His Ex Mistress, His Enemy
Four years ago, Dianna Rosa fell in love with a man who promised her the world.
Only to find out she was nothing more than his mistress.
Heartbroken and betrayed, Dianna walked away from Zane Romano, heir to the powerful Romano Group, without a word. She disappeared, carrying pain, fury… and a secret she swore he’d never know.
Now, she’s back. Not as the fragile lover he once knew, but as the lead attorney in a billion-dollar lawsuit against his empire.
Their reunion in the courtroom ignites a firestorm of old wounds, sharp words, and dangerous chemistry.
Zane is still cold, commanding, and dangerously charming. But Dianna? She’s not the woman he could control anymore.
One wants justice. The other still wants her.
But when buried secrets rise to the surface, they’ll have to choose....destroy each other, or burn together.
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Chapter: The Shape of UsThe light behind my eyelids felt too white for a world that had just gone up in flames.I woke slowly, not the cool cinematic kind of waking. More like waking with a dry mouth that tasted like I’d chewed on sidewalk chalk. My nose complained first: antiseptic, expensive linen, and something that reminded me of espresso machine coffee, not the instant stuff.Voices hit me before my eyes caught up, coming from the half-open door.“I’m going in first,” Ash barked. “She’s my mami.”“She’s my aunt,” Zoe shot back, louder. “I’m the cousin plus the princess. My rank is above yours.”“No! Mami is—”“If you raise your voices one more octave, you’re sleeping in the parking lot,” Krystal cut in, sharp as glass. “The doctor said she needs rest. Ash, lower your hand. Zoe, if you step on his foot again, I will sell every piece of glitter you own.”Two tiny protests flared at the same time. A chair scraped. Something fell, probably a crayon. Someone muttered in Spanish.My eyes finally gave up and o
Last Updated: 2025-12-31
Chapter: The Line I Cross for YouZane climbed down from his firing position.Diego and another guy shoved inside, spreading out, rifles aimed at the far side of the room where the gunshot had come from. Two men in black—definitely not our people—dragged themselves behind a small forklift at the end. One wasn’t moving. The other tried to lift his gun with a shaking hand.“Put it down.” Zane’s voice cut through the room. Cold. “Now.”The guy turned, eyes wild. His right hand rose, the gun lining up with… me. Great.I held my breath. Erick pressed against the drum behind me, his body forming a thin wall.The next bullet didn’t come from the enemy.A single shot cracked. Diego. His rifle jerked up just a little, then dropped again with a blink-fast reflex.The man’s gun flew from his hand, clattering against the wall. He staggered, shouting, clutching the shoulder that was now bleeding.“Try it again,” Diego spat in Italian, keeping the barrel low. “We’re not the police.”Amelia lifted her hands higher, fast, her fingers
Last Updated: 2025-12-31
Chapter: Cutting Zip-Ties and FateIf I ever claimed my life was dramatic, tonight the universe answered, “Hold this.”The hallway outside the door exploded in sound.Another shot. Close. A bullet slammed into the doorframe, splinters spraying into the room. Amelia and Sophia dropped into a crouch, backs pressed to the wall, their elegance evaporating along with whatever pride they had left.I hit the floor on instinct, half sprawled over Erick. The chair scraped again, loud on the concrete.“Di,” Erick hissed. His breath snagged in his chest.“Quiet.” My forehead pressed against his collarbone. “If you die, I need whatever energy I have left to yell at your corpse.”From the hallway came Diego’s voice, sharp and clear beneath the chaos.“Linea sinistra clear! Move slow!”Another voice answered, younger, fast. Probably Zake. “Two behind the forklift, twelve o’clock. I’m moving.”Then the voice that made my spine shake, even in a warehouse that smelled like rust.“Hold, Zake. Wait. They have hostages.”Zane.My ears cau
Last Updated: 2025-12-31
Chapter: cover, coverThe second blast hit closer.The floor lurched for real this time. The light overhead stopped being décor and turned into a threat; the cable swung hard, its shadow dancing over the brick wall. Dust rained from the ceiling, stinging eyes and throat.“What was that?” Erick choked from the chair.“Picnic,” I muttered without thinking. “Gangster edition.”Amelia was already at the window. Her heels clicked on the concrete with a rhythm that didn’t match the situation at all. She yanked the grimy curtain aside and looked out.When she turned again, the change on her pretty face wasn’t dramatic. My brow even appreciated the Botox. Her jaw locked.“They’re here,” she said.“They?” I gripped the back of Erick’s chair, heart counting down on its own.The third explosion didn’t come from far away. It felt like something blew right under our feet. Heat rushed through the cracks of the window, carrying the bite of smoke and metal.Then… gunfire.The first shot cracked through the warehouse halls
Last Updated: 2025-12-31
Chapter: Detonation"Okay, what plot twist is this supposed to be."The words slipped out before my brain caught up.Sophia leaned on the doorway like this was just an internal meeting relocated to hell. Black blazer, slacks, spotless white sneakers. Her hair was tied in a lazy knot, loose strands brushing her cheeks. Glasses hooked on her blouse collar instead of her face. One hand toyed with her phone, thumb sliding once."Seriously, D," she went on, her tone flat. "If you need fifteen more minutes for a dramatic reunion, I’ll resend the email. The one that says, ‘We found something about Erick’ in triple bold."I stayed on the floor. One hand on Erick’s knee, the other gripping the chair. My lungs dragged for air, my chest tight. My head still refused to accept what I was seeing."Sophia." My tongue felt like paper. "How did you even…""Get in?" She lifted a brow. "The door wasn’t locked, sweetheart. You just walked in too."That wasn’t what I asked and she knew it.Erick shifted weakly. "So…" his voi
Last Updated: 2025-12-31
Chapter: The Side DoorIf there had been an award for the Worst Midnight Decision, I would’ve been holding the trophy already.I slipped past the iron gate and dropped onto the dirt road. Mud splattered my shoes. Milan’s cold bit straight through my hoodie. The narrow stretch ahead sat empty, washed in a thin ribbon of fog and framed by old trees leaning over the path. A low engine hum crept closer. A pale yellow glow broke through the dark.A taxi.Not a sleek black sedan with tinted windows. Just a regular city cab. White paint. A crooked TAXI sign on top that looked like it had survived too many bad nights. The engine rolled to a stop right in front of me. The driver lowered the window.A man in his fifties, gray hair, thin mustache, sly eyes that had clearly watched too many fools get into his car at even worse hours.“Signorina?” Thick accent. His gaze drifted from my face to the hoodie, to my pants, then to the gate behind me. He checked the address on the phone strapped to his dashboard. “Via… that o
Last Updated: 2025-12-31

My Billionaire's Ex Husband's Secret Heir
Five years ago, Sasha Rivera left Rafael Moretti on the night that should have changed their lives forever.
She had just found out she was pregnant and planned to tell her husband after dinner with the Moretti family.
Instead, his family accused her of cheating with evidence that had been cut, twisted, and arranged to destroy her.
But Rafael chose to believe his family, called her a gold digger, and let her walk away without chasing her.
So Sasha left.
Without Moretti money. Without telling Rafael she was carrying his child.
Now, she is no longer the wife looked down on by an old Milan family. She is a successful architecture and interior design firm in Los Angeles, and the single mother of a four-year-old boy with someone’s blue eyes and unmistakable face.
Her life is finally under control, until the biggest project of her career pulls her back into the past.
Her client, Noelle Jamesson, is a wealthy heiress who wants Sasha to design her family’s Malibu mansion.
And Noelle’s boyfriend is Rafael Moretti....
Colder. More powerful.
As Noelle’s boyfriend, Rafael is suddenly everywhere Sasha has to be. In meetings. At dinners. On the Malibu site. Standing too close, watching too carefully, saying her name like he still knows exactly where to cut.
Sasha can handle his coldness. She can handle his new woman. She can even handle the way her body still remembers him before her pride can stop it.
What she cannot handle is Maxime.
Her whole world.
Because if Rafael ever learns the truth, he will not simply ask for a place in Max’s life.
Rafael takes what he believes belongs to him.
And Sasha is terrified that ....he will come for the only thing she cannot survive losing.
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Chapter: the small, unbearable joy of being aliveI woke up to something hard jabbing me in the cheek.Nothing dangerous enough to worry about, at least not until I opened my eyes and found two red plastic horns about an inch from my face.“Kevin, don’t.”“Mami.”I groaned and pulled the blanket up over my nose.“Mami, wake up.”“No.”“Mami, I’m hungry.”“My condolences.”Something small, warm, and deeply disrespectful of personal space climbed onto my stomach. I opened one eye just as Max dropped his entire chubby body onto my chest, Kevin the triceratops included, now sporting two red Lego pieces taped to his horns and, according to his owner, officially qualified as a military weapon.“Jesus Christ, Max.”“Don’t say Jesus Christ,” he said seriously. “You said that’s a bad word.”“I also said not to jump on people while they’re sleeping.”“I didn’t jump. I climbed.”I stared at him.My son stared right back with those enormous blue eyes that somehow managed to make every accusation against him look like a human rights violation. Hi
Last Updated: 2026-10-08
Chapter: i could still picture you in the darkIt wasn’t the usual Rafael Moretti version of no, either. No polished explanation, no tone that somehow turned every conversation into a board meeting where he’d already decided the outcome and forgotten to tell anyone there was supposed to be a vote.Just... no.I stood beside the bed with my phone pressed to my ear. “Wow. Look at that. Personal growth. Should I send your therapist flowers?”“I want the original footage.”I stared at the wall. “And the moment of growth is officially over.”“Not the screenshot you sent. The original file.”“No.”“Sasha.”“Rafael, I’m not customer service for billionaire paranoia. Press one for legal threats, press two if you’d like to buy someone’s company, press three if your ex-wife is sick of hearing her own name.”He didn’t answer.I could picture him on the other end even though I had no idea where he was. Maybe the penthouse. Maybe the hotel. Maybe Noelle’s place, and the fact that my brain offered up that last possibility without being asked ma
Last Updated: 2026-10-07
Chapter: the things divorce doesn't killMy phone kept buzzing in my hand.I stared at Rafael’s name on the screen until the call finally stopped on its own, then lowered the phone with the kind of petty satisfaction no grown adult should have been allowed to enjoy.Good. Very mature. Truly an inspiring display of self-control.Absolutely not because my pride was sitting on one side of a negotiation table while the tiny devil on my shoulder sat on the other, whispering that answering a call from my ex-husband at eleven at night after accusing him of surveillance was the beginning of several bad decisions that usually ended with lawyers.The screen went dark again.I set the phone on the bed.Two seconds later, it started buzzing again.“Jesus.” I answered and pressed it to my ear before I could change my mind. “You have thirty seconds before I block this number and classify you as part of the wildlife problem.”“Where’s Max?”He didn’t even have the decency to sound offended.No excuse me? No comment on the fact that I’d jus
Last Updated: 2026-10-03
Chapter: there you were, beneath everything elseIt was a little after eight when I walked Rowan toward the gate.Dinner had finally ended after Mama managed to give him dessert that she claimed was only “a little” and turned out to be one enormous slice of tres leches, Papá made Rowan save the direct number for the head of our family security, and Max spent the last fifteen minutes of his evening demonstrating Kevin’s new capabilities, which, upon closer investigation, turned out to be two pieces of translucent red Lego taped to his horns.Gabriella had already taken Max upstairs because he’d started yawning while continuing to deny he was tired, which was usually the final stage before he fell asleep somewhere completely unreasonable.The night air was cooler now. The ocean below was almost invisible except for the thin white lines where the waves broke, while the lights of Belladonna glowed softly through the trees on the hillside.Rowan walked beside me with both hands in his pants pockets, the tablet he’d brought earlier alread
Last Updated: 2026-10-01
Chapter: nothing unusual, if you ignore everythingI stopped chewing.“Sasha’s house already has security,” Gamma said.“Mm.”“From us.”“I know.”Gamma frowned harder. “Our team already has perimeter coverage, gate control, patrol rotation, cameras, and response.”Papá lifted one shoulder. “Now she can have two.”I stared at him. “Is this how rich people say anxiety?”“Redundancy.” Papá said.Gamma put down his fork. “Two systems can overlap.”“They can,” Rowan said.Gamma looked at him.“If they’re installed badly,” Rowan added.I held back a laugh.Gamma narrowed his eyes. “And if you install it?”“It won’t be bad.”Papá nodded. “I don’t want to replace Sasha’s security. I want an additional layer specifically for the slope, low airspace, and the blind approach from the lower road. Your system saw something ours didn’t.”Gamma looked at Papá. “We also only found out there was something after Blackwood came over.”“Exactly.”Gamma opened his mouth.Then closed it again.Papá went back to eating.Argument over.Rowan shifted his atte
Last Updated: 2026-10-01
Chapter: domestic bliss, classifiedTwenty minutes later, Rowan Blackwood was sitting in the chair my son had apparently designated the special chair.I still had no idea what made it special.It was a perfectly normal dining chair on the left side of the table, identical to the other seven, except maybe because Max had stood on it that morning trying to reach the honey in the cabinet, and I’d threatened to sell the entire dining set if he didn’t get down.But after his shower, Max came downstairs with his black hair still damp, the bangs Gabriella had carefully combed into place already falling over his forehead again five minutes later, wearing a clean white T-shirt and navy shorts, and immediately pointed Rowan toward the chair.“You sit here.”Rowan pulled it out. “Any particular reason?”“Special chair.”“What makes it special?”Max paused. “Because I said so.”Rowan nodded like he’d just been given a perfectly reasonable structural explanation. “Fair enough.”Papá pulled out the chair at the head of the table whil
Last Updated: 2026-10-01

TO HATE, TO TOUCH, TO RUIN
As the wife of the Colombian cartel heir, Krystal Serrano is a symbol of diplomacy and control. Dressed in silk, wrapped in silence, and displayed like a crown jewel at the center of power. But behind the flawless smile lies a woman raised not just to survive, but to rule.
When her husband's betrayal ignites a war with the Italian mafia, Krystal is taken.
Kidnapped and hidden away by Zachary Romano, the young, ruthless Don who solves problems with bullets and buries questions with bodies.
He thought he had captured a soft, obedient mafia wife.
What he brought home was a storm in heels.
Krystal doesn't beg. She doesn't break. Her silence provokes, her lips taunt, and her gaze slices deeper than any blade. Inside the stone walls of his private villa, control begins to slip. Hatred turns into tension. Tension burns into obsession. And in their world, love always comes with blood on its hands.
The ring on her finger still binds her to a man who believes she belongs to him.
But what happens when a woman like Krystal meets someone dark enough to understand her, broken enough to match her, and reckless enough to want her?
Because there's a difference between loving a woman like Krystal…
And trying to own her.
And Zach Romano is about to learn—only one man can stand beside her.
The rest will be buried.
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Chapter: One Pill, Two Kisses, No RemorseHis eyes stayed on my face.Beep.Beep.“Zach, don’t you dare—”His palm cupped my jaw, firm enough to keep my face turned toward him. His thumb rested beneath my cheekbone, far from the injection mark on my neck. His other fingers slid into my hair behind my ear.He leaned down.His mouth closed over mine.I flinched.My body tried to pull back, but the pillow and raised head of the bed held me in place. My hand lifted too late, my left palm only managing to touch his chest. The hard muscle beneath his shirt didn’t move an inch.Zach’s lips were warm.Too warm.Too familiar.The faint taste of black coffee and tobacco touched my tongue. Then something small and slick passed from his mouth into mine.Bastard.I closed my throat, pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth, and tried to push it back. Zach deepened the kiss before I could.His mouth moved over mine with the calm of someone who knew I didn’t have the strength to truly fight him. His hand remained cupped around my face, sup
Last Updated: 2026-07-23
Chapter: Red as Wine, Bitter as HimHe stayed seated on the edge of the bed, lifted the glass to my lips, and let my two fingers remain curled into his shirt while I drank.The last of the water went down more easily.Zach pulled the straw away before I could take another sip, then set the glass on the table. His hand returned to my face, his thumb brushing slowly beneath my cheekbone, as if making sure I was still solid and wasn’t about to turn into expensive dust all over Mama’s Egyptian cotton sheets.“I’m finding out who screwed this up,” he said.I blinked. “At the club?”“Everywhere.”No doubt.Zach Romano never investigated one room. He was probably tearing apart three countries, two pharmaceutical companies, and someone’s childhood just to find out who bought the needle.“And before you ask,” he continued, “I’m not telling you anything.”I scoffed. My voice was still rough, but the sound came out with respectable quality. My body might have nearly died, but apparently my irritation had been given priority care.
Last Updated: 2026-07-23
Chapter: The Kind of Touch That Gives Men AwayI stared at him.He stared back.My mouth felt dry. “Water.”The word came out clearly.Low and rough, but whole.I froze.I swallowed, the pain only a small scrape now. “Water.”My voice.Actually my voice.It still sounded like I’d swallowed asphalt, but it was no longer dead air trapped in my throat. It had shape. It had tone. It had me.Zach’s eyes moved to my mouth.“It’s back,” I said quietly.The corner of his mouth shifted almost imperceptibly. “Sadly.”I smiled. My facial muscles did better this time. Both sides moved, though the right was slightly late, like it always had somewhere else to be.“Water,” I repeated. “Before I change my mind and die just to inconvenience you.”Zach picked up the glass from the table. His hand went straight to the bed controls, pressing the button with his thumb.The head of the bed began to rise. My body lifted with it, but my back still wasn’t strong enough to follow gracefully. My head slipped to the side. My neck tightened.Zach’s hand slid
Last Updated: 2026-07-23
Chapter: The Darkness Brought Him BackI looked toward the window.The light outside had changed. The sun was no longer white and high. Its color was warmer now, clinging to the glass and the flowers like watered-down honey.I didn’t know what time it was.I didn’t know if it was evening or just an afternoon that had grown tired.My eyelids lowered on their own.Mama was still discussing food with someone outside. The broth had to be strained twice. The chicken could not come from the hospital farm. Very little salt. No cream. The potatoes had to be mashed until not a single lump could be considered a threat.Papa remained seated beside me. His fingertips moved through my hair. Once from the crown of my head. Down to the back. Then back again.I closed my eyes.Sleep came without pulling me under.No black water filled my ears. No invisible hands dragged me down. My body no longer felt like something heavy abandoned at the bottom of the ocean.I was light.So strange.Like every bone had been removed one by one, cleaned, t
Last Updated: 2026-07-23
Chapter: Someone Kept Lifting the LidMama was still staring at the sheets with personal offense when Dr. Keller returned with a nurse and a woman in glasses carrying a small tray.On it sat one white bowl, a glass of water, several spoons in different sizes, and something pale cream that looked like food that had lost the right to have texture.I stared at it.The woman in glasses smiled at me. “I’m Dr. Rivas. I’d like to check your swallowing before we give you any food.”Mama immediately glanced at the bowl. “That’s the food?”“Rice porridge and thickened chicken broth.”“It looks like wall paint.”Dr. Rivas paused for one second. “The texture is designed to make it safer to swallow.”“Safe and appetizing don’t have to be enemies.”Papa lowered his face and rubbed his chin. His shoulders moved slightly because he was laughing.Dr. Keller took her place beside the bed. “We’ll start with ice.”The nurse touched a small piece of ice to my lips.Cold.The sensation arrived quickly this time, not three days later through ec
Last Updated: 2026-07-23
Chapter: One Blink Means MurderThumb.I sent the command down to it.Nothing happened for one second.Two.Then the tip of my thumb shifted.Barely. So embarrassing.“Good,” she said.Don’t patronize me with kindergarten praise, doctor.“Index finger.”I concentrated.My index finger moved more easily. It only bent slightly, but it moved.“Good. Now your middle finger.”Ah.My favorite.Finally, a task suited to my natural abilities.I tried.Nothing.I stared at the finger.Try again.No.A tiny twitch started at the base, then died before reaching the first joint.Dr. Keller wrote something on her tablet. I turned my head toward her.She stopped writing.Papa sighed beside me. “Don’t kill her.”My eyes moved to him.“Your recovery will take longer if we have to fly in another doctor from Zürich.”I blinked once.Disagree.The corner of his mouth moved.Dr. Keller looked between us. “What did that one blink mean?”“She wants to kill you,” Mama said as she picked up a warm cloth from the basin. “But don’t take it p
Last Updated: 2026-07-23

The Billionaire's Regret
Marrying Sebastian Romano had felt like a wish granted too perfectly to be real… until reality crushed it.
For two years, Jasmine lived in a blur of champagne, penthouse lights, and a husband who looked at her like she was his entire future.
In the third year, the silence arrived.
The kisses turned into calendar appointments.
The marriage shrank into handshakes and small talk.
Then Jasmine found the truth.
Sweet messages that were not for her.
Hotel bookings that did not include her name.
A blonde secretary who did not know shame.
Jasmine walked out without looking back. She left her ring, the signed divorce papers, and her ruined heart on their ridiculous king-size bed.
What she did not know was that another life had already started inside her.
Five years later, Jasmine lived small on purpose. Quiet. Safe. Her child grew up without drama, without the weight of the Romano name. Jasmine promised herself it would stay that way.
Until Adrian.
Adrian was nothing like the men who used to own her world. Calm where they were cruel, clever without being cruel, steady in a way that felt dangerous only because she wanted to trust it. With him, Jasmine finally stopped feeling like a problem to fix and started feeling like a person to keep.
When Adrian dropped to one knee at a glittering Monte Carlo...Jasmine did something she had sworn never to do again. She thought about forever.
Then she saw him.
Sebastian Romano.
The man she had loved, left, and learned to hate in the exact same lifetime.
Those cold eyes. That unreadable face. The past she thought she had buried standing three steps away from her fresh start.
“Interesting,” Sebastian said. “Your fiancé… happens to be my brother.”
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Chapter: we survived the version of usThere was no celebration.No champagne popping because the villain had been caught, not a single Romano standing in the foyer looking satisfied like they’d just won a hostile takeover, and thankfully no speech about the family finally coming together because I probably would’ve thrown a vase.The house just started breathing again.Slowly.Strangely.Poppy didn’t ask about Adrian.That was what worried me at first.She just went back to being Poppy.That afternoon, she ran from the living room to the garden three times because she forgot Bunny, then ran back again because Bunny was apparently already in her hand. She crashed into Papa Sebastian’s legs twice, once hard enough that the man who had once silenced an entire Romano Empire boardroom with a single look nearly lost his balance.“Piccola.”“Sorry, Grandpa.”Two minutes later, she ran into him again.Papa Sebastian looked up at the ceiling.“I’m beginning to think this is intentional.”Poppy hugged his knee. “I love you.”Papa S
Last Updated: 2026-08-31
Chapter: the lies we called devotionLuca hadn’t even had time to give a second order when Adrian laughed.Not a laugh I had ever heard from him before.Not warm. Not amused because Poppy said broccoli had a bad personality. Not exasperated because Salma was complaining about his weight. The sound was short and empty, and then he rubbed one hand over his mouth while looking at Sebastian like something that had been waiting for years had finally been given permission to come out.“Of course.”Sebastian stood between us, his shoulders still relaxed.“What?”“Even now.” Adrian pointed at the security behind Luca, then the vault wall, the house above our heads, all of it. “You say one name and everybody moves.”Sebastian didn’t answer.Adrian shook his head and laughed again. “You don’t even know what that feels like.”“Adrian,” Papa Sebastian said from behind us.Only then did I realize their parents had come downstairs with Rhea. Mama Sebastian stopped near the corridor entrance, her face pale when she saw Poppy in my arms
Last Updated: 2026-08-31
Chapter: all your reasons died at her feetAdrian recovered too quickly.That was exactly what made me even more certain something had cracked.His face went calm again, his shoulders lowered slightly, and then he let out a breath like a man who had just realized he’d chosen the wrong word, not a man who had accidentally revealed details about a biometric system I had never told him about.“Dad talked about it once.”I didn’t move. “What?”“The biometric succession system. When I was a kid.”His voice was gentle again.Reasonable again.Always reasonable.I watched him for a few seconds before asking, “How old were you?”Adrian frowned slightly. “I don’t know. Eight? Nine?”“And Papa Sebastian sat down with an eight-year-old and discussed thumbprint verification?”“Not like that.”“Of course.”“Jasmine.”I smiled a little. “I’m just trying to understand.”He looked at me.I made my voice even lighter.“So you heard it from your fathers?”“Yes.”“Where?”“At home.”“Which home?”A pause.“New York.”“Interesting.”Adrian swallo
Last Updated: 2026-08-31
Chapter: i gave you the lie you wantedWe didn’t actually sit down until almost an hour later.The library was too soft for a conversation like this, and the security room had too many monitors, so Luca eventually took over a small conference room on the east side of the mansion.Papa Sebastian sat at the head of the table with an expression cold enough to cancel several acquisitions without opening his mouth, while Mama Sebastian sat beside him, still wearing a cashmere robe thrown over her sleep clothes.Rhea sat across from me with both hands wrapped around a mug of coffee she was no longer drinking.Sebastian stood.Of course.Apparently the man was physically incapable of discussing family betrayal while sitting like a civilian.On the large screen, Luca laid out the timeline.Five years ago.Kelsey was given broader access to the executive office.Hazel received a credential through a Romano legacy channel via Adrian.Sebastian’s location data was pulled.Kelsey planted the photos, bracelet, messages, hotel evidence.
Last Updated: 2026-08-31
Chapter: every clue was placed where i would find itI had probably been asleep for forty minutes when the intercom beside the bed lit up.Not an alarm.Worse.Security.“Mrs. Romano?”I opened my eyes, still half buried in the pillow. Beside me, Sebastian was already fully awake, like the man had an internal switch that could take him from asleep to potentially homicidal in half a second.“What is it?” he asked.“There’s a woman at the main gate. She says she knows Mrs. Romano. Refuses to surrender her phone and is asking to speak directly.”I sat up.“Name?”A pause.“Rhea.”Sleep left my body instantly.Ten minutes later, I was walking downstairs with a cardigan thrown over my camisole and sleep pants, while Sebastian followed a few steps behind in a black T-shirt and lounge pants. He didn’t move ahead of me, but he stayed close enough to make it very clear to the entire security detail that whoever was downstairs was probably going to have a bad night if they made one stupid move.Rhea was already in the foyer.I stopped.For a few
Last Updated: 2026-08-31
Chapter: somewhere in the ruins, i chose youAdrian left around early evening.Poppy hugged him briefly in the foyer, then hugged Salma and said she’d call Jasmine later.He did everything like normal.That might have been the part that hurt the most.I waited until the front door closed, until the sound of the car disappeared down the driveway, then walked straight to the security room without saying a word to anyone.Luca was there with Sebastian.Two monitors glowed in front of them.Sebastian stood with both hands braced on the table, his shirt sleeves still rolled up, his face already back to the one people probably saw right before signing terrible decisions for other companies.Cold.Not angry.Worse.Luca looked up when I walked in.“I heard it,” I said.No one asked what.Sebastian looked at me.I pointed at the monitor. “Hazel got Tuesday.”Luca nodded once.“Adrian just said Tuesday.”Nothing dramatic changed in the room.No sirens.No dramatic reveal flashing across the screen.Just one small sentence dropping betwee
Last Updated: 2026-08-31