Todos los capítulos de The Substitute Bride: Capítulo 51 - Capítulo 56

Claire went upstairs without a word, her mind still turning over what she'd heard on the terrace. She changed into her nightclothes slowly, replaying the fragments again and again as she moved, trying to arrange them into something that made sense. Delete it, she kept hearing. And somewhere in there, a name. Victoria. She got into bed and pulled the blanket up to her chin, though sleep felt impossibly far away. She stared at the ceiling, going back over the last few weeks in her head, every strange phone call, every sudden change in his mood, the aunt who hadn't really called, the night he'd disappeared without explanation after she'd been discharged, Victoria sitting so comfortably in their sitting room like she had every right to be there. None of it had made sense on its own. Together, it was starting to form a shape she didn't like. She heard Adrian's footsteps on the stairs sometime later, slower than usual, like a man bracing himself for something. He paused at the bedroom doo

Victoria called back within the hour, her tone entirely different from the icy calm of their last conversation."I don't want to fight over the phone anymore," she said. "Come to my apartment. Let's actually talk, face to face, like adults.""No.""I still have the pictures, Adrian." Her voice stayed level, almost gentle, which made it worse. "Don't make me remind you of that every time."He stood there a long moment, phone pressed to his ear, weighing every bad option against every worse one."One conversation," he said finally. "That's it."* * *Adrian checked on Claire before he left and found her asleep, curled on her side, her breathing slow and even. He stood in the doorway a moment, something heavy settling in his chest at the sight of her, before he quietly pulled the door shut and went to find one of the staff."If she wakes up and asks where I am," he said, "tell her I went to see Marsh."The lie came out of him so easily now that it barely registered as one anymore, and th

"So what changed," Claire asked, her voice even, almost gentle, the kind of gentle that unsettled him more than anger would have. "You told the staff you were going to see Marsh. Then you weren't with Marsh. So what changed?" "I was going to see him," Adrian said carefully. "Then something came up. I had to deal with it instead." "What came up?" "A personal matter." Claire tilted her head slightly, watching him the way she'd started watching him this past week, patient, unhurried, like she had all the time in the world to wait him out. "What kind of personal matter?" "It's handled now. It doesn't matter." "It matters to me." "Did it involve Victoria?" "No." "Okay," Claire said finally. "I believe you." Her voice was calm, almost warm, and for one brief, foolish second Adrian let himself think the conversation was actually over. Then she stood, gathering her book off the sofa, and walked past him toward the stairs without another word. * * * He found her in the kitchen an h