Reborn to Dodge the Bad Marriage novel Chapter 21

Chapter 21 Ten Bags.

I take it off to sleep. God, I always take it off to sleep.

Nora wanted to scream.

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Finished

Julian opened the door, found Constance on the other side, and could not hide his surprise. “Grandma, what are you doing here?”

Nora shot straight down under the covers.

There was no facing anyone in that state.

Constance snuck a look past him into the room and took in the suspicious lump under the blankets, a bare arm sticking out of it, and a bra being dragged inch by inch out of sight.

All of it put a smile across her whole face, and she tipped her head back at him. “You never came home last night. I was worried, so I came to see for myself.”

Julian answered her. “I’m fine.”

“Did you sleep last night?”

“I did.”

He had gone eight days without sleep and then slept like the dead, and the whole of him looked better for it, with color back in a face that had been gray for years.

“The entire night? And you slept well?”

Julian thought about it. Two or three times he had drifted up toward waking, and each time there had been something soft in his arms, and the safety of it had put him straight back under.

For all practical purposes he had slept the night through without a single dream.

He answered her. “Yes. I slept well. No dreams this time, straight through to morning.”

Her eyes went red with how glad she was. “Good. Sleeping at all is good. Sleeping until morning is better. That’s wonderful.”

She had raised Julian herself. His body had been wrong from the start and he had never once slept a full night, and as he grew the poison took even that away from him.

I’d take every hour of it for him. I’d trade my own life for it.

The joy spilled over, and two tears ran down her face.

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Chapter 21 Ten Bags

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Finished

Julian tried to settle her. “Grandma, this is a good sign. You should be happy. Don’t cry.”

She wiped them away quickly. “It is a good thing. Nora’s in there, isn’t she?”

A quiet yes came out of him. “Last night happened because of her. I owe the whole night to her.”

Standing in a doorway was no way to talk, so she held out the bags. “Clean clothes for the pair of you. Come down for lunch in a bit. Ask Nora what she likes and I’ll have the kitchen handle it.”

Julian took several bags off her and turned back into the room. “Miss Sinclair, my grandmother wants to know what you like. The kitchen will make it.”

Nora called back, “Anything at all, Grandma Weston. I’m not picky.”

Constance said that was fine, then shot Julian a glare. “I’ll wait for you both in the dining room.”

Julian had no idea what he had done to earn it.

He carried the bags to the bed. “My grandmother put these together for you.”

There were 10 of them.

Nora sat up and looked toward the door. “Has she gone?”

“She has. She’s waiting for us downstairs.”

Nora opened all 10 bags, looked through them, and started laughing. “Your grandmother plays favorites.”

Out of 10 bags, everything of Julian’s fit into one.

The other nine held complete outfits for her, already put together, clothes and shoes with jewelry chosen to match, and one bag carried a full set of skincare and makeup.

The favoritism ran entirely in her direction.

It made her genuinely happy. Nobody disliked being someone’s favorite, and anyone who claimed otherwise was simply not the one being favored.

None of it bothered Julian. He watched how pleased she was and meant every word of what he said next. “Thank you for last night.”

Nora raised an eyebrow. “Don’t thank me. I just didn’t want a wedding without a groom.”

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Chapter 21 Ten Bags

She was perfectly willing to be widowed. She simply needed him standing there first.

Julian let that one sit.

Is she actually looking forward to me dying?

Finished

Nora showered and changed, and the bell went again, this time a well-known makeup artist hired to do her face.

Doing it herself held no appeal, so she let the artist work.

As it was wrapping up, she spoke to Julian, who had been working through the wait. “Almost done. Pack my bag for me and we’ll head down early. I don’t want to keep your grandmother waiting.”

The clock read almost one. They had gone under around six the previous evening and slept straight through the morning.

That was a long stretch, though it made sense for someone who had gone eight days without

any.

Her own share of it she put down to a lifetime of sleep she had never made up.

Julian was on a call listening to his executives report, and every sound on his end carried straight through to them.

All of them turned toward the camera at once, thoroughly confused.

Julian caught himself a beat late. “One moment.”

He got up to pack her things. The needles went in, and the medicine was already in there.

The executives, still waiting on the call, got to hear the conversation that followed.

“Does the lipstick go in?”

“That goes in.”

“What about this compact?”

“That too.”

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