Lahat ng Kabanata ng Married Twice, Loved Once : Kabanata 161 - Kabanata 170

8:00 PM. The Carter Mansion.The living room of the Carter estate was usually a place of quiet, old-money dignity. Tonight, it felt like a cage.Mr. Carter poured himself a brandy, his hand shaking slightly as the crystal decanter clinked against the glass. He turned to face his wife, who was pacing the Persian rug, her hands clasped so tightly together her knuckles were white.“Elizabeth, please,” Richard said, his voice weary. “I just got off the phone with her. She sounded devastated. You can’t just lock the CEO of the company out of the ICU. Think about how it looks.”Mrs. Carter stopped pacing. She whipped around, her eyes blazing with a ferocity Richard hadn’t seen in twenty years.“I don’t care how it looks, Richard!” she snapped. “I don’t want to hear what you are saying. All I know is that Aria stays away from my daughter.”Richard set his glass down hard. “She is your daughter too, Elizabeth! Why are you doing this? This is not the time for all this drama. We are in the midd

The Next Day. Carter Mansion.Vivienne’s return home was treated like a miracle that needed witnesses.White tents bloomed across the garden. Fairy lights were strung too carefully. Music floated through the air soft, celebratory, almost forced. Staff moved in synchronized panic, carrying trays of champagne and finger food no one was really tasting.Vivienne sat near the center of it all, dressed in pale blue, a silk shawl draped over her shoulders. She smiled when people spoke to her. She nodded. She thanked them.But her eyes were hollow. Like someone still trying to remember how she’d survived.Elizabeth did not leave her side.“She shouldn’t even be sitting this long,” Elizabeth murmured sharply to a maid. “Get her some water. No warm tea. And where is Richard?”“Right here,” Richard said, appearing with a tight smile.The guests laughed. Cameras flashed. Sympathy was loud tonight.Then Aria arrived.She didn’t make an entrance. She didn’t need to.The room adjusted around her.Sh

Carter Mansion. Late Afternoon.The Carter mansion was unusually quiet when Aria arrived too quiet, like a house holding its breath.She stepped inside with several branded gift bags swinging lightly from her wrist.“Hi, familia!” Aria called out brightly, her voice echoing through the marble hall.A maid hurried in from the corridor, bowing slightly.“Good afternoon, ma’am.”Aria smiled. “Good afternoon. Where is everyone?”“Madam Elizabeth stepped out with Mr. Carter,” the maid replied. “Miss Vivienne is upstairs.”“Oh,” Aria said lightly. “Alright then.”She walked into the living room and settled comfortably onto the couch, crossing her legs like she owned the space which, technically, she now did.“Get me a glass of juice,” she added casually.“Yes, ma’am.”Two minutes later, the maid returned with a chilled glass. Aria took a slow sip, scrolling absently on her phone.Footsteps sounded on the staircase.Aria looked up.Vivienne stood at the top, one hand resting lightly on the r

1:30 PM. The Carter Mansion.Vivienne walked through the front door, the rustle of shopping bags announcing her arrival. She didn’t stumble. She didn’t look exhausted. She walked with a strange, buzzing energy.Elizabeth was waiting in the foyer, her hands twisted anxiously in her lap. She stood up the moment she saw her daughter.“Vivienne? Are you okay? Did she hurt you?”Vivienne dropped the bags on the floor. She took off her sunglasses, revealing eyes that were bright, alert, and terrifyingly clear.“She tried,” Vivienne said, a small, dark smile playing on her lips. “She drove like a maniac over the bridge. She tried to make me scream. She tried to make me remember.”Elizabeth gasped, rushing forward to check Vivienne for injuries. “Oh my God. I knew it. I shouldn’t have let you go. Is she insane?”“No,” Vivienne said, stepping back from her mother’s fussing hands. “She’s scared.”She walked into the living room and poured herself a glass of water, her movements precise.“She bo

8:45 PM. The Penthouse.Aria stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, looking out at the skyline. From this height, the city looked like a circuit board of gold and amber. Far in the distance, the lights of the Link Bridge cut through the darkness like a suspended blade.She held a glass of Pinot Grigio, but she hadn’t taken a sip in twenty minutes. The condensation dripped cold onto her fingers, but she didn’t wipe it off.She was back in the car.“I like the wind. It feels like flying.”The words looped in her mind, over and over.It wasn’t just what Vivienne said. It was the biological impossibility of it.Aria knew fear. She knew the smell of it, the twitch of it. When they were children, Vivienne used to scream if a cockroach scurried across the floor. When they were teenagers, Vivienne refused to watch horror movies because they gave her nightmares.And today? Aria had driven like a madwoman on the very site of Vivienne's near-death experience.And Vivienne had just… smiled.It was