Lahat ng Kabanata ng THE WIFE THEY BURIED : Kabanata 21 - Kabanata 30

**Sam's POV** I don't want to go anywhere. Especially not some foreign country with a man who took lives the way other men played cards, easy, without thinking twice, already moving on to the next hand before the last one finished, just like the way he'd pulled me into his world and never once left the door unlocked behind him. He kept me in it and threw the key somewhere I'd never find it. We'd been in the sky for hours by the time the light outside the window finally gave up and went dark. I lost count somewhere after the third hour, staring at nothing, my mind circling the same handful of thoughts until they wore grooves into themselves. The Salvatores, who would wake tomorrow to a family member gone and a story already built to explain it away. And Adrian… what does he actually want from me, underneath the contract, underneath the ring, underneath every careful, deliberate thing he did with his hands whenever he touched me like he owned the right to. It's been a month now.

*Sam's POV* "No." The word left my mouth before I could stop it, before I'd even finished deciding I meant it. He went completely still, and the air in the room seemed to tighten around both of us, pulled taut like something about to snap. "What did you just say?" he asked, each word set down deliberately, like giving me one chance to take it back. I forced my chin higher even though my pulse was hammering against my throat. "I reject it. I… don't… want anything to do with a man whose hands are that dirty. And I will not fake intimacy with you. Not more of it. Not any of it." "Brave of you," he said, low, testing the word as if he wasn't sure yet whether it was a compliment or a warning. I swallowed hard, my fear sitting sharp under my ribs, but I refused to look away from him. "I have rights in this arrangement," I said, steadier now. "So no. I will not stand beside you smiling like some devoted wife while everyone watches." He stepped closer, and the space between us shrank

**Sam's POV** The white dress made me feel like a target under the thinning light, as I moved down the gravel path, searching for a white headstone, but there wasn't one. Only grey slabs, black marble, the occasional pale granite worn soft by years of rain. Every name I passed belonged to someone I didn't know, and none of the stones were the color the note had promised me. Suddenly Diego's name surfaced in my mind before I could stop it. What if he had found out who I was, and this was his way of dragging me back into whatever I thought I'd escaped from. The hem of the dress dragged through wet grass, soaking through at the edges as I kept walking. The air smelled like wet sand and the faint sweet rot of old flowers left too long in the sun. Something pale caught my eye near the boundary wall, low against a grave I had just noticed. A white paper, weighted down by a single lily. I crouched down, my dress pooling around my knees, and picked it up. A photograph, I turned it aro

**Adrian's POV** She was sitting where I'd instructed Theo to keep her, her wrist was raw at the edge of the cuff, spine straight despite everything the last few hours had put her through. I crossed the room slowly, watching the way her eyes tracked every step without her head actually turning to follow me. Her hair had come loose from whatever style the maids had pinned it into that morning, dark strands falling loose around her face, still faintly damp at the ends from the rain. Her eyes found mine and held there, steady, dark enough in this light that I couldn't tell where the color ended and the pupil began. The slit in her gown had shifted where she'd been sitting, baring most of her leg, from the knee up to her thigh, my gaze dropped there before I could stop myself, then back up, slower than I meant to allow. She sat there matching my patience with hers, which told me more about her than a hundred questions would have. "You've got an hour left, Mrs. Samantha Dela Cruz

**Sam's POV** The words sat in the air longer than they should have. "The Laurent alliance," he said, "will be formalized tonight. Signed before this council disperses. The terms have waited long enough." A few approving murmurs rolled down the table's length, quiet, satisfied, men who'd clearly been waiting months for exactly this sentence. Vivienne laughed, smoothing her dress with both palms, unhurried, claiming the ground one motion at a time. "It's overdue," she said, simple, composed, though something underneath the composure sat too careful to be entirely comfortable. "I think everyone at this table agrees the timing has already cost us more than it should have." "Agreed," A woman said from further down, quick enough to sound rehearsed. Adrian let the silence stretch the way he always let silence stretch, unbothered, until even the satisfied murmurs thinned out waiting for him to fill it. "There will be a signing," he said finally. "Not tonight." His eyes moved onc