جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 3

LONORAThe roses were still on the counter when I found them.Twelve of them, blood-red, wrapped in the same tissue paper Nathan always used from the florist two blocks from his office, the one where the owner remembered his order.For my favorite girl.That’s what the card said, in his handwriting, leaning against a vase I hadn’t put there.I wasn't supposed to be home. That was the whole problem, wasn't it? I wasn't supposed to be home until tomorrow morning.I told Nathan I would be working overtime in the club where I worked. But my manager noticed that I wasn’t feeling well. He told me to go home and rest.I couldn’t say no. I didn’t want my clients to get sick because of me. They’re too powerful. Who knows what they would do to me once they found out I gave them the flu?I sniffed the roses I was holding. They smelled like Nathan’s favorite perfume lately, but not me. I told him I didn’t like how it smelled.He said he wouldn’t use it. But when I wasn’t around, I knew he still d

LONORAI signed my name to a marriage certificate at 9:14 in the morning, still wearing yesterday’s clothes because I didn’t bring anything else.I looked at and touched the ring on my finger. It fit so precisely that I didn’t ask how Julian knew my size.I had been engaged to Nathan for a while, and we had already started planning our wedding. This wasn’t how I had imagined my wedding day would look.There was no ceremony. No vows. Just a clerk who didn’t look up from her computer, a witness Julian had apparently paid to be there on ten minutes’ notice, and the strange silence of two people who had agreed to build something on a foundation of nothing.A tear fell from my eyes. I wiped it before anyone could see.“You’ll move into the penthouse today,” Julian said once we were back in his car.He drove like everything else about him, controlled, calm, and unhurried, like the world would simply rearrange itself around his schedule. “Separate wings. My staff will show you which is yours