جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 170

Blythe’s hands would not stop shaking.She stared at Samuel with tears running down her face.“No. I did none of this.”“Sir, how could I?”“We have spent so many years together. We survived so much side by side. Do you not know what kind of person I am?”Her voice broke.“I have devoted myself to faith for years. How could I ever do such things?”Even with the evidence laid out before her, she still refused to admit anything.Melissa had served Blythe for decades.Now, with nowhere left to retreat, she threw herself forward to shield her.“Sir, punish me.”“I did everything.”“Madam Blythe knew nothing.”Samuel’s anger rose at once.Melissa might have confessed, but he was not blind.She had never possessed enough power to arrange all of this on her own.Had the person be

At that moment, Casarevatti’s fame no longer mattered.Everyone was waiting for Samuel to answer Nola and Norchester.Samuel pressed a hand to his chest.When he finally began, the words came slowly.“I was blinded by anger.”“And by jealousy.”All those years ago, when he believed Willa had betrayed him with Norchester, he had wanted to shoot Norchester where he stood.Willa begged for his life.That was the only reason Samuel let him leave.Then Samuel had Willa dragged back.But once suspicion entered a marriage, nothing could return to what it had been.The woman he loved had become tainted in his eyes.He could not bear it.He hated her for the betrayal he believed she had committed, and no matter how many times she tried to explain, he refused to listen.“I wanted to kill her.”His voice roughened.“But Calder was

Calder took her hand and led her through the corridor toward Chart House.Lights came on inside the small building as they entered.They went upstairs together, still holding hands.The first thing Nola noticed was the wall.Several framed drawings now hung there.Her little turtle sketches.The picture she had made from turtles arranged into his name.He had kept every one of them.Not only kept them, but framed them and placed them where he could see them.Nola sat at the desk, unable to stop the smile gathering at her mouth.Being treasured like this felt unbearably sweet.Calder opened the safe and took out their marriage certificate.He placed it in front of her.Nola looked down.Callan.Nola.So that was why.When she had wanted to see the certificate before, he had hidden it from her.He had married her under his real name from the very beginnin

The voice behind him was painfully familiar.Callan went rigid.For several seconds, he could not turn around.What if he had imagined it?What if ten years of longing had finally begun to play tricks on him?Nola looked past him.An elderly woman stood a short distance away, one hand resting on a bicycle. Metal buckets hung on either side of the rear wheel, both filled with flowers.The woman’s hair was still mostly black, though silver touched her temples. Her eyes were clear and bright. Time had left fine lines at their corners, but it had not taken the beauty from her face.There was something composed and graceful about her, something both gentle and resilient.And something unmistakably familiar in the shape of her eyes.Could this be Willa?“Callan.”Nola caught his arm.“Look.”He turned slowly.The moment the woman saw his face, the bi

Quill hesitated.“Sir, she refuses to sign.”“She says she belongs to the Rook family in life and in death.”He lowered his voice.“And she keeps demanding to see you.”Samuel’s face hardened.“Take me to her.”He hated Blythe.But it was not the same hatred he had once felt toward Willa.With Willa, love had come first. He had believed she betrayed him, and that love had curdled into rage.Blythe was different.She had harmed too many people. She had even plotted his death.There was nothing left in him for her except disgust and the urge to see her punished.Until the divorce was settled, Blythe and Melissa had not yet been handed over to the police.Blythe clung to that delay.Samuel had not sent her away yet.Surely that meant some feeling remained.“Is anyone there?”She struck the b