روايات بقلم Mirage Sha

Lydia’s POV“Oh my God, Lydia…”Dave finally leaned back in his seat like the air had been knocked out of him completely. His hands dragged slowly over his face before settling against his jaw again, and for once, he genuinely looked lost.Not CEO lost.Not corporate scandal lost.Just… human lost.“Please,” he said quietly. “Please, Lydia.”I stayed silent.“I want to be in my children’s lives.”Children.Not pregnancy.Not babies.Children.Real people.I watched him swallow hard before continuing.“I’ve already missed too much.” His voice roughened slightly now. “I missed their first words. Their first steps. Their first birthdays. Their first day of school. Their first everything.” He laughed once under his breath, but there was nothing humorous inside it. “Hell, I didn’t even know they existed while other people were probably teaching them how to ride bikes and helping with homework and showing up for school events.”Something tightened briefly in his expression before he looked

Lydia’s POVFor a second, I genuinely forgot how to breathe.Not because I didn’t expect this conversation to happen someday. Honestly, somewhere deep down, I had always known this moment would eventually come. Dave Ashton was many things, but he was not a man who stayed buried in the past forever. Eventually, he would ask. Eventually, the truth would stand between us fully formed, impossible to avoid.Still, hearing it out loud felt different.The question landed heavily between us, and I just stared at him for a moment, my fingers tightening slightly around the warm cup of cappuccino sitting untouched in front of me.The moment I used to fear was finally here.And strangely enough… I was not as afraid as I thought I would be.Maybe because of my children.Maybe because I had already told them the truth. Maybe because after that conversation, after hearing Ava and Eli tell me so simply that they were fine with just me, something inside me had settled. Even if this somehow turned into

Lydia POVI slept well that night.Like properly well.Not the kind of sleep where your body shuts down but your mind keeps running in circles. Not the kind where you wake up every two hours and stare at the ceiling thinking about things you should have said five years ago. No. I slept. A full eight hours. Deep. Quiet. Peaceful.And honestly? That alone irritated me a little.Because wow.Dave really had been a burden.When I was married to him, he exhausted me emotionally without me even realizing it properly. Then I finally left, rebuilt my life, healed slowly, carefully, painfully… and somehow he still found a way to come back and disturb my peace again.I woke up the next morning lying flat on my bed, staring at the ceiling for a few seconds before laughing softly to myself.“Oh my God,” I muttered. “That man was literally stress.”And for the first time in a long time, I woke up without that tight feeling in my chest.No sleeping pills.No restlessness.Nothing.Just peace.So ma

Ava’s POVThe night after we met Dave Ashton in the park.Eli rolled over and asked, “Do you think Mom knows we know?”“She probably suspects,” I whispered back.And honestly? That conversation could’ve gone somewhere emotional or deep or whatever, but instead Eli said, “If she ever tells us officially, let’s just act surprised.”I turned to look at him. “Why?”“Because she clearly wants to say it herself.”And annoyingly enough… he was right.So we agreed.If Mom ever decided to tell us about our father, we’d let her do it her own way.No pressure.No “we already know.”Nothing.Because even if she tried to hide it, you could tell the whole thing hurt her somehow.And if there’s one thing Eli and I are both very serious about, it’s Mom.Always Mom.So when she suddenly started acting suspiciously nice that morning, I already knew something was coming.Breakfast in bed on a weekday?Yeah. Something was definitely happening.Eli knew too.The minute she walked into the room carrying tr

Ava’s POVYep. It’s me again.So… we know who our dad is now.Not in a big dramatic way or anything. Not like how you’d expect it to happen. We just… met him. At the park. Very random, very normal, like it wasn’t supposed to change anything. And honestly, it didn’t. Not really. We didn’t come home and start asking questions or acting differently. We didn’t even bring it up again after that day.It just… stayed there.Like one of those things you know but don’t touch.I remember thinking he was really good at chess. Like, really good. Not just “oh he’s an adult” good, but actually good. The kind where you can tell he’s thinking ten steps ahead. I noticed it, but I didn’t say anything. Eli didn’t either. We both just kind of… stored it.Because we also knew something else.Mom didn’t want us to get close to him.And when it comes to Mom, there are just some lines you don’t cross. Not because she says it out loud, but because you can feel it.So we left it alone.And honestly, we weren’t

Lydia’s POVThat day just refused to end quietly.I was still irritated when I got home, the kind of irritation that sits under your skin and refuses to go away no matter how hard you try to ignore it. Because what exactly was that? I had just seen Dave, casually standing in a mall like his entire world was not collapsing. I thought his company was in chaos, lawsuits flying around, the board removing him as CEO, appointing an acting one, all those corporate politics he used to breathe and live for. So what exactly was he doing here, in this country, walking around like nothing was happening?It annoyed me more than I wanted to admit.I parked the car a little harder than necessary, stepped out, and walked into the house with that same energy still sitting on my shoulders. Before I could even fully step in, I heard Ava’s voice from the kitchen, loud and expectant.“Mom, where’s my yogurt?”“I’m inside already,” I called back. “I’m bringing it.”I picked up the bags and walked faster i

Aria POV I remember the sound before the pain. Alex calling from downstairs. “Aria, are you not coming for dinner?” His voice carried warmth, the kind that always made something inside my chest soften. I smiled, one hand resting on my stomach, the other gripping the banister as I made my way down the stairs carefully. Nine months. Heavy. Slow. Careful. I had only gone upstairs to get my shawl. That was all. My foot slipped. Just a small mistake. A single moment. Then the world tilted. The banister vanished from my fingers. My body lurched forward and suddenly I was falling: tumbling, rolling, crashing against hard steps that knocked the air from my lungs. Pain exploded through my abdomen. Something warm spread beneath me. Blood. So much blood. I could not breathe. I could not think. My trembling hands moved instinctively to my stomach. “My baby…” The whisper barely left my lips. Footsteps thundered. “Aria!” Alex’s voice broke — sharp, terrified. He reached me,

Aria POVWhen the news broke, my father’s stock crashed by thirty percent. Thirty. The number replayed everywhere: financial channels, social media, investors panicking, analysts shouting. It was not enough to destroy him. But it was enough to wound him. Enough to slow him. Enough to buy Alex time. Enough to make the empire tremble. For the first time in my life, my father bled. And while the world watched numbers fall, I stayed beside the man fighting for breath. The First Five Days The hospital became my world. I woke there. Ate there. Cried there. Every morning I cleaned his bedside table myself even though nurses had already done it. I wiped invisible dust. Rearranged flowers. Changed the water. Straightened the sheets that never moved. Anything to feel useful. Anything to feel close to him. I talked to him constantly. About everything. About the weather. About the scandal. About the chaos outside. About how quiet his office felt without him. I told him thi

Aria POVA lil backstory.Before everything collapsed… before the scandal, before the hospital, before the fear, there was something about power I had always understood.Because I was born into it.I knew how men like Alex worked.I knew what wealth did to people.I knew the imbalance that came when one person held everything and the other held nothing.I understood it because my father was the same kind of man.No.Worse.My father, Richard, was a conglomerate king.A man whose wealth shaped governments.A man who believed money was the only law that mattered.A man who never accepted loss.Alex was powerful.But my father built power out of destruction.And I had spent my whole life running from him.Before I met Alex, I had already abandoned everything.The luxury.The cars.The inheritance waiting in my name.I refused his money.Stopped using his cards.Left the city he ruled.I chose to struggle rather than belong to him.People thought I was foolish.They never knew the truth.

Aria POV Waiting is the cruelest kind of torture. The hospital corridor stretched endlessly before me, silent except for distant footsteps and the mechanical beeping behind closed doors. Time moved differently here. Slower. Heavier. Every second dragged like a punishment. So I did the only thing my mind allowed. I remembered. Memories came in fragments. The day I deliberately twisted my ankle in the office just to make him notice me. The sharp gasp. The dramatic fall. And the way he said focus on your job and stop trying to seduce me.Someone who was already in love with me already.Lols.The way he lose control whenever I am involved in any situation. I had never seen him lose control like that with anyone else. I remembered the tension between us in empty hallways. The charged silence. The way his gaze lingered longer than it should. The way he spoke to everyone else with cold authority… Yet softened when he spoke to me. The way he protected me. Defended me. Spoile

Aria POVI don’t remember grabbing my hoodie.One moment I was staring at the screen.The next, my hands were moving on their own.I pulled the hood over my hair.A mask.Sunglasses.Anything to hide a face the world suddenly recognized.My fingers trembled so badly I could barely dial his assistant’s number.“Where is he?” My voice cracked before the call even connected. “Where is Alexander? Tell me where he is. Where is my—” I stopped, breath shaking. “Where is he?”The answer came quickly.Hospital.Then he said I’d send you the address, it’s a classified information.That was all I needed.I hadn’t driven in weeks.The car smelled stale, untouched, like a forgotten life waiting for me to return.The engine roared too loudly in the quiet estate.Security guards watched as I sped past the gates. I didn’t care who recognized me. I didn’t care who filmed me.The world could burn.I just needed to reach him.Traffic stretched endlessly before me.Every red light felt like a personal cr

Aria POVLater that day.I switched on my phone and I did the only thing that felt possible.I deactivated everything.Instagram first. Then Twitter. Then every platform where my face existed, where my name could be spoken without my permission. One by one, accounts disappeared. Profiles vanished. History erased.I uninstalled the apps.The silence afterward felt violent.For the first time in years, the world could not reach me.And for the first time in years, I had no excuse to avoid myself.Without the noise, there was only truth.It came slowly at first.Then all at once.I began replaying everything.Meeting Ethan.The curiosity.The attraction.The mistake.Then his father.The first time had been chaos, confusion, anger, vulnerability tangled into something neither of us had named.The second time had not been a mistake.The second time had been consent.Clear. Conscious. Deliberate.I had chosen it.I had chosen him.Now I carried his child.A soft movement stirred beneath my

They called it “The Trial of the Decade.” Adrian Vale vs. The Truth. The courthouse steps were choked with reporters. Microphones thrust into every corner. Camera shutters blinking like bullets. Protesters held signs scrawled with phrases like “Justice for Lena” and “Mental Health Is Not a Weapon.” May stood beside John in a fitted black suit, baby strapped to her chest, Saint clutching her hand like a lifeline. She didn’t say a word to the reporters. Her silence screamed louder than a thousand interviews. Inside, the courtroom was stacked with the press, elite board members, federal agents, and curious public figures who once worshipped Adrian’s name. Now they waited to see if he’d fall. Adrian walked in with his usual arrogance. But something was different. His swagger had a limp. His smile cracked. His tailored suit, pristine—but his eyes? Nervous. Like a lion finally sensing the trap around its throat. The judge entered. “All rise.” The trial began. John took the stand

It was a rainy afternoon when they found it. The flash drive had been sitting in Lena’s favorite hardcover book — The Unbearable Lightness of Being — tucked between pages marked by a dried iris. May had been reading to the baby when the flower fell out, revealing the tiny silver device taped beneath. Saint, sitting nearby, had whispered, “That was her favorite one. She always said it reminded her of light in a dark room.” They plugged it into the encrypted laptop John had been using for their private investigation. A password prompt appeared. Five chances. John stared at the screen, then at Saint. “Do you remember anything Lena used to say a lot? Maybe something only you would know?” Saint furrowed his brows. “She used to sing to me every night. The same one. ‘You are my sunshine.’” May typed it in. Access granted. The folder opened like a locked coffin finally giving up its ghosts. Inside: • Scanned copies of wire transfers tied to shell companies in Switzerland, the Ca

The next evening.Smith always thought charm could buy him a clean slate. Even now, as he leaned into the camera for yet another podcast interview—hair perfectly styled, voice syrupy smooth—he smirked as if nothing could touch him. “I was misled,” he said, lips curled like a man auditioning for sympathy. “May played everyone. Even me. I mean, who hides a baby from her husband, right?” Across the city, in the Bells penthouse, May watched with quiet fury. The video played on mute. She didn’t need to hear the lies to feel them. Her phone pinged. A message from her lawyer: “Drop goes live in 5 minutes.” “Let him talk,” she murmured. John leaned over the couch, glancing at the paused video. “Last words before the plunge.” Exactly five minutes later, the internet exploded. An anonymous exposé hit every major blog, news site, and YouTube channel. Under the hashtag #TheRealSmith, the post contained: • Screenshots of Smith begging May to let him claim the baby, even after the pater

The following day,The rain had stopped, but the earth was still soft underfoot as May and Saint stepped out of the car. The chapel was tucked behind rows of sycamore trees—quiet, simple, forgotten by the city’s rush. The kind of place people came to when they needed to whisper to God, not parade before Him. May had brought Saint without telling him everything. Not yet. He only knew they were going “somewhere your mom loved.” Saint held her hand tighter than usual, his thumb nervously rubbing her palm. “Did mom come here a lot?” he asked. May nodded. “Every year on your birthday. She lit a candle and whispered something only the heavens heard.” Saint looked up at the chapel’s cross, then back at May. “Did she pray for me?” May crouched down to meet his eyes. “She prayed about you. That much I’m sure of.” Inside the chapel, sunlight filtered through stained glass in splashes of violet and gold. The pews creaked beneath them as they walked, Saint tugging her forward with a stran

The following day, The press room buzzed like a disturbed hive. Reporters crammed shoulder-to-shoulder, cameras rolling, fingers hovering over record buttons. The air was thick with tension, rumors, and the electric anticipation of scandal. They’d all seen the headlines. They all expected a fall. What they didn’t expect was John Bells standing before them with a calm fury in his eyes—and May Hemlings beside him, no longer hiding. She wore no makeup. No designer label. Just a simple navy blouse and strength. The kind that came from surviving hell and daring to return with receipts. John stepped forward. “I was removed from my position at Bells Corp yesterday,” he began, voice low but resonant. “Not because of incompetence, corruption, or fraud—but because I refused to be controlled by men who hide behind power.” Cameras clicked. Reporters leaned in. “This isn’t just about a CEO being ousted,” he continued. “It’s about how the truth gets buried when it threatens the wrong people.

After seeing May’s reaction, John summoned a board meeting.The boardroom smelled of sharp citrus and cold ambition. John stood at the end of the long mahogany table, his back straight, his jaw locked. Across from him sat men and women he’d worked with for over a decade—some loyal, some wolves in tailored suits. At the head of the table: Mr. Lanre, one of the senior board members and a quiet admirer of power, not morality. “We’re here,” Lanre said, “to address concerns raised over the past few weeks. Regarding public perception, investor confidence… and executive judgment.” There were murmurs. One woman cleared her throat. Another adjusted her glasses, avoiding John’s gaze. Adrian, of course, wasn’t seated with the rest. He leaned casually against the window, sipping espresso like he was attending a brunch, not a hostile corporate takeover. He caught John’s eyes and smirked. John didn’t flinch. He knew this moment was coming. Adrian had spent weeks poisoning their trust—subtly