Chapter 166\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ellie POV\u00a0<\/p>\n
The apartment was warm and soft-lit, the kind of cozy that made the rest of the world feel far away. Rain tapped gently against the windows, and the smell of Claire\u2019s baking still lingered in the air-vanilla and cinnamon and comfort.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rae sat cross-legged on the floor, helping me fold the twins\u2019 laundry while Claire lounged on the couch, glass of red wine in hand, her bright green eyes alight with amusement. The twins had gone down for the night, and for once, everything was quiet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It felt like a small miracle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know,\u201d Rae said, holding up one of the boys\u2019 tiny onesies, \u201cI\u2019m starting to think they have more clothes than I do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey do,\u201d I said with a grin. \u201cAnd they still manage to get every single thing dirty by noon.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Claire laughed. \u201cThat\u2019s because you gave birth to two future chaos agents. I swear, they take after their uncle.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I rolled my eyes affectionately. \u201cDon\u2019t you start.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d she teased. \u201cCassian was a handful even as a pup. Alaric told me he once tried to sneak a wolf cub into the packhouse because he thought it looked lonely.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rae\u2019s laughter rang out, bright and unguarded. \u201cOh, that actually makes so much sense.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I raised a brow at her. \u201cAnd how would you know that?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rae froze halfway through folding a blanket, color creeping up her neck. \u201cI-I don\u2019t. I just meant\u2026 he seems like the kind of guy who would do something like that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Claire smirked. \u201cUh-huh. The kind of guy, huh?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rae\u2019s blush deepened. \u201cI walked into that one, didn\u2019t I?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I leaned back against the couch, smirking. \u201cCompletely.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, don\u2019t tease her,\u201d Claire said-though her grin gave her away. \u201cYou\u2019ve seen the way he looks at her.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I gasped, mock-dramatic. \u201cYou\u2019re right. He does look at her. Like she\u2019s the first sunrise he\u2019s seen in years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rae groaned and dropped her face into her hands. \u201cI hate you both.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, you don\u2019t,\u201d I said, laughing. \u201cYou love us. Almost as much as you love my brother.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rae\u2019s muffled voice came through her palms. \u201cYou are impossible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Claire raised her glass. \u201cTo impossibility, then.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I lifted my tea mug. \u201cAnd to Rae-future Luna of Moonstone, maybe?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rae peeked out from behind her hands, eyes wide. \u201cDon\u2019t you dare.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But her laughter broke through again, soft and genuine, and the air around us felt lighter for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the first time in weeks, I felt normal. Not the fragile, holding-it-together kind of normal-but the real kind. The kind that came with good friends, gentle teasing, and the safety of knowing no one here expected me to be\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 106\u00a0<\/p>\n
+25 Bonus\u00a0<\/p>\n
anything but myself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When the laughter finally faded, we sprawled across the living room in companionable quiet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Claire turned the music low, some old ballad humming softly in the background. Rae reached for one of the twins\u2019 stuffed toys and absently turned it over in her hands.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re really lucky,\u201d she said quietly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWho?\u201d I asked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe boys. They have you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Something in her tone tugged at me. I smiled faintly, looking toward the nursery door. \u201cI don\u2019t know about lucky.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I make it up as I go. Some days I\u2019m just praying I don\u2019t screw them up before breakfast.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Claire smiled knowingly. \u201cThat\u2019s what makes you a good mother. The worrying means you care.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her words should have comforted me. Instead, a familiar guilt stirred deep in my chest-the ache that came every time I thought of Nolan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He had only met the twins once. One single, fleeting meeting, and then everything had fallen apart. They wouldn\u2019t even remember him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And somehow, that hurt the most.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was my decision to keep them away, and I doubted it was the right one more each day. Nolan had been so gentle with them; he\u2019d looked at them with such awe. As if they were the most incredible things he\u2019d ever seen in his life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It felt deeply wrong to keep them apart. Yet, that old fear remained.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yes, he seemed different now, but what if this was temporary? What he turned back into the cold, cruel Nolan that I had been married to?\u00a0<\/p>\n
I forced the thought aside and focused on Rae\u2019s easy laughter as she shared a story about nearly falling asleep during a meeting in her office. Claire and I were still laughing about it when I realized I was staring at the window again, at the faint shimmer of moonlight breaking through the clouds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The goddess had been silent since the vision. Silent, but not gone. Some nights, I swore I could feel her presence hovering at the edges of my dreams\u2014watchful, patient, like a tide waiting to pull me under again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
2\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
A Cold Marriage That Turned Warm 166 Chapter 166\u00a0 Ellie POV\u00a0 The apartment was warm and soft-lit, the kind of […]<\/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-23735","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\/23735","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=23735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}