After Rebirth, I Married My Ex-husband's Enemy のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 51 - チャプター 60

**ATLAS**I should have shut this down the moment she said her name, but my body reacted before my mind could—because dead people do not just come back, but Calista made Lily sound so alive…so real.Now she was staring me down in the moonlight, demanding answers that stripped me bare, because by god…I did not know.Ledger's shallow breathing mirrored mine, and I glanced over my shoulder at the open road behind us, goosebumps crawling over my neck.“Look, if we are spotted here, we will have more problems than we do now,” Ledger's voice bristled, but she just folded her arms. “Nonsense, I am staying right here until I get my answers.” Her jaw shivered.I saw the goosebumps crawling over her arms, and I knew that she would not move until I spilled my truth.But only one truth was certain, and even though it would not be enough to quench the fire in her eyes, it had to count for something. It had to.So I forced myself to say the one name I vowed never to talk about, breaking my promise

**ATLAS**This was the part where I was supposed to feel nothing…Where I walked to my car and drove to my hangar, pretending that she did not just choose death over me…again. So, no…I did not feel nothing. I felt a dark pulsing starting in my chest and spreading through my body as I stood there, half choking on the smell of the freshly painted door.I fought the urge to walk back in there and tie her to the bed so she would not leave. I wanted to call her name like venom and poison her with my words like she did to me.Instead, I walked.My feet thudded against creaking wood, and my hands clutched the staircase railing to stop the world from spinning.Her words stayed lodged in my skin like shrapnel, burrowing deeper with each shaky breath I took. I thought that the memories had faded…that if I did not remember, then maybe it did not happen. But now they were vivid as ever, and I saw the hazel of Calista's eyes glowing as she turned me away…as she chose Merrick and the life he had

**CALISTA**The cigarette pack sat untouched on the vanity table while I stared at my reflection, because if I started smoking tonight, I feared I would never stop.There was something deeply pathetic about trying to prepare for war with smeared mascara, trembling hands, and a half-empty wine glass.For the longest time, I used to think mirrors reflected the truth, but as I sat in front of mine, all I saw was a woman trying to numb herself before the war reached her doorstep.One more glass, and I would be ready. My silk robe slipped down my shoulders, and I cursed the shower for being too warm, for not burning off the memories etched in my brain. Sleep was a luxury I could not afford—not even on the jet. With every passing hour, I had perched by the oval window, teeth chattering at the slightest turbulence.So many questions had plagued my mind, forcing me to take my first Bloody Mary in months.What the hell was I doing? Cutting Atlas out of my survival plan felt less like survival

**ATLAS**If Calista Winslow ever discovered the things I did in the name of keeping her safe, she would run from me too.Maybe I should have run from me too, for somewhere between protecting Calista and obsessing over her, the line disappeared.I should have left for home that night. Instead, I bought surveillance equipment. The next morning, Calista was gone, but not before fixing me with a glare that sat in my chest like a rock.Ledger did not wait around no matter how much I begged. Calista was dead to him, he said. Ungrateful, he said. Cruel, even. And I hated that he was right, hated that I clung to that truth viciously…until I thought of her again, and all I saw was a trapped doe chewing off its own limb to escape a bloody trap.I hated that I understood.So I did the only logical thing—I let her go…with a tracker in the necklace that she never took off. That was all…save for the one in her phone and the button of her coat.Yes, you read that right. Merrick Fairfax was not th

**MERRICK**My mother survived the fall. The version of Astrid that loved me did not. The metal chair bit into my back, but it was a mild comfort compared to the state of Grace Fairfax. I could not tear my eyes from the oxygen mask covering her face, the neck brace, the tube that kept her jaw hanging open…My good hand gripped my left knee, squeezing tight as Astrid's words played in my head like a fucking curse.I kept replaying the moment Astrid’s fingers let go and my mother disappeared down the stairs, searching for the exact second she stopped loving me.She had looked right at me, like she wanted me to hear every crack, and I did. Every single one. The world had blurred before my eyes, and I had scrambled to the edge of the staircase, racing down to find a small pool of crimson forming under my mother's head.I had looked up to the staircase, and she was gone, door slamming in the hallway as I held my mother's limp body.I was right. The Winslow women were all shades of crazy,