Her Reluctant Wife: A Lesbian Age Gap Romance

was overwhelming. Nothing seemed to have a rhyme or reason

to it. Giana’s tastes were too wide and varied. The rooms that

displayed her collections and treasures weren’t organized by

things. There was no room just for rocks or a room for books.

It was all mixed up, all over the place.

Giana was clearly an eclectic curator. The furniture in the

place was like the stuff she collected. A mix of brand new and

expensive, odd one-of-a-kind pieces, and antiques. It felt a

little bit like falling into a museum’s basement, where they

kept all the extra stuff they weren’t currently displaying. Every

room had something in it, even the two spare bedrooms.

“Giana?” Coralyn was about to head upstairs, but she

needed to know that Giana was still okay.

“I’m okay.”

“Okay. The doctor should be here soon. I’m going to watch

for him.”

The spiral staircase that wound up to the second floor like

something out of a movie was right there. It extended from the

foyer. Coralyn only hesitated for a second, her foot on the first

step. She was throwing herself off a precipice there was no

coming back from if she did this.

She climbed. Up, and up and up. She hadn’t seen a single

item of jewellery on the main floor. She was banking that

Giana hadn’t stuffed all her treasures into some safe to rot. She

liked looking at them too much. Was it a pride thing? She

came from old family money. It wasn’t like she had to remind

herself of her accomplishments, of how she’d clawed her way

up from nothing and now could afford all of this. She’d

probably always had some version of it.

Coralyn knew when she’d found Giana’s bedroom. She