Novel-novel oleh Tamara Knox

ARIANAThe morning after the revelation is strange. Everyone eats breakfast together in the grand dining room, but the energy has shifted. The table is quieter. Eyes meet and look away. Conversations start and falter. No one mentions what happened last night, but its presence fills every empty space between words.After breakfast, we move to the outside lounge. The morning sun is warm, and the gardens stretch out in manicured perfection. The twins disappear into the grass with the other children, and within minutes, they've become the center of attention. Thea is chasing a peacock. Ethan is methodically collecting stones and arranging them in a row.Everyone watches them. The Bindy children. The Bindy grandchildren. They all gravitate toward the twins like they're something precious.I watch from a distance, perched on the edge of a stone bench."They're beautiful."I turn. Susan has settled beside me, a cup of coffee in her hand. She's watching the twins with an expression I can't

ARIANA"Daniel." Linda moves toward him, reaching for his hands. "I didn't know. I swear to you, I didn't know. I thought she died. I thought..."He looks at Linda. "You had an affair." The words land like a blade.Linda's face drains of color. "Daniel...""While we were married, you had an affair, and you got pregnant, but you never told me.""Daniel, please…""Please what?" His voice rises. "Please understand? Please forgive? I don't even know where to start with what I'm feeling right now."Linda reaches for him, but he steps back."You cheated on me." He looks like he's been gutted. "While we were married. While Selene was a baby. You had another man's child.""Daniel, it was a mistake. It was one time, and I regretted it every day. I have spent twenty-three years regretting it.""That's not the point, Linda." He shakes his head. "The point is you kept this from me. You let me believe the distance between you and your family was about something else. Something I couldn't fix. But

ARIANAI'm still standing, Linda's hand is still gripping mine like she's afraid I'll vanish if she lets go. Selene is beside her mother, her face pale, her eyes fixed on me like she's trying to reconcile the woman she hated with the sister she never knew.But the room isn't looking at me anymore. They're looking at Juliana.She's still seated at the far end of the table, her hands flat against the polished wood, her face a careful mask of composure that doesn't quite hide the tremor in her fingers. She looks like a woman calculating her way out of a room that has no exits.Then she stands. Her chair scrapes against the floor, and the sound is loud in the silence."You don't understand," Juliana says. Her voice shakes, but there's still an edge of defiance in it. "None of you understand what it was like."Linda's laugh cuts through the room. It's raw and ugly and completely unlike the composed woman I've watched all evening."Understand?" Linda's voice cracks. "You stole my baby. You

ARIANADinner is served in the formal dining room.Eleanor sits at the head of the table. Matthew is on her right. Susan is on her left. I'm seated near the middle, close enough to be seen but not so close that I'm in the center.The Moores are across from me. Linda looks nervous. She's been picking at her food, barely eating. Daniel is talking too much, filling the silence with rambling stories about the restaurant. Selene is silent, her eyes moving between her mother and me.Juliana is at the far end of the table. She looks like she's about to be sick. Beside her, Gemma sits with her back rigid, her fork moving food around her plate without actually eating. She's been glaring at me since we sat down. Jonathan is on Gemma's other side, quieter than usual. Calculating, and he's trying to figure out what's coming and how it’ll affect him.The first course is served. The second. The third. And then Eleanor sets down her fork.The sound is small, but the effect is immediate. The convers

ARIANAShe's near the far end of the garden with a glass of wine in her hand, keeping her distance. I expected that. She's been avoiding me since the ball, since Eleanor's revelation, since the truth started unravelling.Beside her, Gemma stands rigid, her arms crossed, watching me with the same cold hostility she's carried since our father's funeral. She hasn't forgiven me for existing. She probably never will.Jonathan is nearby, speaking with one of Eleanor's associates. He glances at me once, then looks away. He knows something is coming tonight. He's been careful around me ever since the Syndicate connections started surfacing. And I know he's involved in ways he hasn't admitted.And then I see them. Linda Moore. Selene's mother.She's sitting on a stone bench near the roses, wearing a pale yellow dress that softens her features. Beside her, Daniel Moore stands with his hands in his pockets, looking uncomfortable in a way that suggests he'd rather be anywhere else.And between th

ARIANAThe cream-colored, heavy stock envelope arrives on a Tuesday morning. My full name is written across the front in the same elegant hand I remember from the Presidential Ball invitation. There’s no return address, and no sender name. Just the weight of someone who expects to be recognized without introduction.I turn it over in my hands while standing in the kitchen.Inside, there's no letter, and no warm greeting either. Just a single card with an embossed crest and a list of times.‘Saturday, 4 PM. The Bindy Estate. Weekend stay. Formal dinner attire. Children welcome.’There’s no signature, and no please. Just an itinerary.I set it down on the counter and stare at it. Eleanor Bindy doesn't make requests. She issues summons. And something about that should make me refuse on principle.But I'm still thinking about it an hour later when I'm in the nursery, watching Mrs. Patricia arrange the twins' laundry. Thea is playing with her stuffed giraffe while Ethan sits on the floor