Romans de Raven Haven

OLIVIA'S POVThe flight back to New York felt like hours and seconds at the same time. Too long and too short. Giving me too much time to think and not enough time to prepare.Ethan worked on his laptop the whole time. Making calls, sending emails. Running his company from thirty thousand feet like it was nothing.I tried to sleep but couldn't. I tried to eat but my stomach was in knots. I tried to read but the words blurred together.All I could think about was facing my mother. About walking into her house with a husband she didn't know existed. About watching her face when she realized I'd actually done it.I'd actually gotten married to someone else.The car Ethan had arranged picked us up at the airport. It was black and expensive. The kind of car my mother would approve of even if she hated everything else."Are you ready?" Ethan asked as we pulled up to my mother's house in the Upper East Side."No." I looked at the familiar brownstone. "But I'm doing it anyway."He took my han

OLIVIA'S POV“What did you just say?” My mother's voice rang at the other end of the phone."I got married. Last night. In Vegas. To someone who isn't Marcus.""You did what?" Her voice climbed several octaves."Are you insane? Do you have any idea what this will do to our family's reputation?""I don't care about the reputation." I was surprised by how bold I sounded."I care about not spending my life with someone who doesn't love me."She started yelling. About duty and family and how I'd ruined everything. About how selfish I was being. About how I'd embarrassed her.I pulled the phone away from my ear. Let her scream into the void. I looked at Ethan who was staring at me with wide eyes.Then I hung up. I just pressed end and cut her off mid-rant.My hands were shaking. My heart was racing. But I felt something else too. Something that might have been relief."You just told your mother we're married," Ethan said slowly."I did." I looked at the phone in my hand. At the flood of ne

OLIVIA'S POVSunlight burned through my eyelids like fire.I groaned and tried to roll over, but my head felt like someone had taken a hammer to it. My body ached in places that made no sense.Where was I?I forced my eyes open.The room spun for a second before settling into focus. Unfamiliar ceiling, unfamiliar walls, everything looked unfamiliar.This wasn't my apartment, it wasn't Marcus's place. It wasn't anywhere I recognized.Panic started creeping up my throat. I sat up too fast and immediately regretted it. The room tilted sideways. My stomach lurched.I looked down at myself. I was still wearing yesterday's clothes. Wrinkled and smelling like alcohol. At least I was dressed, that was something.Then I noticed him. A man in the bed beside me. Dark hair messy against the pillow, face I'd never seen before. Sleeping soundly beside me.Oh god. Oh god oh god oh god.What had I done?My hands were shaking as I looked around the room for clues, hotel room, cheap but not terrible. L

ETHAN'S POVThe whiskey in my glass looked the same as it had twenty minutes ago since I got here.I hadn't touched it. Couldn't bring myself to. I just sat there staring at the amber liquid like it was a puzzle I wanted to solve.I was supposed to be at home mourning my dead grandma but instead I was at a dive in bar thinking about my life.The funeral had been three hours ago. My grandmother. The only person in my entire family who'd ever loved me without conditions, without expectations. Without needing something in return.Gone.And my family hadn't even waited until she was in the ground before they started tearing each other apart over her money.The will reading had been brutal. Uncle Richard shouting about how he deserved the estate because he'd visited her every week. Aunt Patricia crying about how she'd sacrificed her career to care for her mother. My cousin James sitting there with that smug expression like he already knew he'd won.Then the lawyer read the part that change

OLIVIA'S POVThe dumplings were perfect.I stared down at the container in my hands, steam still rising from the edges where I'd just sealed it shut.Marcus loved these dumplings. He had told me the first time I made them for him that they tasted like home, like everything he'd been missing his whole life.That was three years ago. Back when I still believed words like that meant something.The next day was going to be our wedding. Everything was ready. The dress hanging in my closet, the flowers ordered, the venue booked. Three hundred guests who'd be watching me walk down the aisle to marry the man I'd spent three years molding myself into the perfect woman for.I wanted tonight to be special. I wanted to remind him why we were doing this. I wanted to see that look in his eyes from three years ago when he said my cooking made him feel loved.So I'd spent the afternoon in my tiny kitchen making dumplings from scratch. Rolling dough, mixing filling just so he could hover over me and s