Lahat ng Kabanata ng Marked By Mistake: The Baker's Secret: Kabanata 71 - Kabanata 80

Ivy's POV Something had shifted in Roman since the dinner at Theresa's, subtle enough that I nearly convinced myself I had imagined it, except that I had spent the better part of a year learning every careful shade of his expressions, and the one he wore now, thoughtful, watchful, carrying something unspoken just beneath the surface, was not one I had catalogued before."You are doing the thing," I told him, catching him staring at nothing over coffee one morning, the bakery quiet around us before opening. "The thing where your mind goes somewhere I cannot follow.""Sorry." He blinked, focusing back on me with visible effort. "I have a lot on my mind lately.""Anything you want to talk about?"Something flickered across his face, careful consideration weighing heavy behind his eyes, and for one suspended moment I thought he might actually say something, before he shook his head slightly and reached instead for my hand across the counter."I don’t think I have any yet," he said quietl

Ivy's POV The note arrived folded into a bouquet of grocery store flowers, no card attached, easy to miss among the cellophane and baby's breath, and I nearly threw the whole arrangement directly into the trash before some old, exhausted instinct made me check every petal and fold first.Clever girl, working out the pattern so quickly. It will not save you. Every time you open your mouth to tell him, I will remind you exactly what you stand to lose. Keep testing me, Ivy. See how much patience I actually have left.My hands went cold around the paper, the careful, deliberate cruelty of it landing considerably harder than anything that had come before, confirmation, absolute and chilling, that whoever this was had been watching closely enough to know I had finally pieced together their game.I called Roman before I had even fully processed deciding to, voice shaking too hard to manage more than a few garbled words, and he arrived within minutes, expression already grim before I had sho

Roman's POVI did not sleep after I finally left Ivy's apartment, driving instead to the training yard with no particular destination in mind, needing the cold night air and the familiar ache of exertion to process something my mind kept circling without ever quite landing anywhere solid.It’s been five years. Five years of grief I had carried, convinced I had simply failed the woman I was supposed to protect, when the truth was considerably more complicated, a memory stolen not out of cruelty but out of a fear I was only now beginning to fully understand the shape of.I was not angry at Ivy, I couldn’t even if I tried. I had meant that, sitting at her kitchen table watching her brace for a fury I had no intention of giving her. But underneath the understanding sat something rawer, grief reopened and reshaped, a question I had spent five years not knowing I needed to ask.What else had that night held. What had I lost besides the memory of loving her once already, before either of us

Roman's POVTheresa had grown quieter over the past weeks, a change subtle enough that I nearly missed it entirely beneath everything else currently demanding my attention, and it was only catching her standing motionless at the study window one evening, staring out at nothing with an expression I did not recognize, that I finally let myself properly notice."Theresa?" I called out to herShe startled, composure sliding back into place a beat too late to fully disguise whatever had occupied her a moment before. "Roman. I did not hear you come in." She replied"Are you alright? You have seemed distracted lately.""I am simply tired." The deflection came smooth and practiced, though something in her eyes did not quite match the easy dismissal. "Old age catching up with me, I imagine." She smiled but didn’t quite reach her eyesI did not believe her, had not believed the particular, careful distance she had been maintaining since our conversation about Agatha and Silverglen, and crossed

Roman's POV "You wanted to see me." Cassian Vane's voice carried its usual polished confidence as he settled into the chair across from my desk, though something careful in his posture suggested he understood this meeting carried more weight than our previous, considerably more hostile exchange."I did. I want to discuss the council's continued concern about my judgment." I said."Ah." Something almost sympathetic crossed his face. "I did warn you, Roman, that territories talk." He replied"You did." I kept my voice even, deliberate. "I am not here to relitigate that conversation. I am here because I think it is time the council understood exactly who Ivy Kaletta is, and why my devotion to her has never once been a lapse in judgment."Something sharpened behind his careful composure. "I am listening." He said adjusting on his seat across from my desk with the air of authority he possesses as the spokesman for the council at large."Ivy Kaletta is the last surviving heir of Silverglen