Novels by Jesutofunmi Hannah

Chapter 13‎‎Aria's POV‎‎My father made tea after lunch.‎‎He always did.‎‎It was not routine. It was control disguised as calm. ‎‎The particular kind of calm that did not arrive naturally but had been practised so long it had become indistinguishable from the real thing.‎‎I sat on the sofa and watched him move through the room the way I had watched him my entire life. Unhurried. Deliberate. Like the world around him was operating on a schedule he had already approved.‎‎That was the first thing people misunderstood about Vincent Vale.‎‎They expected loud power. The kind that filled rooms and demanded acknowledgment and made itself impossible to ignore. ‎‎They looked at what his name could move and assumed the man behind it moved the same way.‎‎He did not.‎‎His power was patience.‎‎He poured tea into two cups and handed one to me before settling into the chair across. ‎‎The afternoon light came through the window at a low, unhurried angle. Outside the garden sa

Aria's POV‎‎I did not call ahead.‎‎I never did.‎‎There were things that could not be announced before you arrived.‎‎Truth was one of them.‎‎You said it in person or you waited too long and the thing you meant to say became something different.‎‎The Vale estate sat at the end of a quiet street lined with old trees.‎‎The black iron gates opened when I pressed the code.‎‎No hesitation. No questions.‎‎Home always recognised me.‎‎The housekeeper appeared before I had fully stepped inside. She had worked in this house for twenty-two years and had never once treated my arrival as routine. ‎‎"Miss Aria. Your father is in the study."‎‎I nodded once.‎‎"I know."‎‎The hallway smelled the same as it always had.‎‎Old wood. Polished stone. ‎‎The faint trace of coffee that never fully left the air no matter the hour. Small things. Unchanged things. ‎‎The kind you only noticed when you had been away long enough for the absence to register.‎‎Nothing in this house tri

Aria's POV‎‎The decision moved faster than people expected.‎‎It always did.‎‎That was the thing about quiet power. People mistook the silence for slowness. They saw the stillness and assumed nothing was moving. ‎‎And then the paperwork arrived and the terms had already changed and there was nothing left to dispute.‎‎By the time I reached my car, the messages had already started.‎‎I stood beside the door and read them one by one.‎‎"Revisions received."‎‎"Terms acknowledged."‎‎"Blackwood Group notified."‎‎Each one landing with the clean, precise weight of something that had been a long time coming.‎‎I read them without reacting.‎‎Then locked my phone and got in.‎‎Somewhere across the city, Damien would be reading the same thing.‎‎But from the other side.‎‎I sat in the car for a moment before starting the engine.‎‎The street outside moved at its usual pace.‎‎A courier crossing at the light. Two women talking outside the coffee shop on the corner.‎‎All

Aria's POV‎‎The building did not announce itself.‎‎No large signage. No unnecessary display.‎‎Just glass, steel, and quiet authority. The kind that did not need to introduce itself to be recognised. ‎The kind that had been here long before I understood what it meant to belong to it.‎‎I stepped out of the car and walked inside.‎‎The lobby was calm. Controlled. Movement without noise. People who knew where they were going and did not need to prove it. ‎I had grown up watching my father move through spaces like this one. The way he never hurried. The way he never looked around for confirmation that he was in the right place.‎‎I had spent years learning to do the same.‎‎Some days it came naturally.‎‎Today I had to work for it.‎‎"Good morning, Miss Vale."‎‎The receptionist stood the moment I approached. Both hands coming off the desk. Posture adjusting without thought.‎‎I gave a small nod and continued walking.‎‎No pause. No explanation.‎‎The elevator opened i

Damien's POVBy the time the summit ended, the question hadn't left.It followed me through every conversation. Every handshake. Every meaningless exchange that required my attention but failed to hold it.Aria Vale.The name felt different now.Not familiar. Not contained. Not simple."You've been distracted all evening."Lila's voice cut through my thoughts as she stepped beside me, her hand resting lightly against my arm. Her perfume reached me before her words did. Something expensive. Something chosen carefully.I adjusted my cuff."Have I?"She smiled faintly. The kind of smile that knew it was being watched. "You don't usually lose focus."I didn't answer.Because she was right.My attention shifted again to the doors. The same doors Aria had walked out of without hesitation. Without looking back."She shouldn't have come," Lila said lightly. "It was unnecessary."I glanced at her."Unnecessary?""Yes." She tilted her head slightly, her fingers still resting on my arm. "Showing

Damien's POVThe summit was winding down.The kind of winding down that happened when the real business had already been done in corners and quiet conversations, and the rest was just performance. Men who had already secured what they came for standing with fresh drinks, pretending there was still something left to gain.I stayed.Not because I had more business to conduct.Because leaving felt too much like admitting something had unsettled me.And I did not admit things like that.Not to myself.Not about her.I stood near the window with a glass of whiskey I had barely touched, watching the room the way I always watched rooms.Cataloguing.Measuring.Noting who was speaking to whom and why.My father called it instinct.I called it useful.The room had shifted after Aria left.That was the problem.That was the thing I did not want to examine too closely, which meant it was the only thing I could think about.Something had changed.Subtle.But real.Conversations had paused. Recali