Reborn to Dodge the Bad Marriage novel Chapter 12

Chapter 12 The Only One Who Ever Loved Her

Finished

Rosalind never asked for reasons and she never once said that Victor and the rest were her elders or that Nora had no business talking back to them. As long as Nora came out of it fine, she was behind her.

Nora sat on the edge of the bed and started peeling an orange. “You look so much better today. Grandma.”

Her grandmother had a chronic condition that stayed manageable between episodes, and every flare turned into emergency care, which was why she lived at the hospital now.

At this point the first time around, Nora had no money of her own. Victor covered every medical bill, and that gave him a leash on her.

This time around, nobody held a leash on her at all.

Rosalind smiled at her. “Everybody gets old and everybody goes eventually. Don’t carry it so hard.”

Nora held a segment of orange up to her mouth. “Don’t talk like that, Grandma. You’re staying right here with me. You’re going to watch me get married, and after that you’re helping me raise my kids.”

She wanted to hand her grandmother something worth staying alive for.

“Grandma, I’m getting married.”

Rosalind had been about to point out that Nora had never so much as dated anyone, and the news stopped her cold. “Married? When? To who? Why haven’t you brought him around for me to look at?”

Nora answered her. “His name is Julian Weston…”

“The Westons?” Rosalind’s brows drew down hard and something unhappy came into her voice. “The richest family in the country?”

Nora put on a puzzled look. “That’s the one. Why?”

That settled it further in her mind. Her grandmother had history with the Westons.

Rosalind shook her head and covered it with a smile. “Nothing. You didn’t even have a boyfriend. How did you end up tangled with that family, and how is there a wedding this fast when I’ve never laid eyes on him?”

Nora invented the whole thing with a completely straight face. “It was a setup. Julian Weston is

1/4

10:52 TNU, Sep 17

Chapter 12 The Only One Who Ever Loved Her

སྙ་་

good-looking and he’s rich, I’m young and I’m pretty, we fell for each other on sight, and we’re getting married in three days.”

“That fast?”

Nora murmured her agreement. “We’re doing the marriage first and the love part after.”

Rosalind had no answer for that.

She studied Nora a while before she spoke again. “Does it have to be him?”

“It does.”

That was not strictly true. Nora had simply never found anyone else who was this rich and dying this fast.

Rosalind sat with it a long moment, then let out a breath. “All right. I don’t understand how young people do things anymore. If it makes you happy, it’s fine.”

Nora pressed her. “You don’t approve, do you, Grandma?”

When she took up with Adrian in her last life, her grandmother had not been keen either, and she had respected the choice in the end regardless.

Rosalind looked at her with nothing but warmth. “I do approve. Constance Weston is a good woman. If you marry into that family, I can go whenever I go and never worry about you.”

“Grandma…”

Rosalind added, “Bring him by when you get the chance. I want a look at him.”

Nora had been about to ask whether she knew Constance, and the interruption landed first, so she let it go.

Her grandmother sat on a great many secrets and had never volunteered a single one, so Nora had stopped chasing them.

“I will.” Nora went on. “Grandma, give me the house key. I need to pick a few things up.”

The house was full of medicinal herbs, and she wanted some of them for Julian, along with the case of fine silver needles she knew was still sitting there.

Julian needed to make it to his own wedding at the very least, because without a groom she became the joke of the season and nobody else in the Weston family would take her seriously.

Rosalind carried that key on her at all times, and she handed it over.

2/4

10:52 Thu, Sep 17

Chapter 12 The Only One Who Ever Loved Her

Nora stayed and talked with her a while longer before she left.

4364

Finished

The elevator opened again on the seventh floor and Adrian was standing right there. Nora froze for a beat, and her hand closed hard around the key.

Until he stepped in she had the car to herself, and after that there were two of them.

Adrian looked just as surprised to see her. She had on a white t-shirt and denim shorts with her hair pulled up high, dressed down and easy.

“Are you sick, Miss Sinclair? What brings you to a hospital?”

Nora kept her face blank. “Visiting my grandmother.”

Adrian’s eyes settled on her calf. Yesterday there had been nothing there, and today it carried a scrape in exactly the same place as Mandy’s.

His

eyes narrowed. “How did that happen?”

Now that he was looking properly, Nora’s build matched the one from that night in the rain far better than Mandy’s ever had.

Adrian came across as smooth and easy to be around, but his eyes hid something sharp enough

to cut.

Nora rode out the discomfort and answered like it cost her nothing. “I went running last night, went down, and scraped it.”

Makeup had covered the wound the day before, which was the only reason he never noticed it.

What she had not planned for was running into Adrian by pure chance today.

Adrian laughed softly. “What a coincidence. Same spot as Mandy’s.”

So he suspects me after all.

Nora matched his tone exactly. “It is a coincidence. I came off better than she did, though. Mine’s only skin and it won’t scar.”

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify