LOGINRosa's Pov
The pale blue gown hung on the back of my door like a promise I wasn't sure I wanted to keep. Daniel and I had a gala to attend.
I stood in front of the mirror in my underwear for longer than necessary, staring at the small curve already forming at my stomach. I tried to imagine two hundred strangers staring at the same spot tonight.
Greta knocked twice before letting herself in.
Daniel's Pov"There's something else," I said."What?"I opened the safe behind my desk, the one only James and I knew the combination to, and pulled out a folder I'd kept hidden since the morning after Vegas.I set it on the desk between us."What's this?" she asked."Open it."Rosa opened it slowly. I watched her face as she processed what she was seeing.The annulment papers stared back at her. Every line filled out except for one. My signature, the final line, completely blank."You never signed these," she said."No.""Then what was the point of the note? Telling me they were coming, that they'd be couriered?""I told my lawyer to draft them. I told you they were coming because I believed that's what I
Rosa's PovI could feel the warmth of his breath against my mouth.Then he pulled back."I can't," he said, stepping away, his voice rough with something that sounded almost like panic. "Control. I need control.""Daniel…""I should go to bed." He raked a hand through his hair, refusing to meet my eyes. "We both should.""You almost kissed me.""I know what I almost did.""Then why did you stop?""Because if I start, I don't know if I can stop." His jaw tightened, the wall sliding back into place faster than I could process what had just happened between us. "And that terrifies me.""Everything terrifies you, Daniel. Everything that matters.""That's not true.""Then prove it." I stepped closer. "Stay
Daniel's PovThe words left my mouth before I could stop them. Hanging in the air between us. Far more honest than anything I'd intended to admit tonight.Rosa stared at me. Her chest rising and falling fast. Mascara still smudged slightly beneath her eyes from earlier. Her lips parted like she wanted to say something but couldn't find the words."Then mean it," she finally said."It's not that simple.""Why not?" She crossed the room toward me, closing the distance I'd spent weeks carefully maintaining. "Why does everything with you have to be complicated, Daniel?""Because feelings complicate things.""Feelings are supposed to complicate things. That's how they work." She stopped directly in front of me. Close enough that I could smell the faint trace of her perfume beneath the chaos of the night. "You don't
Rosa's PovThe car ride home felt different than the one that brought us there.I sat pressed against the door, my hands still trembling in my lap, the diamond necklace suddenly heavy against my collarbone. Daniel sat across from me, jaw tight, eyes fixed somewhere out the window. The silence between us was thick, charged with everything that had happened in that ballroom."You didn't have to do that," I said finally."Do what?""Defend me like that. In front of everyone.""They were wrong about you.""People are wrong about me every day, Daniel. You don't usually say anything."He didn't answer that. His hands stayed clenched on his knees, knuckles white in the dim light filtering through the window."Why tonight?" I asked."Because I was there to hear it.""That's not an answer.""It's the only one I have."I studied his profile. The tight set of his jaw. The way his eyes refused to meet mine even now. Something had shifted in that ballroom. Some wall cracking that I hadn't expected
Daniel's PovI caught her three steps from the door."Rosa."She didn't stop walking."Rosa, wait." I closed the distance and caught her arm gently. "Where are you going?""Away from there." Her voice broke completely. Tears streaked down her face despite her obvious effort to hold them back. "I can't do this anymore, Daniel. I can't stand there while two hundred strangers decide I'm a liar and a thief.""Let me fix this.""You can't fix this." She pulled her arm free. "Nobody can fix what they already believe.""Rosa.""I just want to go home."I looked back toward the ballroom. Toward Johansson standing with her circle of women. All of them watching us with barely concealed satisfaction. Every camera in the room angled in our direction.Something snapped inside my chest."Wait here," I said."Daniel."I walked back into that ballroom before she could stop me. Every step deliberate. Every eye in the room turning to track my movement across the floor.Johansson's smile widened the mom
Rosa's Pov"Alright. That's enough. Rosa, I asked you a question." Johansson's voice stayed sweet, the kind of sweet that came laced with poison. "Where did you attend school?""I studied linguistics. Several universities, actually." I kept my chin up, my voice steady despite my racing heart. "Why does that matter to you?""Curiosity." She turned slightly toward the women flanking her. "It's just strange, isn't it? A translator marrying Daniel Gosling overnight. Just a chapel and a marriage certificate.""Some things happen quickly.""Or conveniently." One of the other women laughed, sharp and cruel. "Especially when there's a fortune involved.""I wasn't aware of his fortune when I married him.""How fortunate for you that it worked out so well, then." Johansson's smile widened. "Tell me, did you know who he was before that night? Be honest.""I told you I didn't.""It's just that the timing is so suspicious." She tilted her head, voice carrying further now, drawing more eyes from ne







