All Chapters of 365 DAYS AS HIS WIFE: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

48 Chapters

YOU GOT MY SISTER PREGNANT?

**CHAPTER 31****CASSIAN'S POV**—7 MONTHS LATER—"I'm sorry, Mrs. Weldon."The doctor's voice was gentle. The kind of gentle that people used when they already knew the words coming next were going to land hard, and they wanted to at least cushion the fall a little."The reports are very clear." She set the folder down on the desk in front of her and folded her hands over it. "You're barren, Mrs. Weldon. I'm so sorry."The room went completely still.It was the kind of still that had nothing to do with quiet—because the room wasn't quiet; the air conditioning was humming, someone in the hallway outside was walking past with shoes that clicked against the tile, a phone was ringing somewhere down the corridor—but none of that registered. None of it existed. The only thing that existed was the word the doctor had just put down on the table between them like something that couldn't be taken back.*Barren.*I watched Isolde's face.I couldn't help it. I was sitting two seats to her left,

WHAT IF MY MOTHER WAS RIGHT?

**CHAPTER 032**I stared at her.The words wouldn't come out.*Doctor, what the hell are you saying.* I turned it over in my head, trying to make it make sense, trying to find the part where it became logical and landed properly. *How the hell would Rosa be pregnant. I never — I always used protection. Every single time. So how—*A sound from behind me.Small. Quiet. Suspiciously close to laughter.I turned.My mother sat with both hands folded in her lap and her expression perfectly composed — except for the very corner of her lips, where a smirk was sitting that she was making absolutely zero effort to hide."Except," she said pleasantly, "maybe someone forgot to use protection once." She tilted her head slightly. "Cassian. You used to come home drunk. Regularly. So there is a very real possibility that on one of those nights you were not quite as careful as you thought you were." She paused, letting that sit. Then she waved a hand. "But that's by the way." Another pause. A shorter

ONE ONE KNEE.

**CHAPTER 033****ROSA'S POV**Seven months.I lay on the examination table and stared at the ceiling and thought about that. Seven months since I'd walked through Michael Cross's front door. Seven months since I'd stood in his kitchen in my pajamas holding a cup of coffee like an offering and been told it was acceptable.Seven months.How, I thought, is that possible."Everything looks perfect," the doctor said, moving the ultrasound wand slowly across my stomach. The screen beside her showed the familiar shape — that small curved outline that never got less extraordinary no matter how many times I saw it. "She's a good size. Strong heartbeat. You've been taking care of yourself.""I've been taken care of," I said, which was more accurate.The doctor smiled. "It shows."I looked back at the ceiling.Seven months of Marie appearing at my door every morning with food I hadn't asked for. Seven months of a wardrobe that kept quietly expanding with things that fit a growing stomach withou

THIS IS WHAT IT'S SUPPOSED TO FEEL LIKE.

**CHAPTER 034** He was still on one knee. I was still standing there with my hand over my mouth and my eyes doing something embarrassing and my brain running approximately four seconds behind everything else. Michael Cross. On one knee. In my bedroom. With a ring. Say something, I told myself. Rosa. Open your mouth and say something. Anything. One word. You know words. You've been using them your whole life. Just— "I—" I started. Stopped. Started again. "You—" I pointed at him vaguely, which was not the word I was looking for but was what came out. The corner of his mouth moved. Just slightly. "Rosa." "I know, I know, just—" I pressed both hands to my face for a second, took one breath, lowered them. "Give me a moment." "Take your time," he said. Still on one knee. Completely composed. Like kneeling on the floor of someone's bedroom holding a ring box was a perfectly comfortable position that he could maintain indefinitely. I looked at him. Really looked at him. At the ste

HAVE YOU EVER KNOWN ME TO DO ANYTHING HALFWAY?.

**CHAPTER 035****ISOLDE'S POV**"Are you really going to do this?" I said.My voice came out low, stripped of everything I usually kept in it."Cassian." I stood up from the bed slowly, my eyes still on the file. "Are you really going to listen to them and divorce me?""Isolde—""Answer me." Not loud. Just direct. The way I said things when I was past pretending. "Are you going to divorce me for her?"He looked at the file.Then at me."I don't have a choice," he said.Something cracked open in my chest. "You don't have a—" I stopped, pressing my lips together so hard they hurt. "You told me you loved me. You said it. You looked me in the face in this room and you said those exact words months ago, Cassian, and now you are standing here with divorce papers and telling me you don't have a choice—""I don't," he said. "That's the truth.""That is NOT the truth—""Isold

I'VE HEARD A LOT.

CHAPTER 036**ROSA'S POV**Michael had been gone for about an hour.The room was quiet and warm, and full of flowers that were still doing what flowers did when someone had put genuine thought into them, making everything feel slightly softer around the edges than rooms usually were.I lay on my back and stared at the ceiling.Not because anything was wrong. That was the strange part. Nothing was wrong. Everything was, by any reasonable measure, the opposite of wrong, and that was precisely why I was still awake at whatever hour this was, staring at the ceiling with my left hand resting on my chest, the cool metal of the ring against my sternum, and my brain absolutely refusing to stop moving.I replayed it.The dark room. The lights coming on. The flowers everywhere, not Michael's usual precise arrangements, but something fuller, something that had decided abundance was the right answer and committed to it completely. And then turning around and finding him on one knee, with that box

I SEE YOU.

CHAPTER 037ROSA'S POVI looked at her.She was still smiling — wide and warm and perfectly calibrated — and her hand was still in mine from the handshake, her grip firm and assured, her dark eyes holding mine for just that beat too long."Good things, I hope," I said."Of course," she said pleasantly. She released my hand and sat back down, crossing her legs with the easy grace of someone completely comfortable in any room she walked into. "Michael doesn't talk about people he doesn't care about."I glanced at Michael.He had settled back into his armchair, coffee in hand, watching the two of us with that steady, unreadable expression. He caught my eye briefly, and something moved at the corner of his mouth — small and quiet — before he looked back at Elena.I sat down.And we talked.Or rather, Elena talked and I responded, and Michael contributed occasionally in that precise, measured way he had. On the surface of it, the whole thing was perfectly pleasant. She asked about the hous

LONGER THAN YOU THINK.

**CHAPTER 038****ROSA'S POV**I wanted to tell him. In fact, I almost told him.I had the whole thing ready—the sitting room, the juice, Elena's face when she said be careful and looked at my stomach—all of it sitting right at the front of my mouth.But then I saw his face.He was smiling.Not the small, controlled version he usually wore, the one that lived at the corner of his mouth and required close attention to catch. This was the fuller one—relaxed, beautiful—and he was talking about Elena with the particular warmth of someone talking about someone they'd known their whole life and trusted completely. How long it had been since she visited. How she always brought the house alive when she came. How he hoped I liked her.I sat there and listened and felt the words I'd been about to say settle back down into my chest, where they came from.He won't believe me, I thought. Not yet. Not without something to show him.Because that was the thing about Elena Cross—she was good. Genuinel

OVER HERS

**CHAPTER 039** **ROSA'S POV** The ceiling was the first thing. White. Bright. The particular brightness that pressed against your eyelids even before you properly opened them. Everything was blurry at first — shapes without edges, colours without names — and then slowly, the way things came back after something had knocked them loose, the room assembled itself around me. White walls. A bed. The mirror at the corner. And people. Four of them, standing around the bed in a loose cluster — some closer, some further back — their faces resolving gradually as my eyes found their focus. Michael. Standing at the foot of the bed, jacket on, his face doing that controlled, unreadable thing, but with something underneath it that was tighter than usual. His hands were at his sides and completely still, which meant he was managing something significant. Marie. Near th

WELL?

**CHAPTER 040****ROSA’S POV**The room was quiet.The kind of quiet that had weight to it — the specific quiet of a space that had recently held too many people and too much tension and was now empty of both, still carrying the echo of everything that had just happened.I lay on my back and stared at the ceiling.My shoulder ached. My hip ached. The baby was moving in that slow rolling way she did when she was settling, like she could feel that things had calmed down and was responding accordingly. I pressed my hand over her and let the movement ground me.She’s okay, I thought. We’re both okay. For now.For now.That was the part I kept getting stuck on.Because Elena was still in this house. She was still down the corridor somewhere, probably in her room, probably sitting exactly as composed and unbothered as she’d looked when she walked out that door. And Michael was somewhere in this house believin

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