Chapter 14
Gabriel met Nora properly at that dinner.
He was insufferable.
“You two already owe me.”
Nora looked confused.
“For what?”
“Without me, no breakup.”
I stared.
“Without you, there was no conspiracy.”
“Details.”
Nora laughed.
Good.
We ate at a small restaurant away from Ashford property.
Important.
No staff.
No bodyguards at the table.
Rafe hated it.
He survived.
Nora asked Gabriel why he returned despite expecting I might reject him again.
He thought.
“Because I got tired of letting the worst night of my life make every future decision.”
That silenced me.
Then he asked her why she spoke at the engagement.
She answered:
“Because Celeste reached for me.”
Interesting.
Not the phrase.
Not the crime.
The reaching hand.
The assumption she could physically silence staff in front of everyone.
“That made you brave?”
“No.”
Nora smiled faintly.
“It made me angry.”
Better.
Courage is often anger that decides to move.
Later, walking outside, she told me:
“You looked disappointed.”
“At what?”
“That I wasn’t noble.”
I laughed.
“I prefer honest.”
She looked at me carefully.
“Do you?”
Fair question.
I had built an entire life around controlled appearances.
Maybe I was learning.
We dated slowly.
No announcement.
No family symbolism.
Gabriel found out anyway because brothers are parasites.
He approved too loudly.
I ignored him.
May you like
For once, nobody treated a woman beside me as an alliance.
That alone felt revolutionary.
