All Chapters of Married by Mistake to My Ex-Husband’s Brother: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

Nobody spoke.Victor Hale's footsteps had faded but his words hadn't. They sat in my chest like something swallowed wrong, pressing against the wrong places.Eventually she is going to realize what loving you costs.Loving you. Not wanting. Not needing. Loving. He had said it the way you say something obvious, something that doesn't require argument because the evidence is already standing in the hallway in front of you, and the casualness of it unsettled me more than the content did. Because it meant it was visible. Not just to Ethan, not just to me in the private middle-of-the-night moments when I wasn't guarding myself carefully enough. To everyone. To a man who had walked in here looking to dismantle us and had seen it in about forty seconds.Victor composed himself with the practiced ease of someone who had been shaken before and knew exactly how to put the pieces back in order. Collar adjusted. Posture reset. The ice returning to his expression like it had never cracked.Ethan s

The room had gone painfully quiet after that.Rain hammered the windows in uneven bursts, not rhythmic, not dramatic, just relentless in the way weather sometimes is when it has no interest in your timing. The city lights outside smeared behind the glass into something soft and indistinct, and Ethan stood in front of me looking like a man who had finally exhausted every available version of the truth except the real one.It costs me everything.No strategy underneath it. No redirect built in. Just words that landed the way honest things do when someone stops controlling them before they leave their mouth.My throat tightened in a way I hadn't prepared for.Because I believed him. That was the part I couldn't dismiss or argue around. I believed every word coming from him now, and believing someone is a different kind of exposure than loving them. More dangerous, maybe. Harder to walk back.His hand was still against my cheek. Warm. Steady in that particular way of his that always made

The elevator doors closed with a soft hush sealing us away from the lobby below. I leaned against Ethan just a little more than I intended. His hand remained steady on my back the warmth of it cutting through the lingering chill from the storm outside. My mind still replayed the scene downstairs. Daniel's soaked figure. The raw honesty in his voice when he spoke those final words. The way everything between us had cracked open under the weight of truth.Neither of us spoke at first. The elevator hummed upward carrying us back toward the private floors of the estate. Rain continued its steady rhythm against the glass walls blurring the city lights into streaks of gold and silver. I glanced up at Ethan. His face held that familiar composure but I noticed the slight tightness around his jaw. The subtle way his fingers pressed just a fraction firmer against me. He was not as untouched as he appeared. Good. I needed to know he felt it too."Are you alright?" he asked finally. His voice sta

The car hummed steadily along the winding road leading away from the city. I watched the tall buildings shrink in the side mirror until they disappeared behind a curve lined with thick trees. The rain from earlier days had left the landscape vibrant. Green leaves glistened under the afternoon sun and the air coming through the slightly open window carried a fresh earthy scent. Ethan drove with one hand on the wheel the other resting near mine on the center console. Every so often his fingers would brush against my skin in a quiet reminder that we were doing this together.I shifted in my seat adjusting the light sweater I had thrown on for the drive. "It feels strange leaving everything behind even for a couple of days. Like the world might keep spinning faster while we are gone."Ethan glanced over at me a small curve appearing at the corner of his mouth. "That is the point. Let it spin. We need this." His voice held that steady calm I had come to depend on but there was an ease to i

The garden paths felt softer underfoot that morning as if the estate itself had settled into the new rhythm we were creating. I walked beside Ethan with my hand tucked in his the early sunlight warming my shoulders. The flowers I had suggested adding were already taking root in fresh soil beds their bright petals just beginning to unfurl. It was a small change but seeing it made the massive grounds feel more personal. More like something we shaped together rather than inherited."You were right about the colors," Ethan said his voice carrying a hint of approval. He stopped near one of the new beds and crouched down to examine a cluster of blooms. "They bring life to this section. It was too formal before."I smiled watching him. There was something endearing about seeing him like this focused on something as ordinary as flowers after days filled with high stakes decisions. "I thought they might. The lake house had that natural feel that I wanted to bring back here. Not everything need