Twenty-Six receipts of betrayal Novel novel Chapter 22

Nicholas’s mom had been looking for a burial plot for Elara.

Though there were no ashes to inter, she couldn’t bear the thought of the girl having no final resting place.

After much consideration, she settled on a sunny spot in the Hillside Memorial Park and purchased it.

She knew Elara had destroyed everything before she left. But there was one thing–a bracelet Elara had given her on their wedding day.

She planned to place it in the grave, creating a cenotaph.

And today, she’d come to get Elara’s photo so she could make a copy for the headstone.

It would give her a place to visit and pay her respects during the holidays.

She never expected to stumble upon the devastating truth behind Elara’s death.

Her mind was a mess. She didn’t know how to process what she’d just learned. Didn’t want to look at her son.

So once she’d calmed down enough to move, she didn’t even glance at Nicholas slumped against the wall. Just walked past him into the apartment.

The place was even more of a disaster than on her last visit.

She wasn’t cleaning up after him this time.

She went straight to the bedroom, looking for the photo.

After a fruitless search, she moved to the study.

Nicholas followed her silently, like a ghost.

When she pulled open the drawer next to the printer, they both froze.

Inside lay a neat, thick stack of papers.

On top was a page densely covered in handwriting. Nicholas’s eyes instantly locked onto the title:

Bucket List

Nicholas’s mind flashed back to the day after he’d booked his ticket to Switzerland. He’d come home and found Elara sitting at this desk, writing

slowly, carefully.

He remembered the strange, unsettling thing she had said that day.

“I haven’t seen you smile like that in a long time.”

He had thought she saw through him then, and he’d panicked, deflecting with a change of subject.

Now, he understood. The comment held no hidden accusation. It was just a quiet, wistful observation, a fleeting moment of nostalgia for a past they could never reclaim.

And with that one quiet sentence, she’d cracked open the shell of their marriage and exposed what was rotting underneath.

Now that she was gone, Nicholas finally understood.

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Twenty–Six Receipts of Betrayal: My Silence Was the Countdown to His Eternal Regret

Chapter 22

All his forced smiles, his performative happiness–Elara had seen right through them.

Why else would she have said that?

He thought he was bearing the burden alone. He thought she was oblivious.

But she knew. She saw the weight he carried, the silent struggle. And not wanting to add to his load, she had chosen to become a ghost in her own home–quiet, unobtrusive, waiting patiently for a version of him that no longer existed.

And what had he done?

He didn’t dare follow that thought further.

His eyes–dry for so long–suddenly burned with tears.

A broken, guttural sob tore out of him, echoing through the room.

He cried until he didn’t know where he was anymore. Until time stopped meaning anything.

He didn’t notice when his mom left.

Didn’t know how long he’d been on the floor.

All he saw were the words on the page, smudged now from his tears, blurred beyond recognition.

With a trembling hand, he reached for this last, forgotten relic of her life. But weakened by alcohol, starvation, and the physical toll of his weeping, his grip failed.

With a soft rustle, dozens of pages scattered, fluttering to the ground like grotesquely enlarged snowflakes.

But this snowfall was tainted, every sheet marked with the dark stain of ink.

On his knees, Nicholas struggled to gather them, to finally read what she had left behind.

His bloodshot eyes fell upon the first page.

And in an instant, they went wide.

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Twenty–Six Receipts of Betrayal: My Silence Was the Countdown to Is Firma Re