Chapter 131

Chapter 131Dante looked at him for a long moment. He was doing the assessment—the same one he always ran when a situation presented itself that had multiple possible meanings and required him to identify which one was actually operating before he responded to it.Jayce's expression was even. Not pleading, not pressuring, not performing the careful manipulation of someone who'd decided what they wanted and was working backward from the outcome. He looked like someone who'd made a decision and arrived at its natural consequence, which was standing on a sidewalk on a Thursday morning offering a car to the park."This is a bad idea," Dante said."Probably," Jayce agreed."I'm with Ravyn," Dante said. "That hasn't changed.""I know," Jayce said."And I told you—""You told me," Jayce said. "I heard you. I'm not here to undo what you said. I'm here because I was driving past and I thought—" He stopped. Started again. "I thought maybe one morning at the park was something I could have. With

最終更新日 : 2026-05-17

Chapter 132

Chapter 132They surrendered the car to the valet, which Rhysand watched with the careful attention of someone cataloging a new phenomenon, and made their way into the gardens through the main entrance.Rhysand's pace changed as soon as they were through the gate. He moved with the particular energy of a child encountering more stimulation than expected and trying to process it systematically—head moving in small deliberate arcs, eyes tracking from the fountain to the play structure to the rose garden to the group of children visible in the distance on the grass, running some internal priority algorithm.The play structure won."Can I?" he said, looking at Dante."Stay where I can see you," Dante said. "If you go into the tunnel section, come back out in three minutes. You know the rules.""I know the rules," Rhysand confirmed, with the gravity of someone acknowledging a serious compact, and then immediately navigated toward the play structure at a pace that was technically still walk

最終更新日 : 2026-05-17

Chapter 133

Chapter 133"I know," Jayce said, with what sounded very much like apology and also very much like the absence of any intention to change."I'm going to need my hand back at some point," Dante said. "When he comes over.""Understood," Jayce said. "I'll take what I'm given."Dante looked at the playground again, at Rhysand making his decision about the slide, and did not say the several things he could have said—about what this meant or didn't mean, about the fact that Ravyn would be back tonight and this would be one more thing he was managing carefully around the edges of their honesty, about the fact that Jayce's hand was warm and real in exactly the way that made it harder rather than easier to be clear about what wasn't possible.He said none of it.He stood at the edge of Meridian Gardens on a Thursday morning and watched his son play, and held a hand he wasn't supposed to be holding, and thought about compartments that didn't hold.---Rhysand had been on every element of the pla

最終更新日 : 2026-05-17

Chapter 134

Chapter 134They'd been talking for approximately eight minutes—which was long by the standards of their ages, but the topic was sustaining—when they heard voices from the tunnel entrance. Other children, by the sound, arriving with the specific energy of a group that traveled together.Three children emerged around the turn behind Rhysian. They were slightly older—seven, maybe eight—and they moved with the easy authority of kids who knew this space well, who came here regularly enough that Meridian Gardens was their territory rather than new ground.They stopped when they saw Rhysian."Rhysian!" said the first one, a girl with elaborate braids and the confident energy of someone accustomed to being the social organizer of any group she was part of. "There you are. We were looking for you.""I was talking," Rhysian said, with the simple directness of someone who didn't feel the need to apologize for this.The girl looked at Rhysand with the frank assessment of a child who was evaluati

最終更新日 : 2026-05-17

Chapter 135

Chapter 135On the bench at the edge of the playground, Dante had finally retrieved his hand when Rhysand emerged from the tunnel.He watched his son navigate out of the structure and walk—purposefully, in a direction that was not back toward the bench—with a small group of children that included one he didn't recognize. The unfamiliar child was roughly Rhysand's age and was wearing, Dante noticed, a cap and a mask of the same type as Rhysand's, and was walking beside him with the easy physical proximity of someone who'd already established a degree of comfort.Dante stood, reflexively, the way he always stood when Rhysand's direction changed unexpectedly."He's okay," Jayce said, also watching. "They're going toward the garden section. There's staff there—" He indicated the uniformed figures visible at the garden's edge. "It's fenced. One entrance."Dante assessed this and found it accurate and settled fractionally back without fully sitting down."Who's the other kid?" he asked."Do

最終更新日 : 2026-05-17

The Secret Billionaire Heiress Strikes Back のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 131 - チャプター 135

Chapter 131

Chapter 132

Chapter 133

Chapter 134

Chapter 135