《Forced to Marry my Sister’s Fiancée 》全部章節：第 71 章 - 第 80 章

ARIA’S POVIt felt useless sitting in the luxury when in reality, it wasn’t mine. Edrick still wasn’t mine. At least not the way I wanted him to be.I sat alone in the sitting room, my hands folded over my stomach, listening to the slow tick of the antique clock on the wall. Every second felt louder than the last. Night had already settled in, wrapping the Vale mansion in its usual cold silence, yet Edrick still hadn’t returned.Again.I told myself not to think too much about it. He was busy. He always was. But knowing that didn’t make the waiting any easier.“Maybe he’ll spend the night at the penthouse,” Hannah said casually as she walked in, placing a cup of tea on the table in front of me. “You know it’s closer to the office.”I clenched my jaw.Hannah, Edrick’s cousin, smiled the way she always did. Too polite. Too fake. Like she was doing me a favor just by existing in the same room. Like I should be grateful she was here. “It’s good for the baby,” she added, nudging the cup sl

EDRICK’S POVThe banging dragged me out of sleep like a hammer to the skull.For a moment, I couldn’t tell if the sound was real or just my head splitting open from whatever cheap alcohol I’d drowned myself in the night before. My temples throbbed. My mouth tasted bitter. My chest felt heavy, like I’d slept with a stone on it.Bang. Bang. Bang.I groaned and forced my eyes open.The ceiling above me was wrong.Too low. Too plain. No chandelier. No familiar lines. No scent of the Vale mansion. My heart skipped as awareness crept in, slow and cruel.This wasn’t my room.The banging continued, louder now, impatient, violent.I turned my head, and froze.She was standing a few feet away from the bed, wrapped in a thin robe, her hair loose and disheveled, her face pale with panic. For half a second, my mind betrayed me.Aria?No.No.Alina.“Fuck,” I breathed.Memories crashed into me all at once, sharp and unforgiving. The bar. The alcohol. The anger. The streetlights blurring as I had no

ALINA’S POV The cab finally stopped in front of a small hotel tucked between two aging buildings. The sign flickered like it was tired of trying. This will do, I told myself as I dragged my suitcase out, my arms sore, my spirit worse. I walked in, rain threatening behind me, and asked for the cheapest room they had. The receptionist didn’t even look annoyed. Just bored. “ID,” he said. I slid my card across the counter. He picked it up, glanced at it, then paused. His eyes flicked back to the screen in front of him. His jaw tightened. “I’m sorry,” he said, p

ALINA’S POVI still couldn’t believe she drove all the way to come pick me up. For real.I followed Lila without a word, my footsteps light, almost apologetic, like I was afraid the ground itself might reject me. Shame clung to my skin the same way the evening heat did, sticky, suffocating, impossible to shake off. Regret sat somewhere in my chest too, heavy and dull, but it wasn’t loud. Nothing inside me was loud anymore. Everything felt muted, colorless, joyless.Lila opened the passenger door for me, and I slipped into her car.The silence between us wasn’t awkward. It was careful. Respectful. Like we were both aware that anything said too quickly might shatter what little was holding me together. The car smelled expensive, leather, soft citrus, something floral underneath. I kept my hands folded tightly in my lap, staring out the window as the city blurred past.Streetlights. Tall buildings. Quiet roads.This wasn’t my part of town.When the car finally slowed, I looked up and my

ALINA’S POVIt had been three days since I started living with Lila, and strangely enough, the world hadn’t ended.If anything, it had softened, just a little.The apartment no longer felt like borrowed space. My suitcase sat neatly in the corner of the guest room, my clothes hung properly now, my shoes lined by the door like they belonged there. I still woke up every morning half-expecting someone to knock, to tell me it was time to leave, that I had overstayed my welcome. But no one did. Lila never rushed me. Never asked questions I wasn’t ready to answer.She was… nice. Genuinely so.And somehow, against all odds, I’d found a job.A bar job, of all things.If someone had told me a week ago that I’d be working behind a bar, taking orders and wiping counters, I would’ve laughed bitterly. But the bar was small, tucked between two buildings not far from Lila’s place. The owner didn’t ask too many questions, just glanced at my résumé, looked at my face like he recognized it but decided