Masuk***~~ZARA~~***Dante and Adrian walked toward their mother together.She saw them coming, and I watched her expression change before either of them had even opened their mouths.She had the look of someone who already knew what was coming and didn’t want to hear it.“Mom.” Dante fixed his gaze on her. “What is in the document Dad found? What is going on?”Her eyes widened, and she shifted on her feet, clasping her hands in front of her. The discomfort on her face was unmistakable. She already knew exactly where this was heading and was trying to decide how to handle it.“Mom,” Adrian called again when she didn’t respond, pulling her attention back from wherever her mind had gone.She looked at both of them, her gaze moved between their faces. I stayed where I was and said nothing. This was a conversation between them, and my role was simply to be there without getting involved in something that wasn’t mine to discuss.“It was just an argument,” she said, her voice carried the defens
***~~ZARA~~***Dr Marcus wasn’t even the attending physician on this floor, but he stayed close to us anyway.He remained nearby, even though he wasn’t responsible for treating Mr Wright, as if he felt he needed to be there for the family.I appreciated that more than I could say. His familiarity with the Wrights meant he understood how serious and difficult the situation was for all of us in a way a stranger wouldn’t.The doctor who had been with Mr Wright inside the room stepped out of the emergency room, and Dante moved toward him before he could even close the door behind him.“What is wrong with my father?” Dante demanded. “I need to see him. Tell me how he is doing.”The doctor raised both hands. “Your father’s blood pressure is elevated,” he explained, keeping his voice professional and calm. “It was severely high when he came in, and he collapsed as a result. We have him under observation while we determine the underlying cause.”“Collapsed?” Dante repeated, while Adrian rep
***~~ZARA~~***We got dressed and were on the highway, headed to the Wright mansion, when Dante’s phone started ringing from the cup holder between us. I glanced over and saw my mother-in-law’s name on the screen.I frowned.We were already on our way, so what was this about? Were we late? Had something changed about the meeting?I ran through the possibilities quickly, but nothing added up. Dante just kept his eyes on the road, his jaw set as he refused to reach for the phone.It kept ringing.He ignored it.I watched him for a second, then reached over and grabbed it myself, answered the call, and held it close to his ear so he could hear without taking his hands off the wheel.“Dante, stop the car,” his mother’s voice came through, and there was something different in it, something stripped of the usual cold authority she always carried. “Don’t come to the mansion. Turn around and come to the hospital right now.”Dante’s foot hit the brakes for half a second before he recalibrate
***~~DANTE~~***When I picked up my mother’s call, she didn’t even give me the chance to speak.That was the part that stayed with me after the call ended.The fact that my mother had called, delivered her message in a flat, cold tone, and disconnected before I had the chance to say a single word, like my response was irrelevant, like whatever she had planned for tomorrow was already decided and my input wasn’t required.I sat there holding the phone and staring at nothing in particular.My mother had always been complicated operating by her own logic and expecting everyone around her to fall in line with it. But this was different.This coldness was different, and I couldn’t put my finger on what had changed or what I could have done recently that would have produced that specific tone from her.Did I offend her?Or did something happen at the mansion that nobody had told me about?What could this family meeting possibly be about, after everything we had already been through in th
***~~ZARA~~***The first thing I heard when consciousness started pulling me back was Dante’s morning voice, clearly on a call.For a few seconds, I just lay there with my eyes still closed, listening to the familiar sound without processing the actual words, my brain was doing that slow, reluctant thing it does when it knows it has to wake up but is not ready to cooperate.Then I checked the time, and it was already past eight in the morning.I had slept deeply, really deeply, the kind of sleep that felt like it had swallowed me whole and only returned me to the surface when it decided it was done with me rather than the other way around.I could still feel yesterday in my body. I felt tired and slightly stiff. My eyes were also a little swollen from all the cryingThat reminded me.Right. We still had all of that to deal with.My brain woke up properly at that point, the full recap arrived without any invitation: the missing money, the board meeting, Ethan tracing the accounts, th
***~~ZARA~~***“What?” Dante demanded. “Zara,” Ethan cautioned from behind his desk, turning fully in his chair to look at me. “Please tell me you are not serious.”“I'm serious,” I replied, wiping my face with the back of my hand even though more tears were already replacing the ones I had cleared.“I am doing this for Dante. This person has been after my family’s company for years, and now that my company is merged with his, they are using that connection to get to him. I cannot stand here and watch that happen.”Dante stepped toward me, and I watched his expression move through shock, then disbelief, then something softer and more desperate than either of those.“Zara,” he murmured, his voice low and strained as he cupped my face between his hands. “I love you too much for this to even be a conversation right now. There has to be another way. My life without you is not something I am willing to think about, let alone accept.”“A divorce is not going to stop this person,” he cont
***~~ZARA~~***At exactly 9 p.m., we stepped into the club. Adrian took my hand and led me through the red velvet curtains, with Dahlia just behind us.The room was packed, with pink and red lights flashing, and the bass shaking the floor.“This is crazy,” I shouted over the music.“Just follow m
***~~ZARA~~***I ran all the way from the Wright mansion and didn’t stop until I reached the gate of my family home.When I got into the house, I slammed my door shut, locked it behind me, and then sank onto my bed.I stared at the wall, trying to calm my mind, but all I could hear was Adrian’s v
***~~ZARA~~***"Don't stop," I whispered breathlessly.His eyes went dark and hungry immediately. A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips before he kissed me again, more urgently and demanding than before.His hands moved through my hair and around my waist, then up my back in one smooth m
***~~ZARA~~***“You taste so sweet, Zara. I want you so badly. I want to feel you inside,” Dante said as he licked my pussy, talking and eating it at the same time, his tongue moving lightly over me.When I heard him say those words, I moaned immediately as the pleasure inside me built with momen







