Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 71 - Chapitre 73

Susan Wade had always believed pain announced itself. That it arrived with screams, with breaking glass, with bodies collapsing under the revelation. She had not expected it to come quietly, wrapped in a name typed neatly on a private investigator’s report.Emilia Cole.The name sat inside her like a stabbed blade.Susan stood alone in her bedroom, the door locked and the curtains drawn despite the late morning sun. The house buzzed faintly outside, with whispers and footsteps and the aftershocks of chaos, but in here, everything was still. She clenched her fists.Emilia Cole. That bitch! She gritted her teeth.She had read the name a hundred times since dawn, hoping it would blur into meaninglessness, hoping exhaustion would turn it into ink without memory. But it only grew heavier and more realistic. A wound that refused to close.Susan inhaled deeply, her chest tightening as something old and ugly clawed its way back to life.Not her, anyone but her.She squeezed her eyes shut, as

Rosa sat in Alexander's study staring at nothing.Old photos of her mother were edited into grotesque collages online, demeaning her dignity. Anonymous accounts dissected her smiles, her posture, the way she leaned into Alexander in public. Everything became evidence. Everything became ugly. Even a little raise of a brow on why the clouds were about to rain, seemed to be some suspicious movement.“Maybe she's thinking of how to twist him further.”Only a few, though, sympathized with her.“Her mother was a mistress. Yeah, and so what? Isn't she human?”“Most of us judging her, have done worse.”“If she's a gold digger, I don't blame her. I would do the same if I were in her shoes.”“Honey, life can be hard, okay? Leave Rosa the hell alone!”“How are we sure this news is even true?”And just these few words, were able to give Rosa hope.She sat in the study, the curtains drawn, the room dim despite the day outside. The study smelled faintly of leather and old books. She had chosen it