Chapter 289
289 The Hidden Door
Third Person POV
“Let’s look at the third floor.” Henry said beside her.
“Alright.” Aubrey’s voice was calm, her steps steady as she followed.
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The spiral staircase gleamed–glass married with metal, airy and modern, a design that seemed meant to impress.
“The entire third floor is your private wing,” Henry explained as they climbed. “No one else is permitted here. Not without your consent. It’s only for you.”
Aubrey’s face revealed nothing. But the moment they reached the landing, a faint fragrance curled into her
nose–roses.
She stopped, eyes flicking across the space. The threshold and alcoves had once been bursting with scarlet roses, arranged carefully for effect. Now most of them had withered, dried into brittle remnants. She didn’t need imagination to see what had been intended–a scene of–fierce romance and warmth waiting for her, had she come earlier.
Even the floor told a story. A path leading to the master bedroom was still littered with faded petals, their color drained but their purpose clear. They clung stubbornly to the memory of someone’s effort, someone’s intent to welcome her with love.
Henry’s gaze burned into her. Deep, intent, and almost pleading.
“Aubrey… at least look. Everything I did here–it was for you. I rebuilt this place for no reason but to make you happy. That’s all I wanted, from the beginning.”
Aubrey turned her head aside, silent.
His chest tightened at her indifference, but he pressed on. “Here, the living room–you said once you wanted sunlight. That’s why this whole wall is glass. I even set reflective panels outside, so the morning light always falls here first. Your space would be the first to shine.”
Her silence pressed down on him like a weight, but he refused to falter, He pulled her toward the bedroom.
Inside, warmth replaced the sterile gray of the labs. The walls glowed with soft yellow, a color she’d once claimed was calming. The enormous four–meter–wide bed all but dominated the space, a heart–shaped -pattern of dried blooms still spread across the sheets. A touch cliché, perhaps–but also painfully sincere.
“You said yellow relaxes you, so I painted it that way. You said you wanted a soft bed–it’s the best I could find. And more…”
He listed it all: the gym, the theater, the wine cellar, the study. Every corner tailored from her offhand. remarks, every detail reflecting her habits, her preferences. He had remembered it all–and built it into
stone.
If not for what this place was… if not for what it meant… she might have been happy. She might have smiled at the thought that someone had cared enough to carve out her world with such precision.
But that was the contradiction. Her heart split down the center–half raw pain, half fragile awe. Reason whispered for distance, but something deep inside screamed.
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289 The Hidden Door
And Henry had been right about one thing. She wasn’t breaking. Not now. She wasn’t the fragile creature
she feared she’d become..
Outside, she had almost collapsed. Inside, she was coldly, terrifyingly calm.
“You don’t like any of this?”
Hope bled from Henry’s voice as he asked. After everything he’d shown her, Aubrey’s face remained. smooth, devoid of joy.
She didn’t answer.
Instead, she turned and descended. Henry blinked, startled, then rushed after her.
But Aubrey wasn’t leaving.
Through hallways and bends, she led herself unerringly to a small, nearly hidden door. She opened it without hesitation. Behind was only a storage room.
But she didn’t stop.
Crossing to one corner, her hand swept along the smooth wall–until her fingers pressed into a seam no one else would have noticed. She pushed, and with a muffled grind, a hidden door sprang open out of the seamless stone.
Henry froze, “This… what is this?!”
合
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