Betrayed at the Altar, I Married a Powerful Rival novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Hall Between Our Doors

Paola slept in the room across from mine, in a borrowed nightgown, with the door open so she could hear me.

I sat on my bed at two in the morning with the cardboard box in my lap.

It held what she had pulled off the closet shelf before the barrel caught.

A tin of my father's drafting pencils, still sharp.

My mother's hairbrush.

A stack of photographs with the corners singed.

The top one was my parents' wedding, in front of a church I didn't recognize.

My mother was laughing with her hand on his sleeve, and a small gold cross hung at her throat.

I knew that cross.

Teresa had worn it every day for sixteen years.

I put the photograph down very carefully, and I went on sitting there.

Whatever Teresa had hunted for was not in this box, and I did not know what it was.

Nobody burns a room for nothing.

At half past two I stopped pretending I was going to sleep.

I put on Federico's grey sweater and walked into the hall in my bare feet.

His door was three steps from mine, with a line of light under it.

I lifted my hand to knock, and the door opened.

He stood there in a white undershirt and dark trousers, with his hair rumpled and a pen in his left hand.

"I heard you in the corridor," he said.

"I'm breaking the terms."

"Which ones?"

"The separate rooms."

His face didn't change, but he put the pen down on the nearest shelf without looking.

"You've had a week," he said. "Someone drugged you, handed you over, and burned your house. You're allowed to want company. That doesn't mean you want me."

"I don't want company."

"Gianna."

It was the first time he had used my first name.

"I want someone to touch me because he wants to," I said. "Not because he owes the Ruggeris or his mother told him to. Do you want to?"

For a long moment he didn't answer.

Then he took a step back and held the door open.

← Chapter 5 · All chapters · Chapter 7 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend