All Chapters of Vows Written In Silence : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

His mother kept her eyes fixed on his hands. He looked down at them too, his fingers slowly curling into fists. “I was there, Mum. That night in Edinburgh.” The admission left his lips in a rough, clipped whisper. His jaw locked so hard a cord of muscle strained beneath his ear, his fingers burying into his palms as the raw weight of the memory bared its teeth. “I was the one who saw her in that coma. I sat by the bed. I watched her breathe through tubes, and I... I couldn't bear the pain of losing her. I don't know what happened to my sanity that night.” He went completely quiet for a long beat. “I did not call him.” Daniya went perfectly still. “I told myself I was protecting her,” Faiyaz said, his eyes tracking a pale shadow on the wall. “From the family pressure, from everything she was handling alone. But that was a lie. The truth is, I looked at her in that hospital bed and I made a selfish, calculated choice. I chose my own feelings over her happiness.” The words came ou

She glared at him with the specific expression of a woman who was not going to give him the satisfaction of a reaction and was fighting a losing battle with the corner of her mouth. Shayla looked up from her phone. “Yes Zoya. He already has a harem. He desperately needs a wife. Someone has to keep him in line.” “I wonder who the lucky girl is,” Zoya said. Completely deadpan. “Whoever she is I feel deeply sorry for her,” Farisa said. “She should run,” Zoya agreed pleasantly. “Immediately. Without looking back.” Faiyaz looked at her. Something shifted underneath the easy smile. Something that had been shifting since last night. The gaze she had been trying not to register since the High Line arriving again now fully and without apology. “If I ever find the woman I have actually been looking for,” he said. Quieter. Still carrying the lightness but landing somewhere else entirely now. “I think I could manage just one.” A pause. “Forever.” His eyes on her face. She felt it

Raiyan’s hand froze flat against the edge of the paper. Just for a single, microscopic second, his fingers locked, the air in his lungs turning to solid ice before his internal discipline kicked back in and he forced the page to settle. “She is in New York,” Raina added, her eyes tracking the sudden stillness of his shoulders. He said absolutely nothing, his face a completely unreadable wall of stone. “I just wanted to check on her,” Raina continued, leaning back against the leather. “After Trial Day Two. After the absolute butchery Harrison pulled in that courtroom.” She paused, letting the silence stretch until it grew heavy. “After what Grandfather did.” Silence dropped over the study, thick and suffocating. “Raiyan.” “I heard you.” “You are not saying anything.” “There is nothing to say.” Raina looked at him properly then. She took in the white line of his mouth, the jaw set so tightly a cord strained beneath his ear, and the terrifying stillness in his posture th

“I am processing,” she said, her voice muffled by his shirt. “Give me a second.” He waited. His arms stayed where they were, supporting her weight. But she could feel it—his chest starting to shake. It wasn’t a cough. It was a laugh. A deep, silent vibration rattling his entire ribcage. She lifted her head, ready to fight for her dignity. He was holding it together with everything he had, and he was losing. His face was flushing, his jaw was clamped shut, and his eyes were watering. “Raiyan. Don’t.” He pressed his lips together. A sound escaped him—a strangled, high-pitched wheeze. “I am warning you,” she said, eyes narrowing. “Do not do it.” His shoulders betrayed him. Then, he broke. He didn’t just laugh; he folded. He tipped his head back, his whole body shaking with the force of it. She saw it then for the very first time. It was magnetic. It was loud, helpless, and completely, devastatingly his. She forgot to let go. Her hands were still fisted in his collar—they

“Because I don’t have proof.” He looked past her at the dark window. “And because Zayed is not a simple man. If Raiyan finds out before we have something concrete — before we understand what actually happened — Zayed will bury it. He’ll spin it. And Raiyan will believe him because that’s what Raiyan does when he’s afraid.” His jaw tightened. “He believes the version that hurts less.” Mei stared at him for a long moment. “You’re protecting him again,” she said. “I’m protecting both of them,” Evan said. “Until I know the full shape of it.” Silence stretched between them. Mei nodded slowly. Not happy about it. Accepting it. She pulled back. Wiped her face. Stared at nothing for a moment. “I don’t know,” she said. “I just — none of us were there. Not me. Not Kenji. Lina or Eric. Not anyone.” She shook her head slowly. “Even Grandpa Joseph was in Switzerland that week. So weird.” A pause. “She was completely alone.” Evan said nothing. But his mind was already moving. Rai