Chapter 31: The Empty Room

Adrian's POVI woke up early, the way I always did, and got ready for work on autopilot — shirt, tie, the usual rhythm of a morning I'd repeated a thousand times without thinking about it. Except this morning wasn't like the others. This morning I had something I actually wanted to do before I left the house, and it wasn't work.I wanted to see Diana.We hadn't spoken since I gave her the tablet only at the time of the raid and I knew exactly whose fault that was. I'd been the one avoiding hallways, timing my meals so we wouldn't cross paths, keeping my distance like distance was some kind of solution instead of just another way of making things worse. I knew I'd been suspicious of her in ways I probably shouldn't have been — not without reason, but not fairly either — and I'd let that suspicion sit between us instead of just talking to her like a person deserved to be talked to.I told myself this morning would be different. I'd go downstairs, find her, and actually say something. No

最終更新日 : 2026-09-15

Chapter 32: Watch It Liana

Diana's POVI needed a way out of this city, and to do that, I needed an ID. My real one didn't exist anymore, not as far as anyone official was concerned, and I sure as hell couldn't walk into an airport pretending otherwise. So I did the only thing I could think of. I started asking around, quiet about it, careful about who I talked to, looking for someone who could get me something fake. Didn't need to be perfect. Just needed to be good enough to get me on a plane and out of this city before anyone caught up to me.Easier said than done. Every person I stopped either looked at me like I'd lost my mind for even asking, or looked at me too closely, like they were trying to work out why some woman in decent shoes was suddenly so interested in vanishing off the grid. I kept my answers short. Kept moving. Felt more exposed with every question I asked out loud, like I was leaving a trail of breadcrumbs straight back to myself.I was a few hours into it, walking down some busy street, sca

最終更新日 : 2026-09-21

Chapter 33: Hopscotch

Diana's POVI gave up on finding a forger the same afternoon I spotted that guard. Every hour I spent standing on some corner asking strangers about fake papers was another hour I was visible, another hour someone could clock my face and put a call through to the estate. It wasn't worth it. Not with how close that had been. So I scrapped the plan, got in the car and decided flying could wait. Driving didn't need an ID. Driving just needed gas money and somewhere to go.The highway blurred past for hours before I let myself breathe. I watched the city thin out in the rearview mirror — the skyline shrinking, the traffic thinning, the buildings giving way to long stretches of fields I didn't recognize and had no memory of ever seeing — until it finally disappeared altogether. Somewhere around the four-hour mark, my hands finally loosened on the wheel.I need to leave this fucking city, or everyone is going to find me. That thought had been circling since before sunrise, louder than every

最終更新日 : 2026-09-21

Chapter 34: The Dish I Couldn't Explain

Diana's POVI started working, learning the rhythm of the restaurant one order at a time, one table at a time, my feet aching in ways I'd never had to think about before this job forced me to notice them. There was something almost grounding about it — the repetition of carrying trays and refilling water glasses and remembering who ordered what, like my body was relieved to have something simple to focus on for once, something that didn't require me to think about who I used to be or who might be looking for me.There was one dish, though, that caught something in me the first time I carried it out to a table. I couldn't explain it, not really, not in any way that made sense even to myself. It wasn't the smell exactly, or the way it looked on the plate, but something underneath all of that — a small, strange pull I couldn't name no matter how many times I turned it over in my head afterward. My hands slowed on their own as I set the plate down, like some part of me expected it to be h

最終更新日 : 2026-09-29

Chapter 35: Frenemies

Adrian's POVA year. Twelve months, actually, if I was being exact about it, and I'd gotten real good at being exact about it, counting the days the way some people count debts. Twelve months of checking every corner of this city, every contact, every lead anyone was willing to hand me for the right price, and still nothing. No trace of her. No sign she'd ever existed at all, like she'd dissolved straight into the streets the same way she'd dissolved into my life to begin with — quiet, sudden, impossible to hold onto once she'd decided to go.I sat in my office most nights now, long after everyone else in the house had gone to bed, staring at reports that said the same damn thing every single one of the last three hundred times I'd read them. Nothing. No sightings. No leads. Nothing that led anywhere except back to the same dead end I'd been circling for months. I told myself I'd stop eventually. That there'd come a point where continuing to search would stop making sense and start lo

最終更新日 : 2026-09-29

The Bride They Tried to Erase のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 31 - チャプター 35

Chapter 31: The Empty Room

Chapter 32: Watch It Liana

Chapter 33: Hopscotch

Chapter 34: The Dish I Couldn't Explain

Chapter 35: Frenemies