Todos los capítulos de Her Rebirth, His Regret : Capítulo 71 - Capítulo 79

ALEXANDER "The anniversary gala needs a design lead." My grandmother said it the way she said most things that were about to upend my day, casual, over the rim of her coffee cup, like she was commenting on the weather instead of dropping a decision she'd clearly already made. "I want Maeve on it."I set my pen down slower than the sentence required. "Maeve.""You say her name like it's a foreign language." Mary's eyes glinted over the cup, entirely too pleased with herself. "Yes, Maeve. She's about to head the design department in every way that matters, Alexander, and this gala is going to define the brand's next decade. I want the person with the best eye in this building running it. That happens to be her.""She's been here a little over two weeks.""And in two weeks she's redesigned half the incoming line, told off Marcus Ellery in front of the entire studio, and made three of my most stubborn buyers cry actual tears of joy over a bracelet." My grandmother set her cup down with a

MAEVE I hadn't slept well since I left the office.I don't think I can marry her.He'd said it so plainly, like the sentence had just fallen out of him without his permission. I'd spent three days turning it over, unable to decide whether it changed anything, whether it was supposed to.It shouldn't have surprised me as much as it did. And yet it did, because the Alexander standing in that doorway wasn't the one I'd built my whole defense around for three years. That version had been careful, composed, always three steps ahead, a man who managed rooms and people and outcomes the way other men managed spreadsheets. This one had looked lost. Actually lost, jaw tight, hands shoved deep in his pockets like he needed somewhere to put them.I still wanted nothing to do with him. That part hadn't changed. I told myself that every morning in the elevator mirror, every time his name came up in a meeting, every time I caught myself glancing toward his office on my way to mine and made myself k

I woke before sunrise, the way I always did the first night in a new bed, and gave up on sleep entirely by five thirty.The mattress was too soft, unfamiliar in a way that kept pulling me half out of sleep every time I shifted, and the ceiling fan overhead clicked faintly with every rotation, a small, insistent reminder that I wasn't home. I lay there a while trying to talk myself back into rest and failed completely.The house was silent, everyone else still buried under three days of jet lag and one very memorable entryway scene, and I carried my sketchbook down to the porch steps facing the water, coffee in one hand, pencil already itching in the other. The sky over the ocean had gone that pale, uncertain gray right before the sun actually commits to rising, gulls calling somewhere down the shoreline, the tide pulling back slow and steady across the sand.I'd gotten maybe fifteen minutes into a rough sketch — a bracelet design, waves worked into the metal in a way I still wasn't su

"Dorothy...Jesus—""How could you say that to me!" She screeched, fists clenched so tightly I could see them trembling white from force.Her eyes dropped venom now."You're choosing her over me?!""Keep your fucking voice down!" I snapped. I wasn't sure why I did or when it happened, but I was done with this shit. Done with the constant emotional outbursts, with the constantly walking on eggshells, not knowing when she might decide to break down and cry.This wasn't the life I wanted for myself, this was never a part of the plan I had set all those years ago.Her eyes went wide with shock and she took a stumbling step back, like she didn't expect me to raise my voice.God. What was I thinking?"This isn't about choosing anyone, Dorothy... this is about what I want and what you refuse to admit!""Don't you dare try to placate me!"I didn't try again. I stood there instead, useless, watching her cry and feeling the particular, hollow guilt of a man who knew he'd done the right thing and