Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 1 - Chapitre 10

“Aurora,” the coordinator said again, holding the phone out like it burned her fingers. “I don’t …. I don’t know how to say this. Just watch.”Aurora’s hand felt disconnected from her body as she reached for it. The screen was already playing, the volume low, but not low enough. Not low enough to stop the words from reaching her ears and landing somewhere deep in her chest like a stone dropped into water.It was Felix. His face, familiar and terrible all at once, filled the frame. He wasn’t in a tux. He was in a gray T-shirt, sitting on the edge of an unfamiliar bed, and there was a woman’s shoulder visible just at the edge of the shot, bare and close to him in a way that made Aurora’s stomach drop before he even opened his mouth.“Aurora,” he said, and his voice sounded almost bored, almost relieved, like a man setting down something heavy he’d been carrying too long. “I can’t do this. I should have told you sooner, I know. I just ….. I couldn’t. I’m not coming today. I’m sorry.”The

Aurora walked back into the ballroom, chin up, spine straight. She had told herself she would not slip out some side door in shame, and she meant to keep that promise to herself, even now, with every eye in the room turning toward her at once.The whispers started right away. She heard them the way you hear rain start ….small, scattered, then everywhere at once.“That’s her. That’s the bride.”“I heard he sent a video.”“Poor thing. She has no idea what to do with herself.”Aurora kept walking. She fixed her eyes on the small round table near the gift display, the one thing in the room that gave her somewhere to look besides all those faces. Her heels clicked against the floor, slow and steady, and she made herself breathe in a rhythm that wouldn’t show on her skin. She would not let them see her hands shake. She would not let them see anything at all.A woman reached out and touched her arm as she passed. “Sweetheart, are you alright?”“I’m fine,” Aurora said, and kept moving, becaus

The words hung in the air between them. Marry me instead.Aurora felt her own face go hot, but she didn’t take it back.Damien didn’t laugh. That was the first thing she noticed. He simply looked at her, steady and unreadable, like she’d said something ordinary instead of insane.“Say that again,” he said.“Marry me.” Her voice came out steadier the second time. “Right now. Today.”“You don’t know me.”Damien searched her face as if expecting to find the joke hidden somewhere in it. People usually wanted something from the Kingsley name… money, influence, introductions, a place at the family’s table.“You don’t know me either,” she said. “That’s sort of the point.”He studied her for a long moment, gaze moving over the veil still pinned in her hair, the dress she hadn’t changed out of, the composure she was holding together with both hands. “Why.”It wasn’t really a question. It was a demand, quiet and sharp.Aurora made herself answer honestly, because she sensed that anything less

Inside, the courthouse hallway was mostly empty, the lights already dimmed for closing. A woman at the front desk looked up at the three of them with the tired patience of someone who had seen every kind of rushed ceremony this job had to offer.“We need a marriage license,” Damien said, already pulling out his wallet. “Tonight.”“Sir, we close in… ”“I know exactly when you close.” His voice was calm, but there was something underneath it that made the clerk pause. “I’ll make it worth the extra five minutes.”Oliver leaned toward Aurora, dropping his voice to a stage whisper. “He’s very persuasive when he wants to be. Terrifying, honestly. I’ve seen him talk contractors into finishing early with that exact tone.”“Is that supposed to reassure me?”“Depends. Are you easily reassured?”“Not really,” Aurora admitted, and Oliver grinned like that was the correct answer.The clerk disappeared into a back office and returned a minute later with a folder of paperwork, muttering something ab

The apartment building looked exactly the same as it had that morning, which felt wrong somehow, like the world should have changed shape to match everything that had happened inside it.“You don’t have to come,” Aurora said, one hand on the car door.He waited for her to unlock the door first, making it clear he wouldn’t step inside unless she wanted him there.“I know.” Damien was already stepping out on his side. “I’m coming anyway.”“This isn’t your fight.”“It’s not,” he agreed. “I’ll stand behind you. Not in front. This is yours to finish.”Something in her chest loosened slightly at that. Not rescue. Just presence. She could work with presence.They climbed the stairs together, and Aurora let herself into the apartment with a key she still, technically, had every right to use. The lights were on. Voices carried from the kitchen, low and tense.Felix looked up first when she stepped into the doorway. Whatever he’d been about to say died on his face.“Aurora.” He stood too fast,