Semua Bab Rejected Bride, Billionaire's Wife: Bab 41 - Bab 44

It's been two days after the gala, the mansion felt like a living thing with a pulse I could hear but not locate. Every hallway hummed with an awareness I couldn’t shake, a kind of watchful silence that pressed against my skin.Maybe it was the aftershock of the night, of Alexander’s eyes on me, of Audrey’s pointed questions, of Isabella’s simmering glare whenever she thought I wasn’t looking.Or maybe it was simply the feeling that something had shifted, delicately but unmistakably, between Alexander and me.I’d been replaying moments in my mind:his hand steady at my waist,the way he pulled me closer when another man approached,the softness — softness, of all things — in his voice when he asked if I was tired.Two days later, the memory still left my chest tight.But that wasn’t the only thing weighing on me.Because Isabella had grown quieter.And in this house, Isabella’s silence was far more dangerous than her insults.I found myself sitting on the veranda with a book I wasn’t

I returned to the mansion just after dusk.The sky was a deep bruised blue, the kind that made everything feel heavier than it should. I thought I’d have a few quiet minutes to myself, time to breathe, to let Audrey’s words settle, to remind myself that I still existed outside contracts and expectations.I was wrong.Alexander was waiting in the living room.He was standing when I stepped inside the living room..His jacket was off, sleeves rolled up, phone in his hand like he’d set it down and picked it up a dozen times already. He looked composed, but I knew better by now. That stillness meant control, the kind he used when something had irritated him deeply.His eyes lifted the moment I stepped inside.“Where were you?”I stopped just past the doorway, my bag still on my shoulder.“I went out,” I said evenly.“I noticed,” he replied. “You left without informing anyone. Without informing me.”The emphasis wasn’t loud. It didn’t need to be.It carried weight.I took a breath, refusi