Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 71 - Chapitre 80

I opened my eyes to blinding daylight. Stas’s apartment was incredibly bright — almost painfully so. I reached for my glasses on the nightstand and glanced around. My phone lay beside me on the bed, untouched. Not a single call. Not a single message.My fingers instinctively brushed over the snow-white bandages wrapped around my arm, and my heart tightened. If I had learned the truth sooner, would it have made any difference? Probably not.I dialed my father’s number and, after a few rings, heard his voice.“Nadya, is everything okay?”“Dad, how’s Mom?”“Sweetheart, it hasn’t been long enough for anything to change. You need to be patient. She’s at the hospital receiving the treatment she needs. If there’s any update, I’ll call you immediately.”“I want to see her.”He drew in a slow breath before answering.“Tomorrow we’ll go together. All right? And today, try to rest. I brought some of your things while you were asleep, so you don’t have to go back home. Sometimes a change of scene

All this time, I had been nothing more than livestock fattened for slaughter. A pawn in the Darvin brothers’ twisted game — and it looked like Stas had won this round. Now their behavior finally made sense. Fate couldn’t have dealt a crueler blow. After what happened with Mom, I would have dragged myself through life for a long time, but this revelation knocked the air out of me and sent the ground crumbling beneath my feet.“How is this even possible?” I sobbed, fresh tears spilling over.“If I were you, I’d get as far away from those two as I could,” Sergey said evenly. “Do you really think marrying someone under circumstances like these will make you happy?”I handed the papers back to him and said quietly, “Please pull over.”True to his word, Sergey dropped me off on a crowded street. The moment I was alone with my shattered heart, I broke down, sobbing uncontrollably. I only managed to pull myself together when a cyclist nearly slammed into me.No. This can’t be how it ends betw

The whole world had been swallowed by darkness, with no way out. I opened my eyes only to be met with an impenetrable night — cold, merciless, endless. It was the true ending of the beautiful fairy tale I had created for myself. I had crafted the perfect image of a family and believed in it with all my heart, yet reality had been entirely different. I had imagined love and a future with a man, but there too, reality proved painfully far from my dreams. Perhaps this was life’s way of punishing me — by taking my sight. After all, I had never truly seen anything clearly before…A quiet knock sounded at the hospital room door.“Go away!” I shouted, certain it was Stas again.He was the last person I wanted to hear right now. Our relationship was over, and even if there had once been the faintest, most fragile chance that he truly loved me, nothing could exist between us anymore. I was disabled now. In the worst case, for the rest of my life. Why would he want someone like me? There were s

Five Months Later“Maybe we shouldn’t,” I groaned again as Stas’s hands brushed over my breasts. “I still can’t see anything, after all.”The delicate fabric stretched, lifting and shaping the two soft curves before being fastened tightly at my back.“We absolutely should. I can see everything,” Stas replied evenly. “Nadya, your surgery date has already been scheduled, but that doesn’t mean we should keep putting this off. The dress is practically bursting at the seams. Besides, you already said yes.”“But why a dress? It’s uncomfortable, and there won’t even be that many guests.”I exhaled as the laces tightened against my spine.“That’s enough. Any tighter and I won’t be able to breathe.” Stas turned me toward him and kissed me, smearing what I could only assume was an overly generous coat of lipstick in some shade I couldn’t even begin to imagine. “There will be plenty of guests. Even your former boss showed up with colleagues, despite everything.”“Yes, and yet my friend didn’t. M

UNLOVED VLAD AND NINA'S STORY The snow-white dress clung to my body like a second skin. I smoothed imaginary creases from the fabric and finally allowed myself to smile. Beneath the thick layer of makeup that softened my features and lent them an almost regal femininity, I could no longer see the naïve little girl I used to be. It felt as though, in a single instant, someone had switched off all childish laughter and mischief and thrust me headfirst into adulthood.Now I was a bride.Just a few weeks ago, I had been ready to howl like a wounded wolf, cursing my cruel fate and the injustice of it all. But now, somewhere deep inside, my heart felt strangely light. Could it be that my hatred for Max was finally beginning to fade? It had grown easier to breathe around him, easier to speak, to meet his gaze… Perhaps, in time, I might even grow used to him, and these five years of a forced marriage would pass before I even realized it.“Nina, are you ready?” Mom asked, peeking into the ro