CHASING THE WIFE HE FORCED TO DIVORCE のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 31 - チャプター 40

I couldn't stop looking at it, the image, Daniel in that chair, hands free, eyes steady, smiling at a camera he knew I would eventually be on the other side of, smiling like someone who had made a decision and was at peace with it.I set the phone down before I threw it.Adrian watched me cross the room, watched me press my back against the wall and slide down until I was sitting on the floor with my knees pulled up and my eyes on the ceiling, he didn't say anything immediately, he just watched, and I was grateful for that because anything he said right now would have been the wrong thing.The ceiling had a crack running from the light fitting toward the far corner, I followed it with my eyes the way you followed something meaningless when your mind was too full for anything meaningful, back and forth, start to finish, start again.Daniel had carried that letter through years of hiding, waiting for the right moment, and then he had appeared at the harbor tonight with my mother's handw

"What happened in Zurich?"Adrian looked at me. For a long moment, he didn't answer. The morning had begun creeping over the city, washing everything in a dull grey light that somehow made the street feel emptier instead of safer. The bracelet Vivian had left behind still rested in my hand, its tiny gold chain tangled between my fingers. He noticed me looking at it. "Put it away.""No.""Elena.""It might be all that's left of her."Something flickered across his face. Not disagreement but pain."I should have reached her first."The words slipped out so quietly I almost missed them."What?"His jaw tightened."Nothing.""No." I stepped closer. "You don't get to do that anymore."He frowned."Do what?""Start telling me the truth then stop halfway through."Silence."I asked you about Zurich.""I know.""And I'm still waiting."He rubbed a hand across his face, exhaustion written into every movement."When I went there..."His voice stopped. Not because he wanted it to but because a

"...Mom?"The line went dead. I didn't lower the phone. I couldn't. The silence that followed felt louder than the voice itself, louder than the traffic waking around us, louder than the blood pounding inside my ears, I stared at the dark screen waiting for it to light up again, waiting for another word, another breath, anything. Nothing came. "Elena."Adrian's voice sounded distant. I still didn't answer. That voice. Every part of me knew it. Not because I wanted to but because no matter how many years passed, no matter how many faces I forgot, no matter how many photographs faded, a daughter never forgot the sound of her mother's voice. "It wasn't her."I looked up sharply."You don't know that.""I do.""You can't."His eyes stayed on mine."They're inside your head now, Elena, they know exactly which wounds to touch.""You heard it.""I heard a recording."My laugh came out hollow."So now you're an expert on my mother too?""I'm an expert on manipulation.""You don't know what

October 14.The date settled between us like smoke, impossible to touch, impossible to see through.I didn't look away from him."You said I can't ask.""I did.""I'm asking anyway."Adrian's fingers tightened around the note until the paper creased beneath his grip."You won't get the answer.""Why."His laugh came quietly, almost bitter."Because if I tell you now..."He stopped. I waited. "...I don't know what it'll do to you."My patience snapped."There it is again."His eyes lifted."You deciding what I can survive .""I'm trying to stop history repeating itself.""You don't get to."I stepped closer."I've spent three years living with consequences you chose for me, don't stand here making another choice."His jaw tightened."You think I don't know that?""I think you keep doing it."Neither of us spoke. The city moved around us. People crossed streets, cars passed, life continued. Yet somehow it felt like the whole world had narrowed to one date. October 14."What happened?"

The words blurred before my eyes.If you're reading this, it means they failed to erase everything. Don't let Adrian remember before you do.I read them again and again. The handwriting wasn't my mother's, it wasn't Daniel's, it wasn't Marcus's. Someone else had written this, someone who knew exactly what had happened on October fourteenth, someone who believed Adrian remembering first would be dangerous.My fingers tightened around the note."Adrian."He was watching the black sedan closing the distance behind us."What?"I folded the paper before he could see it."Nothing."The lie came too quickly.He looked at me for half a second, long enough to know I was hiding something, but the sedan suddenly swerved into the next lane, forcing the taxi driver to jerk the steering wheel hard enough to send all three of us sideways. The driver cursed. "They're trying to pin us."Adrian leaned forward."Take the underpass.""That road's closed.""Not completely."The driver hesitated."You've