“She’s My Wife on Paper, Nothing More” — The Crime Lord Laughed… Not Knowing She Heard Every Word
Chapter 14
Time softened everything except memory.
Thomas remained imprisoned.
The old criminal network disappeared.
The manor became a place where families gathered rather than a fortress where enemies were feared.
Clara kept her father’s letters.
Lucian kept the original ledger.
Neither needed them anymore.
They kept them because forgetting was dangerous.
One evening, Clara found Lucian in the study reading the first letter her father had written.
“What are you doing?”
“Remembering.”
She sat beside him.
“Do you regret marrying me?”
He looked offended.
“After all these years?”
“I want to hear it.”
“No.”
“Not even once?”
“Only when you steal the blankets.”
She laughed.
“You’re impossible.”
He closed the letter.
“Clara.”
“Yes?”
“If that night had gone differently…”
“It didn’t.”
“But if it had?”
She looked at him.
“I would still choose you.”
He took her hand.
“So would I.”
She rested her head against his shoulder.
Outside, rain began tapping against the windows.
The same sound that had filled the manor on the night she overheard him.
But everything was different now.
She no longer feared the sound.
Because there were no secrets between them.
