All Chapters of The Wrong Bernardi: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

78 Chapters

i kept the card anyway

Rhysand’s mouth moved slightly. The man apparently considered a full smile an unnecessary expense.“I can multitask.”His voice was low and calm. Almost polite, if you ignored the fact that he’d just stepped closer and was now standing near enough behind me to make a kitchen island the size of a tennis court feel cramped.“Congratulations,” I said. “I’m sure the board of directors is very proud.”“I wasn’t talking about work.”“Of course not. If you were, that sentence would’ve come with three lawyers and a confidentiality clause.”His hand rested on the marble beside me.I could see his reflection in the black surface of the island. Dark shirt. Broad shoulders. Head tilted slightly toward me. My own face appeared in front of his reflection, calm and beautiful, like a woman who was absolutely not standing in someone else’s fiancée’s kitchen with a man who believed his ability to use his mouth for two different functions was an important contribution to the discussion.“I don’t need la

the napkins stayed ivory

Mrs. Marie straightened her back, even though it was already perfectly straight. “I had no intention of offending anyone.”“Good,” Rhysand said. “Then there’s no need to repeat it.”Gracie looked at him, then at me.There was relief on her face. Embarrassment too. And something softer when she looked at Rhysand, something that made me want to grab a lemon from the centerpiece and bite into it whole so I’d have a logical reason for the sour taste in my mouth.I closed the folder a little too hard.Everyone looked at me.“I wasn’t finished answering,” I said.Rhysand’s gaze shifted to me.Mrs. Marie froze for a second. “Go ahead.”I folded my hands over the folder. The card was still inside. Its edge pressed against my palm through the cover, thin and irritating.“If there are concerns about the timeline, staffing, vendor management, or deliverables, ask me. I’m happy to discuss my work.” I looked at Mrs. Marie. “But my family is not part of this wedding’s risk assessment.”My gaze move

the softest thing i’m afraid to lose

Saturday morning arrived with malicious intent and two small feet.I knew this because my mattress started bouncing.Once.Twice.Then again, higher and more disrespectful, until the pillow beneath my cheek shifted and the last fragments of my dream, involving the ocean, a dark room, and a business card with handwriting that had no business having access to my nervous system, shattered like cheap glass.I didn’t open my eyes.Adult women needed to maintain the illusion of control, even when their four-year-old was turning a king-size bed into a NASA training facility.“Mami,” Aiden said from somewhere near my feet. He already sounded out of breath, even though the day hadn’t had a chance to defend itself yet. “Mami, I’m awake.”I stayed silent.The mattress bounced again. “I woke up by myself. Nobody woke me. My eyes opened by themselves because I’m responsible.”Boing....his little butt landed near my knees.God, give me strength. Or espresso. Either one would be enough for now.“And

morning Sin at the front door

“Mami!” Aiden laughed even harder.I finally let him go before the child turned into human pudding in backward dinosaur pajamas. He rolled away, cheeks red, black hair falling messily over his forehead, and looking far too pleased with himself for someone who had just lost a tickle war.“Pancakes,” he said, pointing at me like a tiny judge.“Buenos días to you too, carb dictator.”Twenty minutes later, my kitchen had turned into something between a Latin family breakfast and a crime scene involving maple syrup.Because of course I wasn’t just making pancakes. I had ancestors. My ancestors would rise from the ground, put on aprons, and hit me with spatulas if I served one kind of carbohydrate and called it breakfast.So there were blueberry pancakes on one side of the stove, huevos pericos in a skillet, small arepas cooking until the edges turned golden, sliced avocado with lime, maduros, large strawberries because a handsome four-year-old man had demanded his masculine rights, and my

intruder with abs

Rhysand walked in like my house had sent him a formal invitation with embossed initials.No hesitation. No waiting for me to say come in. No asking whether the man who had just barged into my Saturday morning wearing a black T-shirt and carrying a bakery bag was allowed to bring his entire expensive aura through the foyer.He simply stepped inside.Aiden immediately followed beside him, nearly bouncing with every step. His black hair was still messy from bed, his dinosaur pajamas were backward, his cheeks were red, and his entire body vibrated with happiness that showed absolutely no respect for my position as the official adult in this house.“Uncle Car, I have two cars,” he said quickly, as though Rhysand didn’t already know and the nation needed to hear it again. “The red one is fast. The graphite one is cool. But the red one has lights. But the graphite one is from you, so it’s special. But the red one is special too because Abuelo bought it. But if they race, I have to be fair.”

his son. no, mine.

I stared at his hands one second too long.A small mistake. Very human. Completely unrelated to the fact that I still knew exactly what those fingers felt like against my skin.I turned away before my brain could open files no one had requested, then walked back into the kitchen carrying the spatula like a woman with dignity, a half-finished breakfast, and a dangerous man standing in her dining room with his son.His son.No.My sonGrammar mattered. Especially when life was attempting a hostile takeover of your house before nine in the morning.“Uncle Car, this pastry has cheese, but it’s also sweet. So it’s confused.”“It doesn’t look bothered,” Rhysand said.“I’m confused sometimes too, but I’m still handsome.”I stopped in front of the stove and closed my eyes for a second.I turned the heat back on beneath the huevos pericos. The eggs were still soft, thank God. The tomatoes and scallions had blended together nicely, the yellow looked warm, and the smell was normal enough to make

the chair beside my son

The spatula moved slowly in my hand. I set it on the edge of the plate. I picked up the bowl of avocado, squeezed a little lime over it, then rearranged the slices with the tip of a fork.There was no safe answer to that sentence.If I denied it, Aiden’s face was sitting ten feet away from us while he stole strawberries with a technique that was clearly underfunded.If I agreed, I opened a door I had spent five years holding shut with both hands.So I exhaled and chose a third option. Forced labor.“If you want to have breakfast with us,” I said without looking at him, “you have to be useful.”“Dangerous,” he said.“What?”“Giving me conditions I can meet.”I lifted the bowl of huevos pericos and pushed it toward his side of the island. “Take this to the table.”Rhysand picked it up immediately.He didn’t ask where it went. He didn’t make a comment about being a guest. He didn’t look at me like carrying a bowl was beneath the dignity of a man who probably signed documents worth more t

no object was worth his fear

Saturday had barely started, and two male with the same face had already formed a coalition at my dining table.I picked up Aiden’s plate first, because the hierarchy in this house was simple. Small children got food. Adults got rules. Handsome intruders got whatever was left after I made sure they weren’t planning a coup through maple syrup.“One pancake,” I said, setting it in front of Aiden.“Two.”“One.”“I’m big.”“You still need help finding your own socks.”“That’s because socks like to leave.”“One pancake.”Aiden looked at the pancake, then at Rhysand with a hopeful face.“Listen to your mami.” Rhysand picked up the coffee cup I had just placed in front of him.I paused with the spoon hovering over the huevos pericos. “Good answer.”“I learn fast.”“We haven’t reached the difficult part yet.”His eyes moved to my face. “When is that?”“When you start talking.”Aiden let out a heavy sigh, the kind belonging to someone trapped between two immature adults who had to keep the tab

front-row seats to my destruction

I looked between them.This conversation should have felt ridiculous.Instead, it felt far too intimate.Rhysand wasn’t entertaining Aiden with that fake voice adults usually used when talking to children. He wasn’t smiling too much or saying wow every three seconds like Aiden had just discovered electricity.He spoke to him like Aiden was a small human being with thoughts of his own.And Aiden, who usually needed seventeen minutes to accept a new person before he started managing their life, had already granted him full access to the pancake legal system.Rhysand cut off a piece of arepa. “Does he always frown before he lies?”I nearly dropped my fork.Aiden lifted his head. “I don’t.”His forehead immediately creased.Rhysand looked at him.Then at me.I looked at the ceiling.“I don’t frown,” Aiden said again, louder.The line between his eyebrows deepened.Rhysand rested an elbow on the table. “Of course.”“I’m serious.”“Of course.”Aiden looked at me for support. “Mami.”I stabb

genetics filed the paperwork

And most unsettling of all, for a few very small, very stupid seconds, neither of them looked like they were in the wrong place.I hated the picture.Especially because the picture was currently eating my last pancake.“I’m done,” Aiden announced.I looked at his plate. Half the eggs were still sitting in the corner he had defended earlier like disputed territory. One piece of maduros remained untouched. Two of the strawberries he claimed had already become friends with Rhysand were still there.“You’re not done.”“I’m full.”“You just asked for a second pastry.”“My pastry stomach is different.”Rhysand took a sip of coffee. “That’s a fairly strong explanation.”I looked at him. “You’re free to go home.”Aiden immediately grabbed Rhysand’s arm with both small hands. “No. Uncle Car hasn’t seen the cars.”“I’ve seen your cars,” Rhysand said, lowering his cup.“Not both together.”“Aiden,” I said.He was already climbing down from his chair, one end of the napkin still caught in the wai

...

3 4 5 6 7 8

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP