FAZER LOGINGrief didn’t leave when the burial ended. It followed Mia home. It sat with her at the dining table where Jared used to steal food off Liam’s plate. It stood in the hallway where his laugh used to echo. It crept into the bedroom at night and pressed its weight against her chest until breathing felt like work. The house still smelled the same clean, expensive, quiet but something essential had gone missing. Like a note pulled out of a chord. Everything sounded wrong now. Mia woke before dawn most days. Not because she was rested, but because sleep refused to keep her. She lay on her side, one hand resting over her stomach, feeling the soft, steady proof that at least one thing in her life still chose to stay. Sometimes the baby moved gently, like a reminder. Sometimes it didn’t, and panic bloomed until she felt it again. Liam slept beside her, but not with her. There was a difference. His body faced away now. His breaths were shallow, restless. Even in sleep, there was distan
The sky was gray the kind of gray that felt intentional, like the world itself had chosen to mourn.Mia stood beneath a black umbrella, her fingers numb around the handle, her belly heavy beneath her coat. The cemetery stretched out before her in neat, indifferent rows, damp earth clinging to polished shoes and hems of dark clothing.Jared Coleman’s casket rested at the front.Closed. Final.She hadn’t cried yet.Not because she didn’t want to but because something inside her had locked tight, refusing to open. As if tears would mean admitting that he was really gone. As if once she cried, she would never stop.Liam stood beside her, silent, his jaw clenched so hard a muscle jumped near his temple. He hadn’t slept. None of them had. His suit hung on him like borrowed skin.Ava was there too, standing slightly behind Mia, one hand hovering near her back like she was afraid Mia might shatter if touched too firmly.And Rose stood on the other side of Liam.Dressed in black. Head bowed. H
Hospitals were loud in the daytime.At night, they whispered.Mia learned that sitting in the waiting room, her hands folded over her belly, her eyes burning from exhaustion she couldn’t sleep away. Machines hummed softly behind the glass. A nurse passed every now and then. Everything looked… normal.Too normal.“He’s stable,” the doctor had said earlier. “He’s unconscious, but there’s no immediate danger. If he wakes up, we’ll know more.”If.Mia clung to that word like a lifeline.Jared had tried to warn them. She was sure of it now. The urgency in his voice before the crash. The way he’d insisted on meeting at the gala. Whatever he knew it had scared someone enough to silence him.She pressed her palm to the glass.“Please wake up,” she whispered. “You didn’t survive all that just to die here.”Her baby shifted gently, grounding her.“I promise,” she added quietly, “if you tell us the truth, I’ll protect you.”Behind the nurses’ station, a woman in pale blue scrubs signed a clipboa
Mia felt it before she knew why.It started as a pressure in her chest, sudden and sharp, like her lungs had forgotten how to work. The music at the gala blurred into noise, the lights too bright, the laughter too loud. She pressed a hand to her stomach, steadying herself.Something was wrong.“Mia?” Ava leaned closer. “You’re pale.”“I need air,” she said, already turning away.She pushed through the crowd, heels clicking too fast, her breath coming uneven. Outside the ballroom, the night was cooler, quieter but the feeling didn’t fade. If anything, it deepened, coiling tighter around her ribs.She pulled out her phone again.No new calls. No messages.Jared hadn’t shown up. And that unknown call earlier it sat heavy in her mind, unfinished, unresolved.She dialed his number.Straight to voicemail.Her fingers trembled as she lowered the phone. “Come on,” she whispered. “Pick up.”Behind her, the glass doors opened.Liam stepped out, jacket slung over his arm, his face tight with wor
Mia hadn’t planned on going to the gala.She was standing in her bedroom, halfway out of her dress, staring at herself in the mirror with a kind of detached exhaustion. The swelling of her belly was unmistakable now. Her body felt heavier, slower, like it belonged to someone else.After the photoshoot she had told Ava she’d stay home. She had told herself she didn’t have the strength for bright lights and fake smiles.Then her phone rang.Jared.She frowned, answering slowly. “Hey.”His voice came through tense, urgent, stripped of its usual calm. “Mia, I need you to come to the gala.”She straightened. “What? Jared, I’m not feeling great”“It’s important,” he cut in. “Really important. There’s something I have to tell you. You and Liam. In person.”Her pulse skipped. “Tell me what?”“I can’t say it over the phone.”That alone was enough to make her uneasy. “What is this about, Rose?”There was a pause. Just a fraction too long.“Yes,” he said carefully. “And Victor Grant.”Her stomac
Rose hated Victor’s house at night.In the daylight, it was all power and polish glass walls, marble floors, art that cost more than most people’s lives. But at night, when the lights dimmed and the city glittered below like a kingdom he believed he owned, the place felt like a cage.She stood near the window of his study, fingers curled around the edge of the desk, breathing carefully. Slowly. Steadily. As if one wrong breath might set him off.Victor Grant stood by the bar, his back to her, pouring himself a drink. The clink of ice against crystal sounded too loud in the silence.“You’re late,” he said calmly.“I had to be careful,” Rose replied. “I can’t be seen coming here too often.”Victor laughed softly. It wasn’t warm. It never was.“You live in the enemies house,” he said. “Don’t insult me by pretending discretion suddenly matters to you.”She didn’t answer.He turned then, glass in hand, eyes sharp and assessing as they dragged over her face, her body lingering, calculating.
The call came when Mia was still trying to make coffee taste like it belonged in her mouth again. Her hands trembled as she picked up the phone, Daniel’s name showing on the display. She didn’t even realize she’d been biting the inside of her cheek until she tasted blood.“Dani?” she said when he p
LiamRain streaked the windshield as he pulled into the hospital’s parking lot. His knuckles were white on the steering wheel, a dull ache sitting behind his ribs. The evening that had almost felt normal now seemed like a dream that had slipped through his fingers.He ran through the sliding doors.
The dining room looked like it was trying too hard to feel warm.Soft music hummed from the speakers, candles flickered on the table, and the smell of roasted chicken filled the air. Liam had done all this the candles, the food, the quiet effort. I stood by the doorway, clutching the back of a chai
The city lights glowed faintly against the dusk, a thousand golden windows reflected in my windshield. From where I sat, parked across the street, I could see two silhouettes moving inside the penthouse one tall, broad-shouldered. The other smaller. Closer.My fingers tightened around the steering







