I Married The Wrong Brother のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 31 - チャプター 40

No Right AnswerNatalie's POVThe pencil mark was still faint on the door frame in the hallway — Noah's height, taken three days after we moved in, because he'd asked and I hadn't had the heart to tell him we didn't know yet how long we'd be staying. I ran my thumb over it while the rice finished, the way you touch a bruise to check if it still hurts.It still hurt. It just hurt in a new shape now. Three weeks ago this had been a kindness I didn't understand. Tonight it was a line item in a legal filing with my name typed next to it.I'd spent most of the afternoon after Vance's call doing the math I always did when I didn't have enough information to do it properly — nine o'clock, same room, trial prep, a few logistics. I'd run through every version of what that could mean between the design studio and the drive home, and none of them had landed anywhere good enough to stop running it.By the time I pulled into the driveway I'd talked myself down twice and back up once, which was, lat

The Ruling She Won't GiveNatalie's POVThe courtroom smelled like cold coffee and carpet cleaner.It was such an ordinary smell for a place where people's lives were being pulled apart that it unsettled me more than I expected. I had been sitting there for almost twenty minutes, listening to the shuffle of papers and the low murmur of lawyers speaking to one another, trying not to look at the clock.Vance had told me what to wear three days ago—nothing new, nothing that looked like it cost anything, hair back, hands still—and I'd followed all of it.“Judge Halloway doesn't like theater,” Vance murmured beside me as we took our seats. “If Daniel's counsel gives you any, let them have the room. You don't need it.”Daniel looked at me when he came in.He stopped for half a second, his eyes locking onto mine from across the courtroom. There was no surprise in them, no regret, nothing that resembled the man I had once married.Only hatred.Cold, deliberate, and unmistakable.As if I were t

The Unannounced DayNatalie's POVThe doorbell rang at 7:52 on a morning I had not planned for anyone to see.Noah's cereal bowl was still on the counter with two soggy loops left in the bottom, my hair was in the same clip I'd slept in, and I was standing in the kitchen in socks with a hole starting in one heel, trying to locate a permission slip that had apparently relocated itself sometime overnight. This was not the house I would have built if I'd known someone was coming to judge it. It was, I realized with my hand already on the door, exactly the house Vance had told me to let her see.I'd spent the last nine days half-braced for this, jumping at every unfamiliar car in the driveway, every knock that turned out to be a delivery. By the seventh day, I'd almost convinced myself the visit had somehow already happened without my noticing, which Vance had warned me was its own kind of trap—the moment you stopped bracing was exactly when the knock would come.Patricia Ohl was smaller t

Nothing Has Happened Yet Natalie’s POV Daniel was early. I noticed the car before I noticed the time, which was probably why the sight of it sitting in the driveway made my stomach tighten. Eight fifty-one. The pickup was at nine. I stood at the kitchen window with my coffee halfway to my mouth and watched him sit there. He wasn't checking his phone. He was looking at the house. I set my mug down. There was something unsettling about seeing him there now. Once, he had known every room in the old place that mattered. He knew which floorboard creaked outside our bedroom, how Noah liked the hallway light left on when he slept. Now he was a stranger sitting in my driveway, waiting for his son. At least, that was what I told myself. I looked at the clock again. 8:52. Noah was upstairs getting dressed, which meant I had a few minutes before he came charging down the stairs with his backpack half-zipped and at least one thing he'd forgotten. I should have let Daniel knock. Instead, I

The First StepNatalie’s POVBy Thursday morning, I had managed to convince myself that thinking about Marcus was a completely reasonable use of my time. Thinking about him while brushing my teeth? Normal. Thinking about him while choosing what to wear? Annoying, but normal. Thinking about the exact way he had looked at me when I told him I wasn't saying no? That was where things became a problem. I had spent the previous night lying in bed, staring at the ceiling and replaying the conversation in my office until every word had lost its meaning. I loved you before Daniel did. The sentence had followed me home. It had followed me into the shower, into the kitchen, into Noah's bedtime story, and finally beneath the covers when the house went quiet. Years. Marcus had loved me for years. And somehow, despite all the things I'd spent years believing about myself, he had never once used that love to make me feel indebted to him. That was the part I couldn't stop thinking about. Dan