches me now as I set the tea in front of him. His gaze lingers not in judgment but in a way that is almost personal. It is a small flicker and then he covers it with businesslike silence. I pour his cup and let my fingers graze the porcelain. I do

Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-09-25

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