Semua Bab His Dead Wife: No Longer the Surrogate Bride: Bab 101 - Bab 110

Dominic smelled blood before he saw it.Not the sharp, metallic tang of fresh violence. What he smelled was older, darker, soaked into fabric and skin.Hospital antiseptic clung to it, trying and failing to erase what had already happened.Althea was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking out the window when he entered the room. She was not lying down as what he was expecting.That alone told him everything.Her shoulders are squared as she sat straight, like she was bracing against impact that had already come and might still be coming. Her hands were folded in her lap. Her face, with a bandage wrapped around her head since the stitch she did on herself after the attack at the Devereaux property split open, looks pale, almost translucent under the lights.But her eyes.They look steady.Too steady.Dominic stopped just inside the doorway.For a split second, the room tilted.This was the moment his mind had been circling since the call. The moment where the damage finally resolved i

Blackstone did not announce itself.There were no wrought-iron gates swinging open, no guards in visible formation, or any ceremonial welcome. The road simply narrowed, trees closing in like a held breath, asphalt giving way to gravel that crunched softly beneath the tires.Dominic, using his own car, drove without headlights for the last stretch, letting muscle memory guide him through turns he knew even in the dark.Althea stirred beside him.She’s not fully awake but just enough to register motion, pain, and the low hum of the engine. Her breath caught shallowly when the car slowed, fingers twitching against the seat.“Hey.” Dominic said quietly, one hand leaving the wheel to cover hers in assurance. “Easy.”Her eyes opened, unfocused at first. Then recognition settled in and with it, tension. She turned towards him with a look of confusion.“This isn’t…” She murmured, voice rough.“No, Althea.” He said, nodding. “It isn’t.”The car rolled to a stop.Dominic turned off the engine a

Michael arrived an hour later.There were no sirens or the gates being flung open. Just a white vehicle rolling into the drive and stopping exactly where Dominic had once been taught a car should stop that is visible but not exposed.Dominic was already outside when the door opened. He stood beneath the portico, coat unbuttoned, posture still as stone. Althea was just behind him, wrapped in a dark shawl, her face pale but resolute.Michael stepped out first, moving carefully, favoring his left side just slightly. Not enough for weakness but enough for truth to know that he is still recovering. He stopped as his father went out from the other side of the car.“You shouldn’t be moving yet.” Dominic said flatly.“So, you’re a doctor now as well?” Michael asked as he smiled faintly. “You sound like Althea.”Dominic glared at him tiredly.“And you sound like someone who ignores doctors.”“I ignore time.” Michael corrected as he opened the back door. “Doctors I listen to. Selectively. But s

Luca Valtieri did not react.Reaction was for men who had already lost ground.He stood alone in the upper study, the same room where three generations of Valtieri decisions had been made without witnesses, without records, without mercy. The afternoon light slanted through the tall windows, illuminating dust motes that drifted like time itself that is slow, indifferent, eternal.The walls were lined with portraits of Valtieri men.Fathers. Uncles. Cousins.Men who had built empires with nothing but a name and a willingness to make others fear it.Empires they had built and defended.Empires that they also buried.Luca’s gaze moved across them one by one.Then to the empty space where Dominic’s portrait would have eventually been placed.Absence, he knew, was louder than presence.Dominic’s absence did not disturb him.His defiance did.Blackstone had not been meant to matter this much.Don Riccardo Valtieri, their father, had allowed it to exist because it had been Alessandro’s indul

“Nico, your tutor is here.” Althea informed softly when one of the Blackstone’s staff let them know that Michael has arrived. “We can continue your talk about dinosaurs over lunch.”Nicholas had been reluctant to leave the breakfast table, still clutching a small plastic stegosaurus in one hand while the tutor waited patiently by the door.“I’ll walk with you to the study room.” She then added, seeing Nichola’s hesitant face. “Or we can tell your teacher that he can also talk about which dinosaur he likes.”That seemed to perk the boy and he finally nodded. He finally went down from his chair and raced around the table to give Dominic a hug with a lingering squeeze that felt far more deliberate than it had any right to be.He then went back to Althea and clasped her hand, looking up at the tutor with a smile.“What dinosaur do you like?!” Nicholas then asked enthusiastically.Dominic watched them walked away, his son chattering nonstop before turning to Michael and nodded. He led them