All Chapters of 365 DAYS AS HIS WIFE: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

48 Chapters

HIS RIVAL'S CHILD.

**CHAPTER 021**"Mr. Cross, what... what is going on?" Thomas said as he struggled. "Who are these men? Mr. Cross—""I said take him away," Mr. Cross yelled.This was the first time I'd ever seen him raise his voice.Thomas struggled but both officers had him by the arms. He twisted between them, pulling, his composure finally and completely gone, the performance stripped away and whatever was underneath it spilling out loud and desperate."Mr. Cross — sir, please... please just listen to me, please—" His voice cracked on the last word, head turning back toward Michael even as the officers moved him toward the door. "I love her. I genuinely love her. Whatever you think happened in that room is not what it was. I would never hurt her, I swear to you I would never — she's been with me longer than you know—"Michael said nothing.Just stood there with his hands at his sides and that flat controlled expression and let Thomas talk."She means everything to me, sir, please—" Thomas's feet d

WILL WATCH ME SET MYSELF ON FIRE.

**CHAPTER 022***CASSIAN'S POV*The room was completely silent.My mother stood in front of me with that look on her face — the one that had been making me confess things since I was seven years old — and I knew there was no version of this conversation where I walked away without spilling the truth.I exhaled slowly."It's Isolde, Mom," I said. "Rosa's twin sister. The person on that bed is not Rosa."My mother stared at me.Then she let out a sound. Short. Sharp. Something between a laugh and a scoff that came from somewhere deep in her chest."I knew it," she said quietly. Then louder — "I KNEW it, Cassian."She turned away from me and pressed both hands flat on the dresser, head dropping slightly, and for a moment she just stood there. Breathing. Processing. And I watched her shoulders rise and fall and knew — the way you always know with her — that the quiet was not peace. The quiet was the thing that came right before everything that wasn't quiet.She turned back around."I push

WAS SHE YOUR WIFE?

**CHAPTER 023**I stared at him.*How,* I thought. *How does he even — how did he—*"I knew," he said, cutting me off. "I knew from the very beginning who you were.""You knew?" The words came out barely above a whisper. "From the beginning you knew who I was?"Michael looked at me steadily. "From the very first day."I opened my mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. "How?""The moment I brought you to the hospital I had someone run a search on you," he said, his voice matter-of-fact, like this was the most ordinary thing in the world. "I couldn't find much about your background or your story but I found enough. I found out you were married to Cassian Weldon."The name landed in the room like something dropped from a height.I pressed my lips together. "Cassian," I repeated."He duped me in a business deal two years ago," Michael said simply. "So yes. I know exactly who Cassian Weldon is."I stared at him. *Of course,* I thought distantly. *Of course the man who hit me with his car and b

SHE WASN'T MY WIFE.

CHAPTER 024“She wasn’t my wife,” he said.I stared at him.He still hadn’t turned around. Still standing in the doorway, hands in his pockets, back to me like the door was already more interesting than anything I had left to say.“She wasn’t your wife,” I repeated slowly. “Then who was she?”The silence was starting to get on my nerves, so I pushed.“Mr. Cross.” I shifted forward slightly on the bed. “If she wasn’t your wife, then who— I’m just curious. I’m not trying to pry. I just want to understand—”“Rosa.”“Please.” The word came out smaller than I intended. “Please just tell me. I won’t bring it up again after this, I promise, just—”He turned around.And whatever was left of my sentence died completely.Not anger. Not the red-edged fury from the study. Something quieter than that and somehow much harder to look at—something that had been pressed down for a very long time under a very great weight and did not appreciate being disturbed.“Listen to me carefully,” he said, his vo

RISE AND SHINE.

**CHAPTER 025**I woke up before my alarm.That never happened.I lay there for a moment, blinking at the ceiling, waiting for the familiar heavy feeling that usually came with mornings—the weight of everything that needed to be processed before I could properly function. But it wasn’t there. My head was clear. My body felt rested in a way it hadn’t in days.Hmm, I thought.I sat up slowly, half expecting something to hurt, but nothing did. I pressed both hands over my stomach the way I always did first thing—checking, confirming, reassuring myself and whoever was in there that we were still okay.Still okay.I got up, went into the bathroom, and showered.When I came out, the room was still quiet and golden with early light coming through the curtains, and I moved through it feeling almost normal, which was strange enough that I noticed it. I pulled out clothes from the wardrobe—Michael’s wardrobe full of Michael’s choices, all perfectly coordinated and colour-sorted—and got dressed

ROSA IS COMING BACK?

**CHAPTER 026**I stood in the doorway and stared at him.“What… what are you doing… what are you doing in my room?” I asked.He uncrossed his legs. “Waiting for you.”“Why?”“Because you weren’t here when I came.” He said it simply, like that answered everything. Like showing up in someone’s bedroom and sitting on their bed while they were gone was a perfectly normal sequence of events that required no further explanation.I walked in slowly and closed the door behind me. “Mr. Cross, why are you actually in my room?”He stood up, straightening his jacket. “I’m not going to work today.”I blinked. “What?… why?”“I’m staying, and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it.” He looked at me directly. “Plus… what I said to you yesterday—the way I spoke to you—that was out of line. I’m making it up to you today.”I stared at him.Michael Cross… the Michael Cross… wants to make it up to me…He literally wants to make it up to me.What the hell was wrong with this man? He literally chan

MRS WELDON?

**CHAPTER 027**"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I repeated, because he still hadn't answered.Michael looked at me over the mask. "Protecting my privacy.""By looking like you're about to rob someone?""I look like a private individual.""You look like a private individual who's having a crisis." I gestured at the full ensemble — mask pulled up to his nose, cap yanked down to his eyebrows, dark expensive suit that cost probably more than most people's cars. "Mr. Cross, you are a billionaire in a surgical mask at a public park. You are not blending in. You are the opposite of blending in. People are going to film you for being….you know…this weird.""Let them.""They're going to put you on the internet.""I don't use the internet."I stared at him. "That's not — ugh.. that's not how the internet works. You not using it doesn't mean—" I stopped. Pressed my lips together. Took a breath. "Fine. Keep the mask. But if someone films you and it trends I want it on record that I tol

I AM.

CHAPTER 028Mrs. Weldon stood on the path about four feet away.Cream coat. Handbag on her arm. Hair pinned up just so, not a thing out of place, the same perfectly composed exterior she always carried — except her eyes. Her eyes were doing something I had never once seen them do in all the months I'd spent under her roof.They were desperate. Wet at the edges. Fixed on my face like she'd been looking for it for a very long time and had only just found it.Something moved through my chest before I could stop it. Something warm and involuntary that bypassed every wall I'd built since walking out of that mansion and went straight for the part of me that remembered her sitting across from me at breakfast when no one else would. The way she'd touched my shoulder once after a particularly bad dinner. The small, quiet kindnesses she'd offered in a house that had very few of them."Mrs. Weldon," I said, and my voice came out softer than I intended.She exhaled. Long and slow, like she'd been

AND... I LOVE HIM.

CHAPTER 029 "I am." The voice came from directly behind me, and I turned so fast I nearly dropped both bags of popcorn. Michael. He'd come back. Wallet in hand, mask still at half-mast, cap still pulled down, walking toward us with that measured, deliberate stride that didn't change regardless of the situation — and his eyes were fixed on Mrs. Weldon with an expression I couldn't read from this angle but that made her take one very small, involuntary step backward. He stopped beside me. Right beside me. And then — before my brain could process what was happening or issue any kind of warning or prepare me in any way whatsoever — his arm came around my waist. Firm. Warm. Settled there like it belonged, like this was something he did regularly, like wrapping his arm around me in the middle of a public park in front of my ex-mother-in-law was a completely normal Tuesday — Wednesday — activity for him. Oh… oh my God. I stopped breathing. Not dramatically. Just quietly.

AND BY THEN— IT'LL BE TOO LATE.

***CHAPTER 030*** I almost said no. The word was right there, sitting at the front of my mouth, ready — because I'd seen what happened the last time I asked about that woman. I'd seen his face close like a door being shut from the inside, and I was not entirely sure I wanted to be responsible for putting that look on his face a second time. But my mouth opened anyway. "Are you sure?" I said. "Because if it's going to hurt you — if it's something you're not ready to talk about — you really don't have to. I'm not asking you to—" "Do you want to know or not," he said. Not unkind. Just direct. The way he said most things. I pressed my lips together. "Yes," I said quietly. "I want to know." He stayed at the door. Didn't come in. Didn't move closer. Just stood there with one hand still resting on the door frame and looked at me with those steady hazel eyes and said nothing for a moment. I waited. "Her name was Sarah," he said. Something in the room shifted. Just slightly. Like t

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