Married to My Enemy's Son のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 21 - チャプター 30

By the fourth week, the tutoring sessions had become routine. Cullen arrived on time. Nadia was usually already there. Neither of them mentioned it, but the sessions had become the easiest part of the week. He complained about the reading material in the specific, vocal way that meant he had actually done it, because students who hadn't done the reading tended to complain in much vaguer terms. Cullen's complaints were precise. He had opinions about specific passages, specific word choices, and specific moments in the argument where he felt the author had made a decision he disagreed with. This was, as Nadia had learned, the clearest possible sign that he was engaged. What she had not fully appreciated until now was how methodically he was also extracting information about her. It had started subtly. A question about whether she had always wanted to teach, slipped in between two annotations. A comment about the estate that was phrased as an observation but was actually a question ab

The temperature dropped overnight. By six-fifteen, every surface on the estate was edged with frost. The gravel on the driveway was frozen solid. Nadia looked out her bathroom window, thinking briefly that she should find her heavy coat before going downstairs. She didn't look for it. She had been awake since five-thirty, turning over a name she had seen on a board paper Caiden left on the kitchen counter three days ago. She hadn't meant to read it—she had put the paper back the moment she realized what it was—but the name stayed with her. By the time she showered and dressed, she was running behind. The coat was in the bottom drawer of the wardrobe. She left it there. She told herself the car and the school were both heated. The walk between them was less than a minute. She gathered her bag, her lesson folders, and the stack of marked Year Twelve papers, and went downstairs. The kitchen was empty. Caiden was usually at the counter making coffee by six, but he was already gone. Na

The call came on a Thursday evening, just after seven.Nadia was in the small sitting room on the second floor, her legs tucked beneath her, a stack of Year Eleven practice essays balanced on the arm of the chair beside her tea. The house was quiet. Cullen was studying, and Caiden was in his study.Her phone lit up on the cushion beside her.*Amara.*Nadia picked up already suspecting this wasn't a social call."Hey," she said."Hey." Amara’s voice had that careful quality Nadia recognized immediately. It usually meant she wanted something. "Are you busy?""Marking," Nadia said. "What is it?"The pause told her exactly where this was going."I need a bit of help," Amara said. "It’s not much. I just need to cover something until the end of the month, and then I’ll be completely fine.""How much?""Three thousand."Nadia set her pen down on the essay she had been annotating. The student had made the same mistake three paragraphs in a row. Not carelessness. Just a misunderstanding they h

The business dinner was on a Friday.Leo had sent the details on Tuesday: seven-thirty, a private room at Alden House, eight guests, corporate. By now, Nadia understood the format. She chose a charcoal dress—formal, understated, and completely functional. She came downstairs at seven to find Caiden already in the hallway, reviewing something on his phone.He looked up when she came down. His eyes moved over her in his brief, assessing way,a look that lasted less than a second and gave nothing away—before he pocketed the phone and moved toward the door.The car was quiet on the way there. She had long since stopped trying to fill the silence. It suited him, and eventually, it had become natural for her too.Alden House was an old private members' establishment in the older part of the city. The private dining room was on the first floor, panelled in dark wood, set for eight. The other guests were already present when they arrived: two men she recognized from a previous event, a propert

They did not speak much in the elevator on the way down or in the lobby as they crossed toward the exit. The hospital hummed quietly around them. People passed in both directions, speaking in lowered voices, as though the building itself expected it. Nadia carried her bag on her shoulder and kept her pace steady. The photograph stayed where she'd put it.Outside, the February air was cold and clear, the kind of afternoon that was bright without being warm. The hospital sat on a wide avenue in the west of the city. The pavement outside was broad enough that even the steady stream of visitors never felt crowded.The car was in the parking structure across the avenue. Caiden had said so on the way in. They came through the hospital's main doors and he turned right, toward the pedestrian crossing at the corner, and she turned with him.They walked side by side often enough. This time, something felt different. It took her half a minute to realise what it was. He had slowed down. She had s