Married To The Wrong Twin のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 11 - チャプター 20

The dress fit exactly the way it was supposed to now, which felt like the smallest, strangest kind of victory to be having on a morning like this one.Priya had finished the alterations days ago, the seams let out properly this time instead of merely pinned, and when I stepped into it that morning in my parents' bedroom, my mother circling me with the particular scrutiny of a woman inspecting a finished product rather than a daughter, it actually closed the way it was meant to, no gaps, no pins digging into skin nobody had asked permission to touch. She smoothed the fabric at my waist, adjusted something at my shoulder that didn't need adjusting, and studied the whole effect in the mirror for a long moment before she spoke."You look lovely," she said, and then, almost immediately after, "Priya really did work miracles with what she had to start with, honestly, considering.""Thank you, Mom."

The call came at seven the next morning, before either of us had managed more than two hours of sleep on the pull-out couch in Desmond's private room, our new marriage exactly one day old and already tested by something neither of us had expected."There was a compound in his bloodwork," Voss said, without preamble. "Not something that occurs naturally, not something anyone in that room would have been taking for a legitimate reason. It's consistent with something that can trigger exactly the kind of event he had, especially layered on top of stress and a full stomach."Callum, sitting up too fast, nearly knocked the coffee off the side table. "So it's confirmed.""It's confirmed there was something in his system that shouldn't have been. It is not confirmed who put it there, or how, and I need both of you to hold that distinction in your heads before you do anything rash this morning. I've seen families des

Three days after that first strange night in the house, still not entirely sure where we stood with each other, I found myself sitting in a clinic waiting room filling out an intake form when the door opened and Callum walked in, tie loosened, jaw tight."You didn't have to come.""I know.""That's not actually an answer.""It's the only one I've got today." He sat down beside me, not close. "Voss can handle the morning without me for an hour.""How's your father?""The same. Resting. Refusing most of the actual rest part.""That sounds about right.""It's the family curse. None of us know how to stop when we're supposed to.""You're one to talk, coming here straight from a meeting.""That's different. This has a deadline attached to it that isn't optional.""Is it.""Yes."A nurse appeared with a clipboard before either of us could say much else. "Mr. Ashford? If you'll come with me, we'll get your part sorted first."Callum blinked. "My part.""The sample, sir. We generally do that

Ivy's text sat unanswered on my phone the entire ride home, Voss's cheerful assurance about the letter and the copies still hanging in the air of the car, Callum's hands steady on the wheel beside me, neither of us mentioning it again.I read it twice more before I put the phone away for good. I need to talk to you. Alone. It's about our mother, not about the company, and it can't wait much longer than today.Not today. Whatever this actually was, I wasn't walking into it on an hour's notice, still raw from a boardroom fight, still unsure whether trusting my sister with anything at all was a decision I was ready to make twice in one week. I turned the phone face down in my bag and left it there.Callum dropped me at the studio on his way to Voss's office, the two of them already deep into a call about the formal proxy filing before he'd even pulled away from the curb. It was barely eight thirty. The whole rest of the day stretched out ahead of us, apart, for the first time since the c

The house was too quiet when I let myself in. No laptop light glowing from the study, no low murmur of Callum on a call with Voss, just the kitchen light left on over the island and the specific silence of a house that wasn't expecting anyone home this early.I'd spent the whole drive back rehearsing a face for this exact moment, something neutral, something that wouldn't invite a single question, and I'd genuinely believed I had it ready by the time I turned onto the street. It lasted exactly as long as it took him to look up.I found him at the counter, sleeves rolled, a bottle of wine already open, two glasses out, no folder of documents spread across the surface the way there almost always was."You're not working," I said, setting my bag down slower than the moment required, buying myself a second to arrange my face into something that didn't look like it had spent the last four hours coming apart in a diner booth."Voss suggested I take the evening off before I put my fist throu