Reborn to Dodge the Bad Marriage novel Chapter 23

Chapter 23 Whose Side He’s On

474

Finished

Nora stared at him. Everything in that face and those deep eyes was sincere, and every bit of it was pointed at her.

Whatever history he had with Olivia from childhood, and whatever he owed her grandmother for keeping him alive, none of it outweighed the fact that Nora was his wife, and when she was unhappy he stood in front of her.

Olivia listened to all of it with her hands in fists and her nails biting into her palms.

She turned an apologetic smile on him. “I’m sorry. It was thoughtless. I didn’t realize Nora would take it badly.”

Julian looked at her coldly. “Now that you know, watch what you say from here on. Once is thoughtless. Twice is deliberate. And another thing.

“You should be apologizing to Nora, not to me. You have it backwards, and that makes the apology worth very little.”

The blows kept landing, and now he was making her apologize to Nora.

Three straight hits. She’s finished.

Olivia had taken so many of them that the gentle smile could no longer hold itself together.

Nora’s eyes curved at her. “Miss Blithe, you owe me an apology.”

Olivia drew a long breath, tightened her fists, and inclined her head anyway. “Nora, I’m sorry. I hope you’ll forgive what I said. I didn’t mean it that way.”

She bends when she has to. This one is far more sophisticated than Mandy.

The apology had been made and it was hardly worth carrying around, so Nora smiled. “I accept the apology. I’ll pass on the forgiveness.”

That gracious smile made Olivia furious enough that all she managed was a twitch of her mouth, and she said nothing after that.

Julian glanced at Nora and one brow went up.

That mouth of hers really could put someone in the ground for free.

They reached the dining room together.

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10:53 Thu, Sep 17

Chapter 23 Whose Side He’s On

8ཊྛ

474

Finished

Everything had already been laid out, every cuisine and every flavor represented, enough dishes crowded onto one table for a state banquet.

Constance pulled Nora down into the chair beside her. “Perfect timing. It’s all just come out and it’s still hot.”

Nora thought the whole thing was absurd. “There’s no way we finish all this.”

Constance smiled at her warmly. “I didn’t know what you liked, so I had the kitchen make a few things. Try them and tell me what you enjoy.”

“I will.”

Constance ladled her a bowl of lobster bisque, then looked up and found Olivia still standing. “Olivia, why are you on your feet? Sit down and eat with us.”

Olivia took in Julian on Constance’s right and Nora on her left.

That seat on the left had always been hers.

“All right.” Olivia smiled, pulled out a chair, and sat down next to Julian.

All three of them turned to look at her.

Constance keeping Nora at her side read as affection, and having Julian on her other side was perfectly ordinary.

Olivia dropping into the seat beside him made it look as though Nora were the guest and Olivia were the one paired with him.

Olivia behaved as though none of that had occurred to her, took up her napkin, and spread it across her lap.

Constance looked at the three of them with something unreadable in her eyes and decided not to intervene, because she wanted to see what Nora would do with it.

A move that small, with no open challenge in it, was not worth Nora’s attention.

The air around the table turned delicate in a hurry.

Julian frowned hard at what Olivia had done and simply stood up.

Olivia turned toward him. “What would you like, Julian? If you can’t reach something, I’ll get it for you.”

“No need.” Julian picked up his plate and silverware and went to sit beside Nora.

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10:53 Thu, Sep 17

Chapter 23 Whose Side He’s On

Finished

Nora raised an eyebrow at him.

He settled in next to her. “Tell me what you want and I’ll put it on your plate.”

Nora did not hold back. “The lobster.”

Julian served her the lobster, then started cracking the shell and laying the meat on her plate.

From start to finish, he never looked at Olivia again.

It amounted to a slap nobody at that table could miss.

Constance thought it over. She still depended on the Blithes to keep Julian alive, so she could not leave Olivia sitting there humiliated.

She smiled down the table at her. “Olivia, come sit next to me.”

Olivia moved over with a thin smile, because leaving an empty chair between herself and Constance would only have made it worse.

A full day without food had left Nora genuinely starving, so she put him to work without a shred of embarrassment about it.

“The braised short ribs.” Then she smiled at the server beside her. “Could I get a bottle of San Pellegrino, please? Thank you.”

She finished the ribs and went right on directing him. “The lemon-butter fish.”

Julian served her the fish, watched her pick the onion out of it, and paid much closer attention after that.

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