All Chapters of I Slept With His Uncle And I Liked It: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

ElaraThe acquisition report on my screen had been open long enough for the words to stop looking like words. I read the same paragraph twice, frowned at a figure in the third line, and reached for my phone without thinking. There was nothing new. I put it back beside the keyboard and returned to the report.The problem was not the figure. It was the artist. I had spent most of the afternoon trying to convince a gallery in Manchester to release a piece before their original timeline, only for them to send an email explaining why they could not possibly move the date forward. It was a perfectly reasonable explanation. It was also the kind of thing I would normally have complained to Lucien about. I stared at the email again. My fingers hovered over the keyboard. I could have sent him a message. I didn’t. He had said he would call me back. That had been over a week ago.Victoria called him that night, and given everything Lucien had told me about her condition, I had assumed something

ElaraI woke up in Clara’s spare room with the uncomfortable awareness that I was wearing someone else’s clothes and sleeping in someone else’s house. The clothes were worth it, though. I had been eyeing that particular outfit for months. Clara knew it too, which was probably why she kept insisting she was going to wear it herself whenever I asked where she bought it. I finally stole my chance when she offered me something to sleep in after I refused to go home the night before.Vanessa died at 11:45 p.m. I still couldn’t make the number feel real.I showered, dressed in Clara’s clothes, left my hair loose, and walked downstairs while she was still getting ready. We needed to leave early enough to sort ourselves out before the burial, but Clara seemed to have developed a personal disagreement with time. I grabbed my bag, walked outside and got into Lucien’s BMW. The car was still in my possession, which felt increasingly ridiculous. Lucien told me to keep it until he returned, and I

ElaraThe knock pulled me out of a sleep so deep I didn’t know where I was when I opened my eyes. I reached for my phone on the nightstand and squinted at the screen.1:02 p.m.I went to bed at half past six in the morning. After the funeral I went home with Vivienne and stayed longer than I meant to, sitting in her kitchen while the boys argued over who got the last biscuit. By the time I got back to my own flat Clara had already called three times. There was an emergency with one of the pieces we were trying to lock down for the exhibition — a three-piece sculpture the artist had finished specifically for us. Another company had somehow got wind of it and reached out to the same distributor, offering more money and faster payment. Clara and I spent the entire night at the warehouse, pulling every receipt, every email, every signed agreement we had, arguing with people who kept insisting the other offer was “more competitive.” We could not let it go. If Lucien or Sebastian found out

LucienI set the last plate down and checked the temperature of the lamb sauce one more time. The chef had come earlier in the afternoon, prepared everything, and left clear instructions. All that remained was heating the rice and the sauce, which I had done. The table was ready. Two place settings, wine glasses, cutlery aligned the way I preferred it.The shower stopped running from the bathroom.I turned to the cake she had brought with her, and began lighting the candles I had arranged around it. The small flames caught one by one.I could not remember the last time I had done anything like this. Not since Victoria. Even then it had felt different. More expected. More like fulfilling a role. This was quieter, and for some reason that made it heavier.Had the car been excessive? Possibly. I turned the question over while I lit the next candle. Victoria had always responded to visible gestures — the more obvious the better. I had assumed Elara might be the same. A practical gift with

LucienI was still on my back, hands behind my head, watching her stand over me in that black lingerie when the need to piss became impossible to ignore.“Give me a minute,” I said, sitting up. “I’ll be right back.”She only nodded and stepped aside so I could pass. I went into the bathroom, relieved myself, washed my hands, and came back out.She had turned toward the window. The second she heard the door I walked straight to her, caught her by the waist, and kissed her hard. She made a small sound against my mouth and kissed me back, fingers already sliding up my chest.She broke the kiss just enough to speak. “Chair. Sit.”She looked at me, then at the armchair I had dragged closer earlier. A slow smile pulled at her mouth. She walked me backward until the backs of my knees hit the seat and pushed me down. I sat. She stood between my legs, reached behind herself, and unhooked the lingerie. The straps slipped off her shoulders. The whole thing fell to the floor in one soft drop.She