Bound By Forbidden Desire의 모든 챕터: 챕터 41 - 챕터 47

Nikos POVThe corridor outside the ceremony room was long, pale, and hushed.Nikos closed the door behind them, and the sound of the room disappeared almost completely.Irene stood a few feet from him with her coat still on and her hands still clasped. Her eyes were doing something different today, and he noticed it immediately.“You said twenty minutes,” she said. “Start talking.”“I think you’re the one who needs to talk,” he said.“You came here for a reason. Tell me what it is.”She looked at him. “You know what it is.”“I know part of it. I want to hear the rest.”She was quiet for a moment. Then, “She married him. Katrina. She stood beside that man for twenty years while I was living in a flat in Edinburgh.” She took a breath. “She knew about me. I know she knew, and she married him anyway, built a life on top of mine, and now he’s dead, and she gets to stand in a room full of people and do it again, and everyone applauds.”“She married Richard,” Nikos said carefully. “Not my fa

The garden became very quiet around him.“Say that again,” Nikos said.“I saw him.” Theo’s jaw was set. “Twenty minutes ago. I’ve known his face for thirty years, and it was him.”Irene stood beside him, completely still. She wasn’t looking at Theo. Instead, she stared at the garden wall with an intense, blank gaze as if her mind had wandered far away.“Irene.” Nikos turned to her. “Did you know?”“No.” Her voice was soft. “I was told he was dead. The letter arrived eighteen months ago. His lawyers contacted me to inform me that the settlement obligations had passed to the estate.” She paused. “I believed it.”“Someone wanted you to believe that,” Elena said.Nikos looked at her. She stood still, her arms at her sides.“He faked his death,” Nikos said. He voiced the thought because saying it out loud made it feel real enough to act on.“That would explain the timing,” Elena said carefully.“The documents Irene gave you. She handed them over because she thought he was dead and there wa

Elena’s POVThe coverage landed early hours in the morning.Elena was already awake when it did, sitting at the kitchen table in Nikos’s apartment in one of his shirts with her hands wrapped around a coffee mug. She had her phone face down on the table and she was actively choosing not to turn it over.Nikos came in from the bedroom already dressed, and looked at her sitting there with the phone face down and said, “How bad is it?”“I haven’t looked yet.”He raised an eyebrow. “You’ve been awake for an hour.”“I’m aware.”“Elena.”“I’m building up to it.” She picked up her coffee. “Sit down and build up to it with me.”He sat across from her and poured himself coffee and for a moment they just sat in the early morning.“Richard called last night,” she said. “After we got back.”“What did he say?”“He said Katrina was fine. He said the reception was manageable.” She looked at her mug. “He also said Jamie hasn’t stopped asking questions.”“What kind of questions?”“Jamie with follow-up