Chapter: CHAPTER TWENTY TWO: SPACEMIA'S POVI didn't run toward the house.That was the part I didn't decide on purpose — my feet just carried me the other way, past the pavilion, past the hedges, out toward the garage where the gravel gave way to the quiet dark at the edge of the property, and I didn't understand why until I was already there and Theo was standing in the open garage doorway, wiping grease off his hands with a rag, looking up at the sound of me nearly colliding into a parked car."Mia?"I stopped. Chest heaving. Sebastian's footsteps were still coming, closer, and some old, blind instinct made me step sideways into the garage, out of the direct line of the driveway, like I could disappear if I just stood still enough.Theo took one look at my face and set the rag down."Mia—" Sebastian's voice, right outside now, breathless.Theo moved before I even registered him moving. He stepped past me, into the doorway, filling it completely, and I watched Sebastian pull up short on the other side of him, chest
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-09-03
Chapter: CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: THE SURPRISE MIA'S POV I woke up to a strange, heavy quiet — the kind of quiet that told me it was later than it should be before I'd even opened my eyes. I reached for my phone on instinct, squinting against the light already pouring through the curtains, and found the time first. Half past eleven. Nobody had come to wake me. Nobody had knocked, called through the door, sent the housekeeper up with the usual complaint about breakfast going cold. Then I saw the text. Priya: HAPPY 19TH BIRTHDAY TO YOU. I hope you're being spoiled rotten this exact second. see you later, birthday girl x I stared at the screen for a second before it landed properly. My birthday. I'd genuinely forgotten, somewhere between everything else that had happened in the last two weeks, that today was the day. And nobody in this house had said a word. I lay there a moment, feeling something small and stupid curdle in my chest. Not Priya — Priya, a girl I'd known for less than twenty-four hours, had remembered.
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-09-02
Chapter: CHAPTER TWENTY: PRIYA MIA'S POV I went straight up after breakfast, needing to be somewhere that belonged entirely to me for a while. I showered longer than I needed to, letting the water run hot until the tightness in my shoulders finally started to ease, and dressed in something plain and comfortable — jeans, a soft sweater, nothing that felt like it was performing for anyone. I didn't tell anyone I was leaving. I just took my coat, slipped out the side door, and walked until the house was small behind me and the noise of everything that had happened that morning felt, for the first time all day, like it belonged to someone else. I ended up at a small café a few streets over, one I'd noticed from the car but never actually been inside, and ordered something I didn't particularly want just to have a reason to sit down. I was halfway through it, staring out the window at nothing, when a voice cut through my thoughts. "You're going to stare a hole through that glass." I looked up. A girl about
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-09-02
Chapter: CHAPTER NINETEEN: FOR HER MIA'S POV Before I could take a step, he pulled me back into the room, pinning me gently against the door as it swung shut. That was when I saw his room properly for the first time — dark, all him, something about it hinting at things dangerous or hidden that he never let show anywhere else. "You can't just make me feel something and then walk away like none of it happened," he said. I stayed still against the door, my pulse loud in my ears. "I'm sorry if I made you feel something. But we can't keep doing this. We're siblings." "By paper." Something in the flatness of it made my heart race for an entirely different reason than the ones I'd felt with him before — not want, not longing, but fear. Fear of how easily he'd said it, like the paper didn't matter to him at all, like he'd already decided the rest of it didn't either. "Still," I said. "I can't be the reason my mum ends up unhappy." He let go of me and paced away, dragging a hand through his hair, tension radiating off h
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-09-01
Chapter: CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: THE MORNING AFTER MIA'S POV My mother stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at me, tears streaming freely down her face — happy tears, the kind that came from somewhere deep and overwhelmed, the kind I hadn't seen from her in longer than I could remember. I ran to her without thinking, and the moment her arms closed around me, everything else in that house went quiet. She held on tighter than I expected, her hand coming up to press against the back of my head the way she used to when I was small and upset about something too big for words. "Let me look at you," she said finally, pulling back just far enough to hold my face between both hands. Her thumbs brushed my cheekbones, slow, like she was checking I was real. "How have you been? Truly. Not the version you'd put in a text." "Truly? Some days good. Some days a lot." It was the most honest answer I could give her without giving her everything. "I've missed you more than I let myself admit." "I missed you every single day." Her voice cr
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-09-01
Chapter: CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: UNEVEN MIA'S POV For a long moment after, neither of us said a word. Sebastian looked at me with a small, unguarded smile, the kind I hadn't seen from him before — nothing careful or measured about it. I felt the heat rise in my cheeks under the weight of that look, and pulled the dress tighter around myself, suddenly shy in a way that felt strange after everything that had just happened between us. The silence stretched on, comfortable in its own way, until we both spoke at once — our words tumbling over each other, colliding into nonsense. We stopped. Looked at each other. And laughed, easy and soft, some of the tension finally draining out of the small space of the car. "You go first," he said, once the laughter settled. "We should get going," I said. "Before anyone comes looking for us." "Yeah." He reached out slowly and brushed the tip of his thumb along my cheek, unhurried, like he had nowhere else to be. I felt my face warm further under his touch. "You wanted to say something
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-08-31
Masuk
