Pregnant By My Ex's Brother のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 31 - チャプター 40

ELENA By mid-afternoon the nausea had become a living thing.It sat under my ribs and rose in slow, mean waves every time someone walked past with coffee or the printer released another burst of hot paper smell. I kept a sleeve of plain crackers in my top drawer and ate them one by one like medicine, praying no one noticed. Jess noticed everything.“You’ve gone green again,” she whispered, rolling her chair until our knees almost touched. “That’s the fourth time today. If you vomit on this expensive carpet I’m telling everyone it was a protest.”“I’m fine.”“You’re the least fine person on this floor. And that includes the man in the corner office who looks like he eats board members for breakfast.”I didn’t answer. Speaking felt risky. I pressed my lips together and stared at the revised elevation on my screen until the lines stopped swimming.Across the floor, Damien’s door opened.I knew the sound now; the soft hydraulic sigh of the frosted glass, the shift in the hallway air. I

I shouldn’t have come.That was the first clear thought that cut through the static in my head as I stood frozen near the entrance of the executive floor, the tall plant only half-hiding me.I had taken the day off yesterday. The nausea had finally eased after I’d forced down the medication the pharmacist swore was safe, and for the first time in days my body had felt like something I could control again. This morning I had woken up with a single, stubborn decision:I needed answers.Not the version Damien had given me in my bedroom; the controlled confession about years of watching, the scholarship, the waiting. I needed the rest of it. Why he had stayed in the shadows while his brother dated me. Why he had never approached me before that night in the bar. Why a man who claimed I had lived in his head for years had been content to let Marcus have me.I had come early, hoping to catch him before the floor filled. I had stood near the entrance with my bag and my carefully rehearsed

Something inside me snapped.“My sickness is none of your business.”The words came out sharper than I intended, loud enough that Damien’s eyes narrowed. I didn’t care. The combination of Marcus’s voice still echoing in my head, the years of secret watching, and the way Damien kept looking at my stomach like he had a right to the truth made the last of my restraint crack.“I already took something for it,” I continued, voice tight. “It’s handled. I don’t need you diagnosing me, sending cars, or watching me like I’m about to collapse again. Stop using it as a distraction.”Damien’s expression didn’t change, but the air around him did. Cooler. More focused.“It’s not a distraction.”“Yes it is.” I stepped closer, anger giving me courage I wouldn’t have had two weeks ago. “You’ve been dodging the only questions that matter since the night you decided to confess. Why were you watching me for years? Why did you pay for my school and then stay in the shadows while your brother dated me? Why

“Watch me.”The words were still hanging between us when Damien moved.He didn’t walk away. He pulled his phone from his pocket, made a single call, and spoke in that low, flat voice that made people on the other end of the line straighten their spines.“Dana. Elena Harper’s transfer request is permanently closed. Effective today she reports directly to me on the east-wing project. Move her desk to the glass office adjacent to mine. I want it done before the end of the day.”He hung up without waiting for a reply.I stared at him. “You can’t just reassign me like a piece of furniture.”“I just did.”The corridor suddenly felt too narrow. I could hear my own pulse. Somewhere around the corner the ordinary sounds of the floor continued ; keyboards, muted voices, but here it was only the two of us and the decision he had just made without my consent.“You’re unbelievable,” I said, voice low and shaking with anger. “You don’t get to rearrange my career because you don’t like that I tried

Marcus looked me over like he had every right to.My mouth still throbbed from Damien’s kiss. My skin still felt too hot where his hands had been. Standing under the building lights with Marcus’s eyes on me made the residual heat turn into something sick.“Fun night at the office, Ellie?” he repeated, pushing off the car. The two men in suits stayed where they were, silent, watching. Not employees. Not friends. The kind of men who only appeared when someone wanted a point made without saying it out loud.I adjusted the strap of my bag and kept my voice flat. “Move. I’m going home.”Marcus smiled without warmth. “You’ve been avoiding me for weeks. Then I hear you’re not only working in my brother’s building, you’re sitting outside his office like a pet. And tonight you come downstairs looking like that.” His gaze flicked deliberately to my mouth again. “So no. You’re not going home yet. We’re going to talk.”“We have nothing to talk about.”“We have everything to talk about.” He took a