บททั้งหมดของ I Buried My Fiancé And Married His Brother: บทที่ 61 - บทที่ 70

ChristabelSophie had every available officer combing the riverside within twenty minutes, and still we stood in that lobby doing nothing useful, waiting, which felt like its own kind of torture after everything that had already happened this week."There has to be something we can do," I said, pacing a tight circle near the elevators. "Sitting here isn't helping anyone.""Running out into the streets blind isn't helping anyone either," Sebastian said, though I could hear how much the stillness was costing him too, his voice tight, his hands flexing at his sides like he needed somewhere to put the energy building up inside him.Beatrix arrived twenty minutes later, having heard the news from Sophie's team, and the sight of her face, pale and stricken, told me everything about how she'd received it."This is my fault," she said, before either of us could say anything. "If I hadn't spent three years protecting his secrets, if I'd told the truth the moment I suspected something was wrong

ChristabelSophie spent the next three days buried in legal filings, working with Fournier's office to get the fraudulent claim dismissed, and I watched Sebastian retreat further into himself with each passing hour, the warmth from that hallway conversation replaced by something colder, more controlled, a version of him I hadn't seen since the very first days of our marriage."You're doing it again," I said, finding him in his office late one night, hunched over documents he'd already read a dozen times. "Shutting everyone out. Handling it alone.""I'm handling a legal crisis, Christabel. That requires focus.""It requires focus. It doesn't require pushing away everyone who's trying to help you through it." I crossed my arms, watching him carefully. "You haven't slept properly in three days. You barely eat unless Odette puts a plate directly in front of you. Jane asked me yesterday why Papa doesn't smile anymore."Something flickered across his face, guilt and exhaustion tangled toget

SebastianThe note was sitting on Gabriel's neatly made bed when we got there, folded once, my name written across the front in handwriting I hadn't seen since we were kids passing messages under our father's dinner table.Christabel read it over my shoulder, her breath catching audibly at the first line.*I can't sit here and let you two fight my war while I hide behind your security team. I know where she'd go if things went wrong. I'm going to find her myself and end this, one way or another. If I'm wrong about this, I'm sorry. For everything. Tell Jane I loved her, even from a distance.*"He's going to get himself killed," Christabel said, her voice tight with fear. "Sebastian, this reads like a goodbye.""I know." I was already moving, pulling up Sophie's number, my hands steadier than I expected given how fast my heart was hammering. "Sophie, I need every camera near the factory checked immediately, and pull Gabriel's phone location if it's still on.""Already on it, sir. His ph

Sebastian Fournier's office looked different in daylight, warmer somehow, though I suspected that had more to do with the news we'd brought him than any actual change in the room itself. "With Vivienne Aubert's arrest and the fraudulent nature of the ownership claim now thoroughly documented," Fournier said, reviewing the file Sophie had prepared, "I'm prepared to dismiss the filing entirely. As for the arbiter petition, given Madame Vettel's formal withdrawal yesterday, that matter is resolved as well." "So it's over," I said, still not quite trusting the words even as I said them myself. "The legal matters, yes. I'll have the formal dismissal filed by end of day." Fournier removed his glasses, studying us both with an expression that carried more warmth than I'd seen from him throughout this entire ordeal. "I want to say something, if you'll permit me, outside my role as arbiter. I've handled a great many estate disputes in my career, Mr. Vettel. Few of them involved anything clo

SebastianGabriel adjusted his tie for the fourth time in as many minutes, and I finally reached over and fixed it myself, the way I used to when we were kids and he'd inevitably show up to some family function looking like he'd dressed in the dark."You look fine," I said. "Stop fidgeting.""Easy for you to say. You're not the one about to stand in front of a judge and admit to years of theft in front of a courtroom full of strangers.""No, but I'm the one who spent three years grieving a version of you that turned out to be built on a lie, and I'm still here, still showing up, so I think that earns me the right to tell you to stop fidgeting with your tie."Gabriel huffed out something that was almost a laugh, nervous and thin, but real. "Fair enough."Christabel sat on his other side, having insisted on coming despite Gabriel's initial protests that she didn't owe him anything close to this kind of support. Beatrix sat behind us, composed but visibly tense, her hands folded tightly