All Chapters of My Husband's Stepbrother Is My First Love : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

“I refuse to let an orphan give birth to the first Blackthorne heir.”My hand froze inches from the living room door, and suddenly I couldn't breathe,the paper bag hanging from my wrist slipped, but I caught it just before the bottle of Cabernet could shatter against the floor and resting beside it was a small vanilla cake decorated with four tiny candles.Today was my fourth wedding anniversary,I’d spent the entire afternoon convincing myself that this year would be different, but hope was a fragile, foolish thing.Inside, my mother-in-law spoke again, her voice sharp and clinical. "Every time I introduce Aurelia as my daughter-in-law, people look at me with pity.""Aunt Vivienne... please don't upset yourself," a gentle voice replied,Bianca.Of course she was here,my stomach tightened as Vivienne gave a cold laugh."Tell me, Bianca, what has she actually brought into this family? She’s an orphan with no influential family and no connections and after four years of marriage..." Her t

I hardly slept.Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the faded photograph.His smile.The way he used to look at me, as though I was the only person in the world,I had spent four years trying to bury those memories beneath the life I'd chosen, yet a single picture was enough to bring it all rushing back.By morning, I returned the wooden box to the bottom drawer and turned the key.Some memories were safer in the dark.Blackthorne Global was unusually lively when I arrived.Employees who normally walked through the lobby with quiet professionalism were huddled in small groups, whispering excitedly."He's finally back.""I heard he doubled the international profits.""They say he turned down three Fortune 500 companies just to come home."I frowned, stepping into the elevator,whoever they were talking about had certainly captured the building's attention.The moment I reached the executive lobby, I saw Cassian standing near the stage, talking with several board members. Unlike the staff,

Aurelia's POV He crossed the street like the rain wasn't even happening to him. I stayed pressed against the covered entrance, watching him get closer, telling myself to move, to say something normal, to act like this was any other night. My legs didn't listen. "You're going to catch a cold standing there," Kael said, stopping a few feet from me, rain sliding off his shoulders like it had given up trying to touch him. "My driver's stuck in traffic." "I heard." He glanced past me into the ballroom, where the party was still going, muffled and golden through the glass doors. "Cassian left in a hurry." "He had a meeting." "At this hour?" I didn't answer that, I didn't have to. He already knew what kind of answer it would be. "I can take you home," he said.....simple, like it wasn't a big deal, like no time at all had passed since the last time he'd said something like that to me. "You don't have to do that." "I know I don't." Thunder rolled somewhere over the city, and the win

Aurelia's POVThe dress was midnight blue, backless, chosen because Vivienne had specifically told me to wear something that "wouldn't embarrass the family in front of the board." I zipped it myself. Cassian hadn't come home in time to help, and some petty, wounded part of me hadn't texted him to remind him.The private dining room at Blackthorne Global had floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Manhattan, the city lit up gold and white below us like something out of a postcard nobody in this family actually stopped to look at. Board members clustered near the bar, waiters moved through with trays of champagne no one was drinking fast enough.Cassian found me the second I walked in, his hand landing at the small of my back like a claim staked in front of witnesses."You look beautiful," he said, close to my ear."You're late," I said back, not unkindly. Just true."I know, I'm sorry. The Henderson account....""It's fine, Cassian."It wasn't, but saying so at a table full of board memb

Aurelia's POVKael's assistant scheduled our meeting for Wednesday morning, ten o'clock, in a small conference room on the thirty-second floor of Blackthorne Global....neutral ground, one floor below Cassian's office and two below Kael's, close enough to be convenient, far enough to avoid an audience.I arrived at nine fifty-five with a folder of vendor quotes I didn't need to have memorized and had memorized anyway.He was already there when I walked in, jacket off, sleeves rolled to his forearms, a laptop open in front of him and two cups of coffee sitting on the table. One black. One with a splash of cream and no sugar.I stopped in the doorway."You didn't have to do that," I said."It's coffee, Aurelia. Not a declaration of anything."But he'd remembered. Cream, no sugar, the exact way I used to take it years ago, the exact way I still took it now, and neither of us said a word about what that meant.I sat down across from him and pulled out the folder, mostly so I'd have somethi