جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 20

I twisted it open and dragged it across my lips without bothering to stay inside the lines. The color smeared crookedly across my mouth and the sight pulled a bitter laugh out of me. I stared at the woman in the mirror. Untidy. Unattractive. Unforgettable for all the wrong reasons. The more I looked at her, the less confident I felt. A heavy knot of dread settled deep in my stomach, dragging everything else down with it. Why did I do this? Why was I changing myself for him? Hadn't I already sacrificed enough for a love that had only ever brought me pain? The questions kept coming, louder than the last. They crashed over me in relentless waves, stealing the air from my lungs, leaving me frozen beneath the crushing weight of my own mind. I was spiraling. My flaws seemed beyond repair with each passing second. Mistakes that had once felt manageable now appeared completely irreparable. I couldn't separate reality from the lies my panic kept feeding me. I was losing my grip.

“Your consent is irrelevant, Nadia. You belong by my side forever, even if I must shackle you to me.” A chill crept down my spine. “Why would you even do that?” I said in a shaky voice. “Because people have started asking questions.” My heart skipped. “What kind of questions?” “I don't know yet. But someone at the club recorded us together.” I wrapped my arms around myself, hoping he wouldn't notice the tremor in my hands. “And your answer is to drag me—a stripper—into your world?” “My answer is to keep you where I can protect you.” A soundless laugh slipped past my lips. “Protect me? By putting me on display?” “For one evening,” he replied evenly. “And they didn't recognize you as Nadia.” I frowned. “What do you mean?” “They thought you were someone else.” Silence stretched between us. “They thought you were Jackie Malcolm.” Every muscle in my body tightened. Jackie was my new identity. I had been living as her for the past seven years. Alex’s eyes narrowed, catch

I knew Ariella would discover who I truly was sooner or later. People in this world survive on information. Secrets were never buried for long, especially when there were enough people searching for scandals to whisper about. Alex stayed by my side the entire night. He played the attentive partner perfectly. He made sure I had everything I needed, guided me through chats, and kept his attention on me whenever we were surrounded by people. From the outside, it looked convincing. But the longer the night went on, the more I wondered if this was never about making me feel wanted. Perhaps, he only intended for the public to conclude he had really fallen for a strip, or to embarrass his wife. Whatever the reason was, it was uncomfortable for me. His hand remained wrapped around my waist and his face stayed inches from mine. The angle created the illusion that we were isolated from the rest of the world. By the time the party started to fade around me, I couldn't tell whether it was

“Why are you so driven to uncover the truth?” I blurted the question out. I desperately wanted to take back those words a second later because of how Alex’s dark eyes lost all warmth. His jaw tightened just enough that I nearly missed it. He looked at me without saying a word, and somehow the suffocating hush carried the weight of betrayal. My heart plunged. I opened my mouth to retract the question, but it was too late. The bullet had already penetrated his heart really deep, and all I could do was add more words instead of remaining silent. “The truth is I left because staying would've destroyed us.” Alex pinned me with his gaze, drawing in a sharp breath before he forced the words out. “Do you have any idea what that did to me?” “I know.” “No,” he said, shaking his head. “You don't.” Tracking my fear and uncertainty from above, his dark eyes searched my face as his hand rose to trace my mouth. The air seemed to leave my lungs all at once when he parted my lips and slid

Every evening, I sat by the window until the sun dipped below the horizon, hoping his car would cross the threshold. But he didn't come. My mind replayed our moments together on an endless loop, worrying over what had happened when he got home. Word had surely reached his wife about the other woman. A toxic dread consumed me, wondering if she had unmasked me as Nadia, or if she believed I was Jackie. This agonizing, drawn-out suspense fed my obsession, locking me inside a prison of my own frantic mind. Hours later, I stared at my reflection in his mirror, bracing for the sound of his footsteps while wearing the silk nightgown he had forced me into on our first night here. The bitterest pill to swallow was this estate— His true home was with her, and I was just a shameful, kept secret. I ached for him with a sickening intensity. It was pathetic to crave him like this. I had no right to yearn for a man whose only interest in me was using my mouth for his own selfish pleasure, b