Reborn to Dodge the Bad Marriage novel Chapter 58

Chapter 58 A Locked Door

Finn Wed

Na said it without hesitating and then held a hand out to him. “Do you want to come down and meet him?”

Julian looked at her for a long moment and nodded. “Yes.”

Olivia watched the two of them go, and only then did she let her breath out. It felt very much like getting out of something alive.

“Trevor, have you worked out what you want to say?”

He was standing in the living room, deep in his own head, and Nora’s voice brought his chin up.

She had her arm through Julian’s, and the two of them were coming down the staircase together.

The moment Julian walked into a room, the pressure in it changed, and Trevor couldn’t get a full breath.

Then there was Julian’s face, which looked like somebody had taken their time making it, and the kind of bearing that only came from being born into it.

One look was enough. Trevor knew he wasn’t even in the same league, and he understood exactly why Nora had said what she’d said.

Nora watched his eyes follow Julian around and stepped into his line of sight. “Why are you looking at my husband like that? You’re not so humiliated you’re switching teams, are you?

“Because you can’t have him. Keep your eyes off my husband.”

Julian looked down at her, at all that territorial nonsense, and the corner of his mouth went up.

Trevor came back to himself and made a face at her.

“Nora, you’ve got the wrong idea. I like women. I’ve only ever liked one of them.”

Nora frowned at him. “You had all night, and this is what you came up with?”

Trevor shook his head, serious about it. “No. I thought it through. I shouldn’t have said you still had feelings for me, or that you married him for the money.

“Standing here looking at him, I know I don’t measure up. You do love him. I’m not taking you anywhere. I hope you’re happy.”

Nora frowned. “That’s it?”

Trevor gave her a rueful smile. “I’ll let the past go. I mean it. Be happy.”

Then he looked up at Julian. “Mr. Weston, you’re the richest man in the country and I’m nothing next to you. But if you’re ever bad to her, if you ever make her unhappy…

“I’ll come at you with everything I have. And if Nora ever wants to leave with me, I’ll be at the gate the same day.”

15:26 Thu, Oct 1

Chapter 58 A Locked Door

Julian put an arm around her shoulders. “Then I’m sorry to tell you that day is never coming.”

Good. Trevor looked at her. “Nora, I’m going. Just remember, if you’re ever unhappy, if you ever look back, I’Ile waiting.”

Nora had nothing.

That wasn’t what he’d said out in the garden. He’d gone from stepping.aside to holding a door open in ten seconds, and it was the same sweet talk in a different wrapper.

Nora turned her head to see how Julian was taking it. His face was cold and set and gave away nothing.

Something in her went quiet.

Was I hoping he’d be jealous?

The idea was faintly ridiculous. They’d been married a matter of days, and she was still counting on him dying, so she’d read too much into it.

Julian looked down at her. “He’s out of sight. Are you still watching?”

“Dr. Blithe is upstairs waiting for you,” Nora said. “Shouldn’t you be going up?”

He held her eyes a long moment, then let go of her, turned around, and went up.

Nora made a face at his back, and her mood went south.

It got worse when she went up and found Olivia’s door shut with no light behind it.

Her own bedroom door was still open on an unlit room, and Julian obviously wasn’t in there either, which soured her further.

She went in, locked the door behind her, and got in the shower.

Afterward she lay in bed with her phone, glancing at the door every so often, and the handle never moved.

He hadn’t even tried it. That made her angrier, so she put the phone down, killed the light, and went to sleep.

She turned over half the night with the feeling that something was missing, and when sleep finally came it didn’t hold.

Down the hall, the study light stayed on.

Julian wasn’t working. He kept looking at the door, then opening his message thread with Nora.

She hadn’t come to explain Trevor Lane, and she hadn’t come to tell him to go to bed.

He sat there a while longer, then got up and walked down to the main bedroom.

The door was shut.

He put his hand on the handle, started to turn it, and let go. She should be the one coming to explain.

2/3

15:26 Thu, Oct 1.

Chapter 58 A Locked Door

Finished

He would never let another woman near him and give her something to misread, and she should be doing the same about other men.

He wait for the explanation. If she came, he’d believe her.

He went back to the study with that settled, and he spent the rest of the night pretending to work while he watched the door and checked his phone.

He was still awake when the sky went light, and she hadn’t come to the study, hadn’t explained anything, and hadn’t sent him a single message.

That made him angrier still. She doesn’t care about me at all.

Nora got up with the light, pulled the curtains open, and went out onto the balcony. The morning was bright. She shut her eyes, drew a long breath, and let it out.

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