I Who Have Never Known Men Audiobook の小説・ストーリー

Isla I had never heard the sound of a man breaking until Lucien sat across from me and confessed everything. There was a kind of stillness in the room afterward—a silence that wasn’t empty but full of everything he didn’t say out loud. His eyes carried it. That familiar intensity, bruised now with guilt and desperation. And all I could think was: I loved this man. Still. Despite everything. Maybe even more now, because he was finally showing me the scars I’d always sensed but never seen.

Then he asked a question that made me pause, “But do you know your pregnant body well enough?” Of course I don’t know my ‘pregnant body’. These past five months have been like I’m living inside an alien shell. Of course, the poisoning attempts didn’t help. I sighed, “Okay. I get it. Tell you what; call the doctor and hand the phone to me. I promise to keep it on speaker.” Daniel took his phone out of his pocket and found Doctor Martin’s contact information and tapped it to dial. He put it on speaker and handed it to me.

Amber And I wasn’t going to hold back. Hadrian’s story wasn’t just sad, it was horrifying. Everything Ian had just told me echoed through my chest like a second heartbeat. The untreated fractures. The dissociation. The trauma. The scars. Every detail painted a picture darker than I’d ever imagined, and I couldn’t unsee it. This wasn’t just a broken man—this was someone who’d been shattered, piece by piece, and left to survive in the wreckage.

Juliana’s eyes swept over my pale face, full of mock admiration. “I’m really jealous,” she said sweetly. “Being able to get along with men so well, turning them into real brothers.” She sighed. “Unlike me. Growing up, I could only be friends with girls. The moment I got close to a man, people would call me… unfeminine.” The room fell dead silent. The last bit of color drained from my face. I dug my nails into my palm, forcing myself not to react to the scrutiny pressing in from all sides.

They had taken enough — my peace, my appetite, my sleep, my trust. They were not taking this quiet, unexpected, undeserved moment of feeling like a person again. I picked up my cocktail. “You were saying?” I said to Daniel, and my voice didn’t shake at all. Because healing, I was beginning to understand, didn’t always arrive as a grand revelation. Sometimes it looked like this: a window seat, a good meal, a stranger’s easy company, and the quiet, radical decision to keep your eyes facing forward.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Not because of what she said— But because of how easily it aligned with what he had already seen. Aira. Pale. Tired. Holding something in. His throat tightened slightly. He swallowed. “I know,” he said. And this time— There was no resistance in it. Just truth. The line went quiet for a moment. Then, when his mother spoke again— Her voice had shifted. Not softer in the usual sense. But less rigid. Less distant. “Don’t repeat the men in this family.”

They rarely looked for strategy underneath. Inside the box were three things: a ledger bound in black leather, a transfer deed for the East Pier warehouses, and a recorded statement from my father naming the men who had framed the Vances. My hands shook when I touched the tape, but I did not cry. Grief could wait. Survival could not. Mira found me at dawn, slipping through a service door with one suitcase and a face set like stone. “I quit,” she said before I could speak. “If you will have me, I work for you now.”

I'm never gonna show my weakness in front of a guy like him. The monster of my past peeked one eye open but I shut it off. I vowed to myself that I won't let anyone walk all over me. Ever again. "Yeah. It's okay to create havoc." I shrugged it off, not showing how affected I was. "Actually it's better than being a manwhore who changes girls like someone changes their socks." I fired back, leveling a glare at him. I officially announce to no one in particular that 'I hate this guy.'

He has to wear that skin now. He ended by saying he destroyed himself. Yeah. He did. But here’s the other guy-truth: he also lived more vividly in those few months than most men do in a decade. He was consumed by a fire, and now he is just ashes blowing down the highway. But for a while there, he was the flame. _____ Episode 14 –The Girlfriend

Wala akong asawang kilala. Kaya paano nangyari iyon? At kung totoo ang nasa record... Sino ang lalaking pinakasalan ko? At bakit wala akong kahit isang alaala tungkol dito? Habang nakatitig ako sa monitor na hindi ko naman makita, isang malamig na takot ang unti-unting gumapang sa buong katawan ko. Dahil sa unang pagkakataon, pakiramdam ko ay may bahagi ng buhay ko na hindi ko kilala.