All Chapters of Appealing To His Gaze : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

AIDEN POVBy the time I made it back to the house, my body was heavy in a way that had absolutely nothing to do with the trip. I went straight to my room, slamming the door shut much harder than I intended. I stripped out of my clothes, turned the shower on, and stood under the water until the temperature burned tension out of my shoulders. It didn't fix anything, but at least it shut my brain up for a few minutes. When I finally stepped out and dried off, I could already hear Stella's footsteps pacing downstairs, her voice carrying through the house in that stressed way she got whenever something didn't go her way.Before I had even gotten dressed, I knew what that meant. She wanted to vent and I was the only one here. pulled on clean clothes and walked down slowly. I already felt done before I reached the bottom step. Stella stood near the dining table, arms crossed tight, staring at the untouched plate she'd made for Devin. I could smell the food from here-something savory, heavy,

DEVIN POVDinner was a disaster before it had even begun, and the worst part was pretending that it wasn't. The whole place felt too warm, too crowded, too loud, even though it was just the four of us. Stella kept fussing with Marcus's sleeve like she had known him her whole life, and Marcus looked flattered in that annoyingly polite way he always did around people he wanted to impress. Aiden walked in behind them, quiet, stiff, that expression he wore when he was pretending to be unbothered but every inch of his body was screaming the opposite. I hated how easily I could read him. I hated how I kept looking. I hated that my stomach twisted every time his eyes passed over me.To spite him, I stuck closer to Stella than usual. I kept my hand on her waist when she reached for serving spoons. I kissed her cheek when she laughed too loudly. I made a show of whispering something in her ear, even though I didn't say anything at all. Childish, stupid, beneath me-yeah, I knew. I didn't care

DEVIN’S POV.My chest was already tight, like I'd been clenching my teeth in my sleep; my shoulders were stiff, my brain still replaying last night over and over, a bad recording that I couldn't seem to shut off. I expected Stella to be pissed, clingy, pushy, something-but she was weirdly calm. Too calm. She didn't try to climb into my lap, didn't hover around me, didn't demand a morning kiss. She just brushed her hair and put cream on and hummed and acted like we were two normal people starting a normal morning in a normal marriage, except every second felt like it was building toward something I didn't want to deal with.When we came downstairs, breakfast was already on the table. Aiden and Marcus were both there. Immediately, Stella brightened up — at least, greeted both of them like everything was fine, like she didn't notice how stiff Aiden sat, or that Marcus barely looked at him. She plopped herself down beside Marcus, launching into easy, light chatter, laughing at inside jokes

AIDEN'S POVThe conference room was already too bright when I walked in, and I hated how it put every line and strain on my face out in the open. Stella was sitting beside our father, smiling like she didn’t have a care in the world, and Devin’s father was sitting across from them with that usual stiff posture he carried everywhere. I stopped for a second at the door because I could already feel the tension crawling under my skin from last night. Marcus wasn’t beside me. He said he needed air, and I knew exactly what that meant-he was giving me space to act clean, responsible, level-headed. He used to complain I wasn’t back when we were younger, even though he had been the one dragging me into half the shit we did. I rubbed at my jaw because I hadn’t slept very well, and Stella was squinting at me like she already knew.“Sit down,” she said softly, pushing the empty chair beside her forward. “You look like hell.”"Thanks," I muttered and sat down.Father glanced at me briefly, like he

DEVIN'S POVI paced back and forth in the living room, trying to make sense of the phone call, trying to convince myself it was nothing. But it wasn't nothing. Not when every nerve in my body screamed that it was everything. I could feel the heat rising in my chest, my hands clenching into fists, my jaw tight. My mind ran in circles, but every circle ended with a single thought: she's still cheating. That's what this was. That's what she was doing. Who the hell did she think she was? Who was she calling? And why? And why the fuck now?“I can’t believe this,” I muttered mostly to myself. I rubbed my face with both hands, trying to breathe, but it didn’t help. I was strung so tight it felt like a wire inside me was snapping. Aiden sat with his arms crossed on his chest and eyes partially closed, which made him look like I was overreacting, and honestly, he was right as always. But I couldn’t stop it.“Chill,” he said flatly, “you’re losing your mind.”“Chill?” I almost screamed, throwin