All Chapters of The Revenge of One Humiliated: Chapter 91 - Chapter 100

ÉlianorI am in the library, standing before the open window. The night air is cold on my burning skin. The black dress has become a prison of silk, I almost tear it off, finally breathing.I got them. All of them. Their signatures are in the safe. Their pride is in shreds. I should be jubilant. Shout. Something.But there is only the void. A great white, cold void, like the snow-covered plains of my internal exile. And at the center of this void, a silhouette. His.His departure did not bring me peace. He left behind a heavier silence, populated by his words. "I came back." "No one hurts you."A man's words. A possessor's words. Words I hate. And yet… they resonated within me with the force of a primal truth. In the chaos of that evening, in the ocean of hatred I was pouring out, his presence had been a rock. Solid. Unshakeable. Even if that rock was set against me in its own way.I think of his gaze while I was speaking. He wasn't looking at the others. He was looking at me. As if h

ÉlianorHer face closes off. A glimmer of anger, finally, shines in her eyes so similar to our mother's."I'm not begging for anything. And I want nothing from you. Except perhaps… that you stop destroying yourself.""Destroying myself? I'm building! I'm building an empire on the ruins of their contempt!""You're building a prison, Élianor! A prison of hate where you are both the jailer and the inmate! And you're dragging your own children into it!"The mention of the children is a low blow. I step back as if she had struck me."Don't talk about them. You have no right.""Someone has to talk about it! Because you are teaching them to hate. To distrust. To live in lies. You tell them their father isn't their father, when everyone can see it in their eyes!""Everyone? You see it too? And it amuses you? To know that your repulsive little sister ended up getting screwed by a stranger? That's a good story for your club, isn't it?"The calculated vulgarity of my words makes her flinch. But

ÉlianorFear.That's the real problem. Not anger, not vengeance, not hatred of the Hammonds. Fear.I'm afraid of him. I'm afraid of what he represents. I'm afraid of having to admit that I am wrong, that I made a mistake, that I built my life on a lie. I'm afraid he will want my children, take them, destroy everything I've built. I'm afraid he will reject me, once more, once and for all, when he sees who I really am beneath the ice.You are terrified that this man will confront you with the truth you carry.Liora reads me like an open book. And this transparency, this exposed vulnerability, makes me want to scream.I want to continue controlling him. I want to continue believing I hold the reins. I want to continue playing the ice queen who decides the fate of others without ever letting herself be affected.But it's too late.He is already inside me. He has always been inside me, in the gaze of my children, in their smiles, in their angers, in the way Lilou tilts her head when she th

 ÉlianorThe question catches me by surprise. I look at him, searching for an ulterior motive, a strategy. But he just looks worried, as if he's afraid I'll collapse if left alone."On the couch," he specifies. "Just to make sure you're okay. I won't move.""Are you serious?""I've never been more serious in my life."I should say no. I should throw him out, lock the door, return to my comfortable solitude. But I think of Liora, of her words: Make it as a woman, Élianor. Not as a victim."Fine. But if you move, I'll kill you."He smiles. That smile."Deal."I climb the stairs trembling. I feel his gaze on me, and it's the strangest thing in the world, this warmth at my back, this presence watching over me.In my bathroom, I undress in front of the mirror. My body is marked by the years, by two pregnancies, by stress, by everything. Would he still find me desirable if he knew? Would...

 ÉlianorA tear rolls down my cheek. Then another. Then I cry without being able to stop, but these are not tears of sadness. It's something else. Something I hadn't felt for so long I had forgotten it existed.He wipes my tears with his thumb, softly, tenderly."Don't cry, my love. I'm here. I won't move.""How can you be sure? How can you be sure of us?""Because I've never been sure of anything in my life, except you. Except us. Even when you hated me, even when you fled from me, I knew that one day we would get here. I knew it in my bones."He kisses my tears, one by one. Then he kisses my eyelids, my forehead, my cheeks, my lips."Now," he says, "we sleep. We talk tomorrow. But we sleep."He rolls to the side, pulls me against him. My head finds its place in the hollow of his shoulder, his hand rests on my hip, his legs intertwine with mine.I close my eyes. And for the first time in twelve years