All Chapters of I was his stand-in wife until he wanted me for real: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

77 Chapters

THE PEACE OFFERING

The sun had barely cleared the horizon when Ethan returned from his morning run along the perimeter of the estate. His breath came in short, even bursts, his boots clicking against the gravel driveway. He did not go to the main lounge. Instead, he went straight to his private dressing room, stripped off his damp gear, and stood under the cold stream of the shower until his skin turned tight and numb. He was irritated. The interaction in the kitchen the night before, combined with the administrative block he had placed on the medical trust, should have settled his mind. He had secured the accounts. He had neutralized the threat of an unauthorized wire transfer. Yet, as he dressed in a clean linen shirt and dark trousers, the memory of Maya’s face at the dining table kept returning to him. She had looked at him with an absolute, unblinking hatred that cash usually could not buy. Ethan walked over to his dresser. He picked up his watch, buckled it onto his wrist, and then looked at a

The Interception

The delivery van from the central city district left the main iron gates at noon. Camille stood by the wide glass windows of the front reception hall, her arms crossed over the chest of her dark robe, watching the dust settle over the hedges. On the console table near the main entrance sat three large, matte-black boxes bound with thick white silk ribbon, alongside a long, protective canvas garment bag bearing the silver embossed emblem of a premier haute couture house in the capital. The main courier log sat beside the tray. The house butler had stepped down into the lower pantry to file the shipping manifest, leaving the foyer completely unattended for less than three minutes. That was all the time Camille required to execute the shift. She moved across the polished floorboards without making a sound, her slippers gliding over the wood until she stood directly over the delivery. She did not need to untie the ribbons to know exactly what was inside the casing. Her position within

THE PRESENTATION

Ethan did not knock. He walked into her room carrying the three black boxes stacked in his arms, the long garment bag hanging over his shoulder. He did not like handling deliveries himself, but he had taken these from the hallway table because he wanted to bring them to her directly. He set them down on the middle of the mattress. Maya remained by the window, her knees pulled to her chest in the oversized chair. She did not look at the packages. She looked at the wall. "The city designers finished them ahead of schedule," Ethan said. He stood by the foot of the bed, clearing his throat. His voice lacked its usual sharp, corporate edge. He was trying to sound softer, trying to find a way through the wall she had built since the previous night. "I called the fashion house personally after our argument in the study. I wanted you to have something entirely yours for the foundation dinner on Friday." Maya did not move. The phrase entirely yours felt like salt in an open wound. She coul

THE FREEZE

Maya did not look at him again. She kept her back turned to the bed, her shoulders still, her hands pressed flat against the glass of the window pane. The warmth of her breath created a small circle of fog on the glass, which she watched dissolve back into the cold daylight. Behind her, the open boxes sat on the mattress like a row of open coffins. "Look at me when I am speaking to you," Ethan said. His voice had lost its softer tone, replaced by the sharp, familiar command he used to control his subordinates. He stepped closer to her, but he did not touch her. The physical space between them felt completely dead. "I just told you that Camille is lying. I ordered that ensemble from the city designers specifically for you. I spent the morning tracking the shipment myself." "It does not matter," Maya said. Her voice was quiet, entirely free of tears or anger. It was the tone of someone who had already given up on the conversation before it even began. "Whether you ordered it two week

The backlash

Ethan carried the black boxes down the western corridor himself, his boots striking the hardwood with a heavy rhythm. He was furious. His mind was a blur of rage and wounded pride. He had stripped away his usual defenses, stepped down from his position of authority, and tried to offer her a genuine gesture of peace, only to have it treated like garbage. Maya hadn't just rejected the dress; she had rejected his ability to provide. She had looked at the best his world had to offer and called it worthless.As he reached the base of the staircase, his thoughts began to harden into a cold, ugly certainty. She doesn't want gestures, he thought, his jaw tightening until his teeth ached. She doesn't want a marriage or a clean slate. He had been a fool to think a custom dress would satisfy her. She was from the lower streets. She didn't understand the nuance of status or traditional style; she only understood raw cash. Her coldness wasn't about hurt or her brother's medical charts. It was a n

THE DEEP FREEZE

The silence that settled over the estate after the confrontation in the bedroom was thick, heavy, and absolute. It was not a quiet born of peace, it was a suffocating stillness that follows a declaration of war. For three consecutive days, the house functioned on a rigid schedule of total avoidance. Two people inhabited the same rooms, walked the same long corridors, and sat at the same table without exchanging a single word or making direct eye contact.Ethan moved through his morning routine. He woke at five, went for his run along the boundary fence, and returned to his private dressing room to change into his corporate attire. He did not look toward Maya’s locked door when he walked past it down the hallway. He had completely closed off the part of his mind that had chosen to buy her those boxes.He took his morning meals alone in the dining room. The table was long enough to seat twenty people, and he sat at the head of it, surrounded by empty chairs. The staff moved around him o

The First Whisper

"Do you really just enjoy making yourself look pathetic?"Camille closed the study door behind her, the click sharp in the quiet room.Ethan didn't look up from his desk. He sat with his collar unbuttoned, his hand clamped around a glass of neat whiskey. The immaculate heir looked completely undone. His pride wasn't just bruised; it was rotting in front of him."If you’re here to join the chorus, get out," Ethan muttered, his voice gravelly."I’m not here to lecture you." Camille crossed the room with deliberate steps, stopping right at the edge of his desk. She didn't take a chair. She stood over him, forcing him to look at her. "I'm worried about you, Ethan. Your father is screaming about image, the board is looking for scapegoats, and you’re sitting here letting a girl from the gutters dictate your mood."Ethan let out a bitter laugh, slamming his glass down. "Nobody understands what she’s doing. She’s completely unhinged. She’s dragging this out just to watch me crawl.""No, Ethan

THE SECOND POISON

The conservatory was the coldest room in the eastern wing during the winter months. The high glass walls looked out over the dead lawns, where the frost hung thick on the black branches of the hedges. Maya sat on a low wooden bench near the frozen fountain, her hands buried deep in the pockets of her heavy woolen coat. She had not been able to stay inside her four walls any longer. The air in her bedroom felt like old dust, but here, the chill was clean. It bit at her cheeks and kept her awake.The heavy glass door slid open with a sharp click.Camille stepped through the opening, carrying a thick woolen blanket over her arm and a small porcelain plate with two pieces of dry toast. She did not wear an outdoor coat. She moved through the freezing air as if she did not feel the drop in temperature at all, her dark robe sweeping across the stone tiles until she stood directly in front of Maya."The head maid told me you were down here," Camille said, her voice dropping into that familiar

THE FLASHPOINT

The drawing room doors were shut, locking the two of them inside the long, narrow space.Ethan stood by the grand fireplace, his hand resting on the mantlepiece, his eyes fixed on the door. He was dressed in his formal black suit jacket, his shirt crisp and white, though his tie was still loose around his collar. The air in the room was suffocatingly hot, the fire roaring against the brickwork, but the atmosphere between the two walls was entirely frozen.Maya stood near the center of the room, exactly three paces from the door. She had not sat down when he called her down from her quarters. She was wearing her oldest grey woolen dress, her hair tied back in a messy, tight knot that showed the sharp lines of her pale face. She looked like a prisoner standing before a judge, but her golden eyes were wide open, staring directly into his face without a single hint of fear."The cars leave the courtyard at exactly six o'clock tomorrow evening," Ethan said, his voice coming out in a slow,

THE EVE OF THE GALA

"You look exactly like a Blake should look."Camille stood by the wide dressing room mirrors, her hands resting flat on the shoulders of Ethan’s black tuxedo jacket. She adjusted the lapels with a slow touch, her eyes meeting his reflection in the glass. The room was silent except for the ticking of the clock.Ethan did not look back at her. He kept his eyes fixed on the black tie at his throat, his face expressionless, his jaw set like iron. "Is she dressed?""The maids are finishing the fastenings on the blue gown right now," Camille whispered, leaning in closer to his shoulder. "She didn't fight them, Ethan. I think she finally realized that the clinic gates will lock the second she steps out of line. You broke her."Ethan let out a short, cold breath. He felt no victory in her words, only a heavy anger that had settled deep into his chest since the fight in the drawing room. Maya’s words were still burning through his pride. A hollow, barren shell of a man. He had spent the entire

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