Too Late Mr. Hawthorne I Already Married Your Rival のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 51 - チャプター 53

Elena’s POVThe question still hung in the air between us, soft enough that it almost did not sound like a question at all.“Do you remember?”I sat on the edge of the narrow childhood bed, the mattress giving slightly beneath my weight, the carefully smoothed blanket cool under my palms. The sunlight that had been so clean and ordinary only minutes ago now felt too bright, too revealing. It moved across the floorboards in a slow rectangle, touching the edge of Mr. Nik’s shoe, the place where the photograph had rested before he turned it face-down in his hand. Dust motes drifted in the light. Somewhere downstairs a clock marked the hour with a soft, distant chime that seemed to come from another life entirely.I could not look at him at first. My eyes stayed on the floor, on the worn grain of the wood, on the way my fingers had curled into the fabric of the blanket as if I needed something solid to hold. The name still echoed inside me—Kolia—and with it came the pieces that refused to

Elena’s POVPain came first.It bloomed behind my eyes in slow, pulsing waves, thick and heavy, as if someone had poured molten metal into the space between my skull and my thoughts. My mouth felt dry, coated with the bitter aftertaste of something chemical. Every breath scraped. My body refused to answer me properly. Limbs hung heavy. Joints ached. Something rough bit into the skin of my wrists and ankles.I tried to move.The resistance was immediate. Rope. Tight. Coarse. Wound so carefully that the more I pulled, the deeper it cut.My eyes opened.The light above me was a single bare bulb, swinging slightly on its cord. The rest of the room lived in shadow,bare concrete walls, a metal door with no handle on this side, a cracked floor that smelled of dust and old water. No windows. No furniture except the chair I was bound to and a low table pushed against the far wall.Panic arrived late, but when it did it was total.I jerked against the ropes. The chair creaked. The knots held. M