Semua Bab Rebirth: Winning Back My Husband : Bab 11 - Bab 16

The door clicked shut. The sound was soft, final—a seal between them and the world outside. Aveline felt Lucian's hand still at her waist, steadying her, waiting for her legs to hold her weight. She leaned into him without thinking, and he absorbed her weight without comment. Then he guided her forward. His steps were measured, unhurried. Each footfall deliberate. When they reached the bed, he turned her gently, his hands finding her shoulders, easing her down onto the mattress. The sheets rustled beneath her. He lifted her legs, one at a time, and swung them onto the bed with the same impersonal efficiency a nurse might use. The blanket came up. He tucked it around her hips, then her waist. His fingers brushed her shoulder as he adjusted the pillow behind her head. He didn't meet her eyes. "There," he said. Quiet. Flat. He turned. His footsteps crossed the room—seven strides, she counted—and stopped at the window. The chair scraped against the floor as he pulled it out. He sat

The days passed in a particular kind of silence. Not the silence of peace. The silence of absence. Aveline counted it by the light moving across her bedroom floor. Morning—pale gold through the curtains. Afternoon—long shadows stretching toward the door. Evening—the slow grey dimming that meant another day had closed without him in it. She asked the housekeeper. At work, madam. She asked the butler the next morning. Not yet, madam. She stood at the window each evening and watched the gates at the end of the drive. They opened sometimes—for deliveries, for staff. Each time, her chest did something involuntary. Each time, it was not him. On the second night she fell asleep in the chair by the window, her cheek pressed against the cold glass. She woke at some grey early hour to find the drive empty and the lamp still burning and nothing changed. She didn't ask again after that. The following day, Aveline went to the kitchen before the staff arrived. The room was vast—i

The office fell into silence once more.The lunch plates had long been emptied. Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the afternoon sun drifted westward, casting long shadows across the skyline. The city bustled beneath them, oblivious to the strange stillness inside the executive office.Neither of them spoke.Lucian sat behind his desk, one hand resting lightly against the armrest of his chair. His documents remained open before him, untouched. His attention had not returned to work.Across from him, Aveline sat quietly, her fingers loosely folded in her lap.The silence wasn't comfortable.But neither of them seemed willing to disturb it.Several long moments passed before Lucian lifted his eyes.His gaze settled on her. Calm. Unreadable."What do you really want?"His voice was low, carrying through the quiet office with effortless authority."You've been acting differently ever since you woke up."His eyes flickered briefly toward the empty lunchbox."You cooked. You came here. Y