All Chapters of Rented Husband : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Chapter Forty-TwoThe morning came softly.I woke to sunlight streaming through the curtains, golden and warm, pooling on the wooden floor like honey. The house was quiet, no footsteps, no voices, no clatter of pans. Just silence. Beautiful, peaceful silence.For a moment, I didn't move.I just lay there, watching the dust motes dance in the light, listening to the distant sound of birds outside the window. Somewhere in the house, someone was moving, soft footsteps, the creak of a floorboard but it was gentle. Unhurried. Like the house itself was still waking up.I could get used to this.That was the thought that came, unbidden, as I finally pulled myself out of bed and padded toward the window. The view stretched out before me, rolling fields, a line of trees in the distance, the old rope swing swaying gently in the breeze. It looked like something from a painting. Something from a dream.I didn't want it to end.I didn't want to go back to the city. To the noise. To the danger. I d

Chapter Forty-FourSylvia’s POV A Night To Adrian’s Birthday The house was starting to feel like ours.I noticed it the morning after karaoke night, the way the sunlight hit the kitchen, the way the floors creaked in the same places every time, the way the whole place smelled like coffee and woodsmoke and something I couldn't name. Home, maybe. That was the word I kept circling and not quite landing on.Bella was the first one up, which was unusual. She was standing at the stove when I walked in, flipping something in a pan and humming under her breath."You're cooking," I said."I'm attempting.""What is it?""Eggs. I think."I peered over her shoulder. They were eggs. Barely. "They look...""Rustic," she said, and we both laughed.Adrian came down a few minutes later, still half-asleep, his hair a disaster. He kissed the top of my head without a word and poured himself a cup of coffee. Romano followed shortly after, grumbling about the bed being too soft, then immediately curling

Chapter Forty-SixSylvia’s POV The morning after his birthday felt different.Not in a big way. Not in a way I could point to and name. Just different. Lighter. Like something had shifted in the house overnight, in the air, in him. I found him in the kitchen, coffee already made, staring out the window at the garden like he was actually seeing it for the first time."You're up early," I said."I'm up early.""Any reason?"He turned, and the smile he gave me was different too. Smaller than usual. Realer. "No reason. Just up."I poured myself a cup and sat down across from him. We didn't say much. We didn't need to. That was the thing about the two of us, we'd learned to be quiet together. It was one of my favorite things about us.Bella came down an hour later and announced she was going to drag Romano into town to pick up supplies. Romano protested loudly. She ignored him loudly. They were out the door before either of them stopped arguing long enough to notice we weren't coming.Whi

Chapter Forty-EightAdrian's POVThe morning we left Vermont, I woke up before the sun.Not intentionally. My body just decided that sleep was over, the way it had been doing for years now, on mornings that mattered. I lay there for a while, listening to Sylvia breathe beside me, watching the ceiling lighten by degrees.I didn't want to leave.That was the honest truth. I didn't want to pack up the car and drive back into the city where every corner had a memory attached to it, where William's shadow stretched across everything. I didn't want to sit across from the man who'd raised me and pretend I was still the son he thought he'd made.But I also knew we couldn't stay.Romano had been right. Bella had been right. Everyone had been right except me, and it was time I stopped pretending otherwise.I got up, got dressed, and started packing.Sylvia woke up while I was folding a shirt. She watched me from the bed for a while without saying anything, I could feel her eyes on my back. Then

Chapter FiftyAdrian's POVI walked out of the study and shut the door behind me.Not slammed. Shut. Quiet. Controlled. The way you close a door when you know the room behind you is full of glass and there's nothing left to say.Sylvia was standing in the corridor. Romano beside her. Bella behind them both. Three faces, all doing the same thing — trying to read me, trying to figure out what had just happened behind that door.I didn't give them anything. I just started walking."Adrian—" Sylvia started."Not here," I said.I didn't slow down. I didn't look at her. I just kept moving down the hallway, past the paintings, past the family portraits, past the whole long line of Whitmores staring down at me from the walls like they'd been waiting their entire afterlives to see this exact moment.The stairs. The foyer. The front door.Almost out."Adrian."Her voice came from the bottom of the staircase, and it wasn't Elizabeth's usual tone. It wasn't the practiced, even, careful voice she