Shadows and Shutters
Vivienne stood in the study, her back rigid, her arms locked tight around her middle like she was holding herself together with nothing but bone and breath. Across the room, Magnus lingered near the window, his silhouette backlit by the city skyline. He hadn’t turned since she entered.
“I need to tell you something,” she said.
His voice was low. “Then speak.”
She stepped forward, then stopped. Her feet couldn’t move any closer without her heart feeling like it might rupture.
“My father took the bribe.”
Silence.
She stared at the rug. Dark navy. Pristine. The same color as the suit Magnus wore the last time he kissed her goodbye without knowing it was the last.
“I didn’t know,” she added. “Not then.”
He turned. Just his head.
“What did you say?”
Vivienne lifted her gaze. Her voice came out softer than intended. “The money. The transfer you found. It wasn’t me. He took it. Behind my back. After I left.”
Magnus’s jaw flexed, but he said nothing.
“I found the confirmation slip in a sealed folder among his medical papers,” she continued. “He had it locked in his safe. He must’ve known I’d never have agreed to it. That I’d go back to you if I knew.”
Magnus walked slowly toward the desk, every step measured, heavy. His hands stayed clenched at his sides. “You expect me to believe he accepted seven hundred fifty thousand dollars and never mentioned it?”
“I didn’t say that. He did mention it indirectly. Before he died, he told me to stay gone. Said you’d never forgive the way I left.”
“And you listened.”
“I didn’t know what he meant then,” she whispered. “I thought it was just more of his control. But after I found the document, it all made
sense.”
He leaned against the desk and crossed his arms. “So he accepted the money. Signed your name. And vanished with your silence.”
“He forged the authorization.”
1/4
12:08 Sun, Oct 12
Chapter 40
“And you never asked questions?”
She walked to the armchair opposite him and sat, spine straight, voice steady. “I was twenty–four. My father was dying. You had just pushed me out of your life and told me I was better off without you. I wasn’t thinking like an investigator I was grieving.”
He studied her. “You were grieving me?”
“Yes.”
“That’s hard to believe.”
76
Vivienne met his gaze. “I never stopped loving you, Magnus. Not when you turned away from me. Not when I left. And not when I found out the truth.”
The muscles in his jaw tightened. “You stayed gone for five years.”
“Because I thought you hated me. I thought I was nothing but a liability to your empire.”
He walked behind his chair and gripped the back of it, knuckles whitening. “What changed?”
“My mother’s house,” she said simply. “It was the last piece of her. I couldn’t lose it. And I knew only one person who could stop it from being taken. You.”
He leaned over the chair. “So you came back because of property.”
“No,” she said. “I came back because I was tired of running from the truth. And because somewhere, deep down, I hoped you’d still see
me.”
He was silent.
For several seconds, the room was filled only with the tick of the antique clock on the far wall.
Then Magnus moved.
He walked to the bar, poured a drink, and turned back to her. He didn’t sip.
“I spent years thinking you walked out on me,” he said. “No words. No fight. Just gone. And now you tell me you were manipulated?
Used?”
“Yes.”
“And you want me to just accept that?”
She stood. “I don’t want anything from you except understanding. Maybe forgiveness.”
He looked at the drink in his hand. “Forgiveness isn’t something I give easily.”
“I know.”
2/4
12:08 Sun, Oct 12
Chapter 40
He lifted his gaze.
And for the briefest moment, barely a heartbeat, his expression softened. His eyes lost their edge. His posture eased.
She saw it.
She saw the man she once knew slip through the cracks of the one he’d become.
Then he blinked.
And the wall was back.
“You should go,” he said quietly.
She nodded. “Okay.”
But she didn’t move.
Neither did he.
76
And the air between them buzzed with the heat of everything that hadn’t been said yet.
She crossed the floor slowly.
Magnus didn’t lift his head as she approached. He stood by the bar, one hand on the glass he hadn’t touched, the other braced against the edge like he needed it to stay upright.
Vivienne stopped a foot away from him.
“I used to hate the way you shut down,” she said softly.
He didn’t answer.
“You’d freeze, like turning everything off would keep you from bleeding.”
“You’re not wrong.”
She reached out.
Her fingers touched his wrist lightly. Just enough to feel the heat of his skin beneath his tailored cuff.
“You don’t have to be made of stone anymore,” she whispered.
Magnus turned to her then. Their eyes locked. He didn’t speak, didn’t move away. The sharp edge in him dulled just a little.
“I’m tired,” she said.
He nodded. “Me too.”
3/4
12:08 Sun, Oct 12
Chapter 40
She stepped closer. Her body leaned into his chest slowly, unsure if she was allowed.
He didn’t stop her.
17
–“))
76
Her check rested against the fabric of his shirt. She breathed in sandalwood, clean soap, the faintest trace of his cologne. Her arms curled lightly around his waist. She didn’t cling. She didn’t collapse. She just… rested.
He hesitated for half a heartbeat. Then his arm moved.
It wasn’t a tight embrace. Not yet. But his hand found her back. He exhaled against her hair.
Neither of them spoke.
The world outside the room dimmed. They weren’t thinking about the past, or the bribes, or the reasons they’d stayed apart. They were just there, in the weight of quiet, holding onto something that had nearly been lost.
“I missed this,” she murmured.
“So did I.”
Her fingers clutched his shirt. “You still feel the same.”
“Do you?”
She nodded. “I think I always did.”
Chapter Comments
LIKE
е
Write Comments
SHARE
