Chapter 53\u00a0<\/p>\n
+25 Bonus\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll see you there,\u201d she said, a little less tense. \u201cDon\u2019t mal me wait too long.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I watched her leave, my attention focused on nothing but her, for just a moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This little get-together was meant to be a do-over of sorts, way of making up for the drama that had interrupted. the last one when Ellie threw her little tantrum over the fool.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There was a much bigger celebration I should have been planning with the time I was wasting on this, but I was trying to keep up appearances. I couldn\u2019t exactly let things stand the way they were.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When this whole thing was finally over-when the three months were up-I\u2019d host a grand feast to celebrate the deal with the Moonstone pack. After tonight, that\u2019s where my focus would shift.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I knew I should try to relax and enjoy myself tonight, but that wasn\u2019t going to happen. Not with so many things up in the air and so many people I had to keep an eye on.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And that brought me back to what had been distracting me all day: Ellie.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She was supposed to be downstairs already. We should have left by now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When I saw her earlier today, she\u2019d been\u2026 off. Pale. She kept touching her stomach like it was bothering her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I told myself it was nothing. She acted strangely all the time. But I was starting to wonder if she might actually be sick. Maybe that\u2019s why she hadn\u2019t come down yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Or it could be a power play, forcing me to wait around for her\u2026 but that didn\u2019t seem as likely. She hadn\u2019t been engaging in petty games like that lately. No, her dramatics had become more subtle. More complicated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Something as ridiculous as faking a stomachache wouldn\u2019t make sense.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Well, whatever her reasoning, I was tired of waiting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I went upstairs and knocked on her bedroom door.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you going to be much longer?\u201d I demanded.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There was no immediate answer, but I heard something. I pressed my ear to the door and listened. The sound was muffled and indistinct-but it almost sounded like retching\u00a0<\/p>\n
I knocked again, more firmly. \u201cEllie? Are you all right in there?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still no response.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So I opened the door.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ellie was walking out of the bathroom, the back of her hand pressed to her lips. She looked startled to see me, then quickly wiped her mouth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m on my way down,\u201d she said irritably. \u201cYou didn\u2019t need to come up here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re taking forever. We\u2019re going to be late,\u201d I replied, but there was no real heat in my voice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her eyes looked bloodshot. Her face was pale. She had clearly just been sick.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s going on with you?\u201d I asked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing,\u201d she snapped.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, that\u2019s convincing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 53\u00a0<\/p>\n
+25 Bonus\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t mock me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re sick,\u201d I said. \u201cIt\u2019s inconvenient, but if you can\u2019t make it through dinner tonight, it won\u2019t be the end of the world. I can easily make an excuse for you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even as I was speaking, I could see she was about to argue. Her expression said everything.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m fine.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re obviously not. Maybe I ought to have a beta take you to the hospital, just to make sure this isn\u2019t something serious.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNow who\u2019s being dramatic?\u201d she replied coldly. \u201cI\u2019m fine. Let\u2019s just go.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She stepped around me and walked out of the room.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c>\u00a0<\/p>\n
If this was another one of her games, I didn\u2019t get it. If she was trying to make me worry, she wouldn\u2019t be so insistent that she was fine.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ellie just didn\u2019t make sense. Why would she be so insistent that she wasn\u2019t sick when it was obvious that she was. Unless\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t want me to know the cause of her illness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A Cold Marriage That Turned Warm 53 Chapter 53\u00a0 +25 Bonus\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll see you there,\u201d she said, a little less […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-unremembered-mate-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23622\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}