Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 71 - Chapitre 80

Estelle’s POVI paid the taxi driver and my hands shook so badly that I dropped the first note and had to fumble for another one while he waited patiently, not meeting my eyes.It was nearly noon and the sun was absurdly bright and I felt like everyone on the street could see exactly where I’d been and what I’d done.I took the stairs instead of the lift, climbing slowly, trying to arrange my face into something that didn’t look like a woman who’d spent the night in a hotel room with her ex-husband.By the third floor I’d given up and just focused on breathing normally.My keys scraped against the lock twice before I got them in properly, and the moment the door swung open I heard running footsteps, fast and furious, pounding down the hallway toward me.Chloe appeared around the corner and her face was blotchy and swollen from crying, her eyes red-rimmed and furious, and she was already screaming before she reached me.“Where were you?!” she shrieked, her voice cracking on the last wor

Estelle’s POVThe shopping center was bright and loud and full of weekend crowds, and Chloe raced ahead of us immediately, pressing her nose against every window display we passed, shouting back commentary about sequined shoes and sparkly headbands.Daisy walked beside me and waited until Chloe was far enough ahead before she spoke, her voice low and careful. “So where were you last night?”I kept my eyes on Chloe’s back. “I made a mistake.”Daisy stopped walking and I had to stop too, turning reluctantly to face her. “What kind of mistake?” she asked quietly.I couldn’t meet her eyes. “The Harrison kind.”Daisy’s jaw dropped and she grabbed my arm. “Estelle, tell me you didn’t—”“I did,” I said flatly, still looking at the floor.A long silence stretched between us while shoppers streamed past on either side and Chloe’s excited chatter drifted back from three shops ahead.“Are you getting back together?” Daisy asked finally.“No,” I said immediately, firmly. “And we can’t. It was one

Lyndsey’s POVI stood exactly where Harrison had left me in the sitting room, my feet rooted to the carpet, his words ringing so loudly inside my skull that I couldn’t hear anything else.Black lace looks better on some people than others.The tears came fast and I couldn’t stop them, didn’t even try.He’d been with Estelle. He’d slept with Estelle.While I’d been standing in his bedroom wearing her old nightgown, trying desperately to be enough for him, he’d gone and found the real thing, and now he’d come home smiling and thrown it in my face like it was nothing!I sank onto the sofa and pressed both hands over my mouth, crying properly, my shoulders heaving, mascara running down my face in dark streaks I could feel on my fingers.“Oh for God’s sake, stop crying,” Claire said flatly from her armchair, not moving.I looked up at her through blurred vision. “He was with her. He slept with her!”“Obviously,” Claire said sharply.“What do we do?” I whispered desperately.Claire stood and

Karl’s POVI stood in front of the bathroom mirror and adjusted my tie for the fourth time, pulling it loose and retying it because my fingers wouldn’t cooperate. I finally gave up and left it slightly off-center, staring at my own face in the glass.I looked tired. I looked like a man who hadn’t slept properly in days, which I hadn’t, because every time I closed my eyes I saw Sarah’s drunk face telling me Estelle’s son didn’t die, that Claire took him, that Lucas was alive and Estelle had no idea.I should tell her tonight.But if I did, she’d go straight to Harrison, and they’d reunite over their shared children, and I’d be left standing in the wreckage of a fake marriage I’d been stupid enough to agree to and enjoy.I told myself I was protecting her from running back to the man who’d destroyed her life, but the lie tasted worse every time I repeated it and I knew, I knew deep down, that I was protecting myself.I grabbed my jacket off the bed and headed out.Estelle’s apartment doo

Lyndsey’s POVI paced the length of the living room for the eleventh time, my phone clutched in my hand even though nobody was calling.It was happening right now.The party Harrison had planned—the party he’d deliberately hidden from me and Claire, the party he’d told Lucas to keep secret.I’d been waiting all day for Harrison to call, to say there’d been a misunderstanding, of course I should come, but he hadn’t called and now it was eight-thirty and he was there, with her, and I was here.“He’s there with her right now,” I said bitterly, spinning on my heel to face Claire, who sat in her armchair reading as though the world weren’t falling apart. “At a party he planned. That we weren’t invited to.”“Yes,” Claire said, not looking up from her book.“Doesn’t that bother you?”Claire finally met my eyes over the top of the page. “Of course it bothers me. But standing here whining about it accomplishes nothing.”Her phone rang on the side table and she picked it up, glancing at the scre