جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 30

Elara didn’t sleep. She lay on her side, facing the window, watching the city lights flicker like distant stars cold, unreachable. Adrian’s presence lingered in the penthouse even though he wasn’t in the room. His scent. His silence. The door she had closed between them felt heavier than steel.Just the pretend wife, she reminded herself.The words cut deeper now.Her phone lay face down on the bedside table. She refused to recheck it. Lydia’s message had already done enough damage. History had weight. And Lydia carried it like a weapon.The soft click of a door echoed down the hall.Elara’s breath stilled.Footsteps approached slowly, deliberately. Adrian stopped outside her door.For a moment, nothing happened.Then a quiet knock.“Elara.”Her chest tightened painfully. She closed her eyes.No answer.“Elara,” he said again, lower this time. “Please.”She sat up, fingers curling into the sheets. She hated how easily that one word unraveled her resolve.She opened the door but only a

The silence after Adrian’s declaration did not last.It never did.It fractured instead splitting into whispers, sharp glances, polite smiles stretched too thin to be real. Elara felt it immediately, the subtle shift in the room’s temperature. Power had been declared, but power always came with consequences.She felt them closing in.As Adrian’s hand remained firmly around hers, Elara became aware of how many eyes followed every step she took. Not admiration. Assessment. Calculation.Some people smiled at her more warmly now.Others didn’t bother hiding their displeasure.“So it’s official,” a woman near the champagne table murmured to her companion, not quite softly enough. “He finally chose.”Elara pretended not to hear.Adrian leaned down slightly. “Do you want to leave?”She shook her head. “No.”He studied her face. “You don’t have to prove anything.”“I know,” she replied quietly. “But I won’t retreat either.”That earned her a long look one filled with something new. Respect.A

I learned something important that night.Power doesn’t announce itself loudly.It whispers into boardrooms, into social circles, into the quiet spaces where decisions are made without you in the room.I lay awake long after Adrian left for his study. The penthouse felt too large, too quiet, as if the walls themselves were listening. I replayed everything in my head not just the evening, but the looks, the pauses, the way people had recalibrated the moment Adrian called me his wife.Reputational instability.That was what they called me.Not a scandal. Not a threat. Just… instability. Something untested. Something that could wobble the carefully built empire if left unchecked.I pressed my palm against my chest and forced myself to breathe.I wasn’t naïve. I knew marrying a man like Adrian meant stepping into a world that measured people by legacy, bloodlines, and usefulness. But knowing it and feeling it were two very different things.By morning, the penthouse buzzed with quiet urge

I didn’t know how Adrian planned to “address it.”I only knew that the city felt different that morning like something was about to tip.The rain from the night before had washed the streets clean, leaving everything sharp and exposed. I stood by the window with a cup of untouched tea, watching the cars below move with purpose. Somewhere in one of those cars, decisions were being made that would affect me without my consent.That was the part I was done with.Adrian didn’t ask me to attend the luncheon.That alone told me it wasn’t going on to be quiet.“I’ll be back by evening,” he said, fastening his cufflinks. His voice was calm, but there was an edge beneath it. “Whatever happens today remember this wasn’t a reaction.”I met his gaze. “Then what is it?”“A correction.”The word stayed with me long after he left.I spent the morning at the florist shop again not because I needed distraction, but because I needed grounding. Familiar work. Familiar rhythm. The shop was quiet, the kin

Pressure doesn’t announce itself.It doesn’t slam doors or raise voices. It settles quietly, like a hand on your back, nudging you in a direction you didn’t choose hoping you’ll move before you realize you’re being pushed.By morning, I felt it everywhere.The florist shop opened later than usual because the delivery truck never came. I stood by the empty display fridge, arms folded, staring at spaces where roses and lilies should have been.“This isn’t coincidence,” I murmured to myself.The supplier’s email had been polite. Regretful. Temporary disruption.Temporary was becoming a pattern.I worked with what I had, rearranging older stock, focusing on smaller arrangements. Customers still came in, but their curiosity lingered longer than before. Some asked harmless questions. Others didn’t ask anything at all they just looked at me differently.As if marriage had rewritten who I was allowed to be.Around noon, my phone buzzed.Adrian.Board meeting ran long. Don’t leave the shop alo