Semua Bab The Substitute Bride He Broke.: Bab 21 - Bab 30

Caleb was still in his shirt and trousers when the call came through, sitting at the edge of the bed scrolling through his phone for no real reason restlessly without knowing it. He read the address once, then again, then stood up so fast the phone nearly slipped from his hand.He snatched his keys off the dresser.Lena appeared in the doorway. Her hair was damp, pressed flat against her neck, a towel still half wrapped around her shoulders. She took one look at him and frowned."Is there a problem? You seem like you're in a rush.""No." He was already reaching for his jacket off the back of the chair. "I just have to be somewhere."She tilted her head slightly. "It seems urgent. I can come with you.""No." He said it too quickly and softened it just barely. "I'm fine. Just stay back, I'll be home soon."She was still talking when he walked past her, through the doorway, down the stairs and out the front door without looking back. He heard her voice trailing off behind him but he didn

The morning of the procedure came with a heavy downpour.Nora noticed because she had been awake since four and had spent the last two hours watching the light outside the window change very slowly from black to grey to the particular flat white of an overcast morning that couldn't decide what it was.She had not slept properly in three days. She was aware of it in her body — the specific heaviness behind her eyes, the ache at the base of her skull, the way everything felt slightly slower than it should, like the world was moving at its normal speed and she was a half second behind it.Ashley arrived at seven.She came in with two coffees and sat in the chair beside Nora without asking and handed one over without speaking, and Nora held it with both hands and they sat together in the quiet of the room while Liam slept.The prep team came at seven thirty.Nora stood outside in the corridor while they got him ready, her arms folded across her chest, her back against the wall. She had go

Three days after the procedure, Liam asked for orange juice and threw a small fit when the nurse said no.Nora watched it happen from the chair with the detached calm of a woman who had refereed worse. Liam was four and he was recovering and he had opinions about everything, and the opinions were getting louder as he felt better, which the doctor had told her was a good sign and which Nora received as information while Liam informed the nurse that orange juice was his favourite and that this was not fair."Life isn't fair," Nora told him.Liam turned the full weight of his betrayal on her. "You always say that.""Because it keeps being true."He flopped back against the pillow dramatically. The nurse left, wisely. Nora picked up the cup of water from the bedside table and held it out without comment and after thirty seconds of principled silence Liam took it and drank.She was still watching him when she heard the door.Caleb came in with a bag from the sandwich place near the hospit

Caleb came back at four.Alone.He knocked, which he had started doing, and Nora said come in without looking up. He was in a different jacket than the morning, which meant he had gone back to wherever he was staying between the hospital and here. He looked like a man who had been having a difficult afternoon and had not resolved it.She did not ask."How's he doing?" He came to the usual chair near the window. Liam was asleep again."Good. Levels are up." She turned a page. "Doctor is pleased.""That's good.""Yes."The room was quiet."Nora." His voice was low and careful."What now, Caleb.""I need to — ""I said not now." She looked up from the book. Her voice was level. Her face was level. She had done this so many times in so many rooms and she could do it for as long as she needed to. "My son is sleeping. Whatever you need to explain can wait until there is a better time and place. And even then —" she paused, "— I'm not sure I need the explanation. What I saw was very clear."

Lena had waited long enough.She had been patient — more patient than anyone should have expected of her, frankly. She had waited through the hospital visits and the phone calls that went nowhere and the evenings Caleb came home with the particular closed quality about him that meant he had been somewhere she was not supposed to ask about. She had waited and said nothing and rearranged things beautifully and worn the right things and asked the right gentle questions that allowed him to give vague answers without feeling he was lying.She had been exquisitely patient.But she was done now. Done pretending and playing the sweet lady."Where the hell did you go this morning?" She set her coffee cup down on the kitchen counter and looked at him.Caleb was standing at the island going through his phone, and he looked up with the unhurried expression he used when he was deciding how much of a question to answer. "The hospital.""The boy is discharged.""Yes.""So why did you go?"He set hi