Novel-novel oleh Jacinta Angela

(Ethan Blackwood – POV) The silence after the confession was worse than the darkness. Sophia didn’t cry loudly. She didn’t scream. She just stood there with tears sliding down her face like she had expected this moment to come. And that terrified me. “Who is it?” I asked again, my voice low and controlled. Too controlled. She shook her head faintly. “You don’t want to know.” My jaw tightened. “That’s not your decision to make.” Her hands were trembling. Not dramatically. Not for attention. Just small, quiet tremors she was trying to hide by gripping her own wrists. I moved closer. “You think I can’t handle it?” I asked. “No,” she whispered. “I think you’ll burn the world down if you find out.” A bitter laugh escaped my chest. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.” She looked up at me then, and for a moment, I saw the old Sophia. The girl who believed I could be more than anger and ambition. “It is,” she said softly. “Because they want you to react.” They. My mind sharp

(Ethan Blackwood – POV)I had lived through boardroom battles, hostile takeovers, and men who smiled while plotting my destruction.None of them intimidated me the way that Sophia Reed intimidated me when she was too close and looked at me like I was still the man she once loved.I brought her home.Not her home. Mine.It was an instinctive decision, not a rational one. Security said it was safer than any hotel. I told myself it was a temporary solution. A necessary solution. A professional solution.Another lie.The penthouse was quiet when we arrived, too quiet for the tempest brewing inside me. I dismissed the security team to the outer floor and locked the door myself. The instant the latch closed, something in the air changed.She was standing near the entrance, looking uncertain, like she did not know where she belonged.And that was hurting me more than it should have been.“You can take the guest room,” I said, my voice steady despite the chaos in my chest. “There’s food in th

(Sophia Reed – POV)I had known this moment was coming.I just hadn’t known it was coming like this.Ethan stood before me, closer than he had any right to be. Closer than he ever had been. His presence filled the space until there was no room to breathe.Ethan’s eyes weren’t cold anymore. They weren’t cruel or mocking or distant.They were seeking.And that was more frightening to me than his anger ever had been.“Tell me,” he said again. “Who paid you to leave me?”The words hung between us.I opened my mouth.And nothing came out.My throat closed on its own. My body had apparently decided for me. No.My heart was pounding so hard I was certain he could hear it.I could still recall the words whispered into my ear so many years ago. Deadly words. Deadly calm.If you ever say my name. He dies.I swallowed hard.“I can’t,” I whispered.Ethan’s jaw locked instantly. I saw it. The flicker of disappointment. The shadow of betrayal. The armor of anger sliding back into place.“So that’s

(Ethan Blackwood – POV)I don’t panic.That was the first thing I learned to do to myself when I was still sleeping in my car and counting coins for gas money. Panicking only uses up precious time. Panicking gets men killed. So when the security alert flashed red on the screen and my team looked at me in confusion and dismay, I did not panic.But when I looked at her, and she was still there, looking pale and wide-eyed and so vulnerable, something worse than panic threatened to overwhelm me.Fear.Not for myself. Not for my company. For her.And that made me angry.I dismissed the room with a single curt order and walked her out myself, my hand firmly on her elbow. She flinched at my touch, and that hurt me more than I could have anticipated. I remembered that. I remembered the girl who trusted me enough to fall asleep on my chest without fear.Sophia Reed used to be my safe place.Now she was my greatest weakness.I locked her inside the private office and turned to the security team

The next morning, I woke before my alarm. My heart had not stopped racing since the events of yesterday. Even now, the memory of his eyes, cold and sharp as ice, refused to leave me. I had imagined this reunion a thousand times—how I would explain, how I would beg for understanding—but none of those imaginings came close to the truth. None could prepare me for the way my body reacted just to being in the same room with him.I dressed carefully, trying to look as neutral and professional as possible. No risks, no chances. I couldn’t take a chance of being noticed, not that I wanted anyone to notice Ethan Blackwood. Ethan Blackwood had once again become my world, and it scared me. Every time I thought about Ethan, I felt a constricting sensation in my chest, every time I looked at him, I felt weak in my knees, and every time I remembered the past, I felt a longing in my heart.I decided to go to the office a little earlier than usual, hoping to get a head start, hoping maybe, just maybe

I never thought I would see him again.Not like this.Not in Atlanta.Not in this polished office building that I could barely afford to enter.And certainly not as his employee.When I first walked into the offices of Blackwood Global, my heart was racing so fast it felt like it would leap out of my chest. I had prepared my speech, repeating it over and over again in my mind, reminding myself to remain invisible, to simply do my job, and not make a scene. I had to survive; I had no other choice.But the world has a way of laughing at the best-laid plans.As I walked into the office on the twentieth floor, surrounded by glass walls, he was there.Ethan Blackwood.The man I had loved so much with my heart.The man I had walked away from.The man I had betrayed… or at least, he thought so.And the man I was now working for.He didn’t stand, didn’t smile, didn’t greet me. His eyes, sharp and piercing as a knife, cut straight through me. He was taller than I remembered, his suit tailored