Novels by Tesslane

THE FIRST FRACTUREELENA'S POVI find the folder on a Wednesday morning, seven days after moving in.I have been slowly unpacking myself into the penthouse the way you unpack after a long journey somewhere unfamiliar — cautiously, a drawer at a time, leaving the essentials accessible in case you need to repack quickly. The penthouse is beginning to feel less like somewhere I am being kept and more like somewhere I am living, which is a distinction I did not anticipate making so soon. Lucien and I have settled into something that I wouldn't call routine yet but that has a shape. Breakfast separately — he is awake by six and I rarely surface before eight, and we have not discussed this, it has simply become the natural arrangement. Dinner together, which Mrs. Chen has begun treating as a small diplomatic occasion, the food always precisely right, the table always set with flowers. We talk about small things and occasionally about large things and we have become, incrementally, people wh

THE FAMILY MEETINGLUCIEN'S POVMargaret calls at eight in the morning, three days after Elena moves in.I let it ring twice. This is not rudeness. It is the only leverage a person can reasonably exercise over Margaret Blackwood without a court order."This is a mistake," she says, before I have said a word. No greeting. No preamble. Margaret does not waste effort on social architecture when she has already committed to a battle. "Marrying that girl is an embarrassment to this family and an insult to Adrian, and you know perfectly well what you're doing.""Good morning, Margaret," I say."Don't perform pleasantries with me, we’ve known each other too long.""Longer than either of us would choose, yes.""She is using you, she spent three years being deliberately mediocre as Adrian's wife, and now that she's pregnant she's found a richer target. You are many things, Lucien, but I did not think you were naive."I set down my coffee. I stand at the window,which feels appropriate for a con

THE MOVEELENA'S POVSophia arrives at my old apartment at eight in the morning carrying two extra-large coffees and a box of croissants and wearing the expression she gets when she has several things to say and is deciding the order in which to say them.She sets everything on the kitchen counter, she looks at me. "You signed a contract marriage," she says. "With Lucien Blackwood.""Yes.""The man who is your ex-husband's uncle.""Yes.""The man who is also the father of the baby you are currently pregnant with.""Yes.""The same stranger from the hotel.""Yes."She picks up her coffee, she stares at me over the lid for a long moment. "Okay," she says."That's it? Okay?""Elena, I have been your best friend for eleven years." She tears a croissant in half with the focused energy of someone channeling strong feelings into pastry. "I watched Adrian Blackwood treat you like something he'd bought and wasn't happy with for three years while I tried very hard not to drive to that mansion a

THE CONTRACTELENA'S POVThe paper sits on the desk between us like a living thing, and I have read it three times now, which means I have read every word of it three times and I still cannot quite make it feel real.Gerald Marsh, my lawyer, has spread four pages of dense legal text across the polished mahogany surface of Lucien's dining room table. He is a neat man in his early sixties with silver reading glasses and the particular patient voice of someone who has spent a long career delivering complicated news to people who were not ready to hear it. He arrived forty minutes ago and has been walking me through clause by clause, which is the correct and professional thing to do, and which I deeply wish he would stop.Lucien stands at the window with his back to both of us, one hand resting in his trouser pocket, watching the city below. The afternoon light cuts across the room in long flat lines. He has barely spoken since Gerald arrived. He signed the draft last night and had it sen

The UncleElena’s POVI never thought I would step inside the Blackwood mansion again.Yet there I was, standing before the towering iron gates that had once welcomed me as Adrian Blackwood’s wife.Now they opened for me without warmth.The security guard barely looked at me before pressing the button.The gates slowly parted.I tightened my grip on my handbag and walked inside.Every step felt heavier than the last.For three years, I had called this place home.Now it felt like I was visiting the grave of my marriage.The butler met me at the front entrance. Unlike everyone else in the family, Mr. Harris had always been kind to me.“I’m sorry, Mrs…”He stopped himself.His face fell.“I’m sorry… Miss Vale.”I forced a smile.“It’s all right.”No.It wasn’t all right.Hearing my maiden name after three years felt strange.Painful.As if the last three years had never happened.“Mr. Adrian instructed us to allow you thirty minutes to collect your belongings.”Thirty minutes.Three yea

The Woman Who VanishedLucien’s POVSunlight spilled through the floor-to-ceiling windows, but I had already been awake for nearly an hour.Sleep had never come easily to me.Last night had been no different.I stood in front of the living room window with a cup of black coffee in my hand, staring at the city below. Cars filled the streets, people hurried to work, and life continued as though nothing had happened.As though one woman’s entire world hadn’t collapsed.My thoughts drifted to Elena.After our kiss, neither of us had spoken.She had looked as shocked as I felt.I had wanted to tell her it shouldn’t have happened.Instead, I had simply wished her goodnight.It had been safer that way.For both of us.The sound of footsteps pulled me from my thoughts.Damien walked into the suite carrying a tablet.“You’ve been awake all night again.”“I slept enough.”He gave me a look that clearly said he didn’t believe me.“You have a board meeting in an hour.”“Cancel it.”His eyebrows r