홈 / Romance / The Wife Who Won / 챕터 61 - 챕터 70

The Wife Who Won 의 모든 챕터: 챕터 61 - 챕터 70

81 챕터

Distance

Chapter 62: ViolettaI walk down the concrete stairs slowly, my boots making a dull, repeating echo in the empty stairwell. Liz’s loud, confident words are still ringing in my ears, but the warm comfort from her pep talk is already starting to cool down.By the time I reach the third-floor landing, the quietness of the building lets the other voice slip back into my mind.Caleb always picks up broken things.Nancy’s voice sounds factual. I stop on the stairs for a second, my hand resting on the iron railing. The metal is freezing against my palm. I try to force my brain to follow Liz's logic. I tell myself that Nancy was just a bitter ex-wife trying to cause pain on her way out the door. But my mind won't let it go. It keeps sorting through the data of the last few months, looking at the foundation of everything Caleb and I have built.When I first met Caleb, I was literally running for my life. I was hiding in this loft, terrified of my ex-husband, and completely broken. Caleb didn't

Texts

Chapter 63: ViolettaThe thrum of the laundry room down the hall is the only sound breaking the midnight silence of the fifth floor. It is nearly twelve-thirty, and the large windows of apartment 5B are pitch black, reflecting the distant, cold white dots of the city skyline.I stand at the wooden island in the kitchen, a huge wicker basket of warm, clean laundry sitting on the stool right next to me. The smell of lavender fabric softener fills the quiet room, a normal, domestic scent that should feel comforting. But my hands move with a stiff, robotic movements as I pull a gray cotton sweatshirt from the pile, flattening the sleeves against the counter with the palms of my hands.My mind is still stuck down on the ground floor.It has been six hours since I walked out of Caleb’s garage. Six hours since I looked at his hard, hurt face and let Nancy’s words push a wedge right between us. I fold the sweatshirt into a neat square, my fingers pressing hard into the fabric. The guilt in my

Digging

Chapter 64: ViolettaThe morning light through the kitchen window is in blinding white that makes my eyes sting. It is barely seven-thirty, and the apartment is completely freezing. I am sitting on the edge of my barstool, my knees pulled up to my chest under my oversized fleece blanket, the bright glare of my laptop screen reflecting directly into my tired eyes.My fingers move rapidly across the keyboard, the small, rhythmic clicks sounding like firecrackers in the silent room.I am digging.The analytical side of my brain has completely taken over, running on frantic energy because I haven’t slept more than two hours. After blocking Nancy’s burner number last night, I couldn't stop the loop. Her parting words about Caleb’s father, the old family business, and the accounting discrepancies became a puzzle that my mind refused to leave unsolved.I have three separate terminal windows open on my monitor. I am bypassing the standard commercial search engines, writing custom scripts to c

Cheating

Chapter 65: ViolettaThe open-air market downtown is a chaotic sea of bright colors, loud voices, and the overwhelming scent of fresh flowers and roasted coffee beans. Hundreds of people are moving along the wide pedestrian street, pushing past the white canvas tents of the local vendors under the warm midday sun.Liz is walking a half-step ahead of me, a large paper bag full of fresh pastries cradled in her left arm and a bright green smoothie cup in her right hand. She is fully in her element, chattering away about a vintage denim jacket she saw at a clothing stall three rows back.I am trying my best to follow along, but my feet still feel heavy, and the bright sunlight feels a little too intense after my sleepless night. Still, the cool breeze and the volume of ordinary, everyday life are finally starting to work. The tight knot of anxiety that has been sitting in my stomach since Nancy’s text message is slowly starting to loosen up."I'm telling you, Vi, that jacket would look co

Accident

Chapter 66: ViolettaThe sound of my own frantic breathing is the only thing I can hear as I sprint blindly down the crowded downtown sidewalk. My boots slam hard against the concrete tiles, twisting painfully once or twice as I weave through thick groups of shoppers, but the discomfort means nothing to me right now. The roaring white noise inside my head is too loud, drowning out the noise of the city around me.I can still see it. Every single time I blink my eyes, the image burns into my mind in vivid, agonizing detail: Nancy leaning all the way across that narrow wooden table, her manicured fingers resting on his strong jawline, and her lips pressing firmly against his. And Caleb just sitting there on his chair, letting the entire thing happen right in the middle of a public courtyard.People who hang around Caleb's messes usually end up getting burned by the fire.The toxic poison from her words has turned into a raging torrent, flooding my chest and choking the air straight out

Hospitalized

Chapter 67: ViolettaThe smell of sterile antiseptic, burning floor wax, and cold plastic replaces the copper scent of the avenue, but the clench in my chest stays exactly the same.I am sitting on a low, vinyl chair in the corner of the intensive care waiting room, my knees pulled tightly up to my chest under my chin. Every few minutes, the double doors at the end of the corridor swing open with a loud pneumatic hiss, making my body flinch automatically before a nurse walks past without looking at me.My hands are still stained with the dark, dried smudge of Caleb’s blood near my knuckles. I refuse to go to the bathroom to wash it off. I keep my fingers curled tightly into fists, pressing the rough fabric of my jeans against my skin because it is the only proof I have left that he was warm just a few hours ago.Across the small room, Eli is pacing a tight, repetitive circle near the vending machines. He hasn't taken off his heavy leather motorcycle jacket, and his shoulders are compl

Why

Chapter 68: ViolettaThe small digital clock on the bedside table reads four-fifteen in the morning. Outside the narrow hospital window, the city is dark and silent, but inside the room, the steady, rhythmic hum of the medical monitors never changes.I sit in the small plastic chair pulled close to the edge of the mattress. My laptop is back at the apartment, buried at the bottom of my closet. Yesterday morning, I called my manager and took an indefinite leave of absence from my job. I didn’t give them a long explanation or wait for them to process the paperwork; I just told them I wouldn't be coming in, closed my phone, and came straight back to this room. Nothing on those screens matters anymore. The spreadsheets, the data logs, and the corporate tasks feel like they belong to a completely different life.A small metal basin filled with warm water sits on the bedside table, a faint trail of steam rising into the cool air of the room.I take a small white washcloth from the counter,

Truth

Chapter 69: ViolettaThe silence that follows Eli’s words feels heavier than the mechanical click of the breathing machine beside the bed. I don't move an inch, my fingers still loosely interlaced with Caleb's as I look across the mattress at his brother.Eli runs a rough hand over his face, his eyes fixed on the pale green wave lines of the heart monitor. "Four years ago, our dad’s shop was falling apart," Eli begins, his voice dropping into a low, steady pitch. "Dad was getting older, his memory was slipping, and he was making terrible business decisions. He took out some huge, predatory private loans just to keep the garage doors open, but he didn't tell either of us. He kept the ledger hidden in a locked filing cabinet in his back office."I listen quietly, my chest tightening. "I was twenty-two, stupid, and desperate to help," Eli continues, shaking his head with a bitter expression. "Nancy was the accountant for the shop back then. She came to me with a plan. She said she foun

Guilty

Chapter 70: ViolettaThe morning slowly shifts into a quiet, grey afternoon. The rain begins to tap softly against the hospital glass in a dull rhythm that matches the continuous beep-beep-beep of the heart monitor. Liz and Eli haven't come back upstairs yet, leaving me alone in the dim space with my thoughts.I haven't let go of Caleb's hand. I stay tucked into the small plastic chair, my body leaning against the metal guardrail of the bed. The warmth of his skin is the only thing keeping me grounded as the hours crawl by.Every single conversation we’ve had since the day I moved into apartment 5A keeps running through my mind. I think about the night my car broke down in the rain, and how he simply handed me his jacket without asking a single question about where I had come from or why I looked so terrified. I think about the small, quiet breakfasts he cooked on the hot plate downstairs, always sliding the plate toward me with a low murmur, making sure I ate before he ever took a bi

Home

Chapter 71: ViolettaThe heavy iron security gate of the loft building screeches loudly as I pull it open, the cold metal biting into my palms. The sound echoes through the empty alleyway, sharp and hollow, reminding me of the afternoon Caleb fixed the lower hinges so I wouldn't have to strain my shoulder every time I came home late from work.I step into the dim concrete foyer. The air inside the building carries the familiar, grounded smell of old brick, damp industrial pipes, and the faint, lingering scent of motor oil from the workshop downstairs. For months, that smell meant safety. It meant I was finally home, far away from the polished, deceptive corporate world of mine. But today, the familiar scent presses down on my chest, highlighting the echoing absence of the person who made this place feel like home.I don't go upstairs to my own apartment. I walk down the narrow hallway toward the back of the ground floor. Caleb’s workshop door is unlocked. I push it open slowly, the o

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