Shadows Gathered Under Fading Lights by Nyx Rowan novel Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Five years into my marriage, I had told the story thirty–three times, how I’d lost the hearing in my left ear while saving Tristan Royston’s life.

Yet every time I tilted my head to catch what someone was saying, he looked at me like I was doing

it on purpose.

“Why do you always tilt your head and play cute?” he snapped. “Can you be normal for once?”

He even complained to his friends, “My wife’s always putting on this cutesy act. I tell her to stop, and she never listens.”

Then, at the company’s Fourth of July reception, he reached up and took his assistant Natalia’s earring off.

He reminded her gently, “Your piercing got infected a few days ago. Give it a break, stop wearing

these for now.”

He could remember her inflamed piercing like it mattered.

But the habit I’d built after going half–deaf saving him, he “forgot” whenever it was convenient.

So my sacrifice had never been a sacrifice to him. In his eyes, it was just me “trying to play cute.”

I drifted out of the ballroom like I’d lost my soul, and my shoulder slammed into two men who reeked of alcohol.

One of them clamped down on my wrist, hard, while the other raked his leering eyes over me.

“You’re practically coming on to us,” he sneered. “And you still have the nerve to play the innocent?”

I fought to pull free, and without thinking, I tilted my head, trying to hear them clearly.

That tiny movement made them burst out laughing. “So you’re being all coy now?” one of them jeered. “Playing hard to get?”

They yanked me toward the exit.

My heart seized as I scanned the room, and I saw Tristan walking this way with Natalia tucked close, like he was shielding her from the world.

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I screamed with everything I had, “Tristan, help me!”

Tristan did step in front of us, but Natalia cut in first, sweet as sugar. “Mr. Royston, I saw Fiona tilting her head and smiling at them earlier. They probably know each other.”

Tristan’s face turned to ice.

The men latched onto it instantly. “Yeah, yeah,” they said eagerly. “We know her!”

I tried to explain, but a searing pain exploded across my cheek, making my vision blur.

“Fiona,” Tristan snarled, his voice dripping.

My cheek burned, and a metallic taste filled

fury, “how long are you going to keep this up?”

my mouth.

By the time I lifted my head, Tristan already had his arm around Natalia and was walking away.

Natalia glanced back, her body trembling as if she were innocent. “Mr. Royston… do you think Fiona will blame me? I’m so scared…”

“With me here,” Tristan said coolly, “she wouldn’t dare.‘

Rage and humiliation flooded my chest, and I shouted at his back, “Tristan, if you walk away like this today, we’re getting divorced!”

He paused for a beat, but he did not turn around. “Divorce?” he said flatly. “Are you a child?”

Then he left, taking Natalia with him.

The moment Tristan’s presence was gone, the two men got bolder. They dragged me toward a car parked at the curb, grinning. “Baby, he doesn’t treat you right,” one of them said. “We will.”

The second their grip loosened, I ripped myself free and bolted into the crowd in the plaza.

Only when I was sure no one was chasing me did I collapse onto a bench. I wrapped my arms around myself and shook so hard I could not stop.

My phone lit up.

Natalia had posted on Facebook, a neat nine–photo grid.

Tristan crouched to tie her shoelaces. He stood in line to buy her coffee. He dabbed ointment onto her infected piercing like she was something fragile.

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That tenderness, I’d never had.

A message from Tristan arrived right after.

[Natalia got scared because of you. I’m taking her home first. I’ll pick you up later.]

My wrist throbbed where they’d held me, but I still typed steadily:

[No. Let’s get divorced.]