Adele~ A deep, low laugh rumbled out of him, dark and heavy, like thunder rolling through the room. I froze, my fork halfway to my lips. “What?” My voice cracked with impatience and unease. “What does it say?” He didn’t answer. Instead, he leaned back in his chair, the paper hanging loosely between his fingers, his head tilted as though he were digesting more than just words on a page. “Detroit,” I snapped, my heartbeat loud in my ears. Finally, he looked at me, his lips curling into the faintest, most dangerous smile I’d ever seen on him. “She’s mine.” I blinked. The air in my lungs stalled. “She’s…what?” He lifted the paper, shook it once like it was a trophy, then set it down on the table with calmness that reminded you of a calm before the storm. “Silver. She’s my daughter.” Relief hit me so hard I almost laughed. For weeks, maybe months, I had carried the weight of watching him deny, resist, and push away the truth he didn’t want to face. And now…now there was no running
Adele~ Towards evening, I received a parcel from St. Claire hospital in regards to Silver and Detroit's DNA test. Staring down at the brown envelope, I was tempted to open it, but it wasn't mine to open, so I left it on my seat and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window. ‘So now what, Adele?’ I asked myself. What's the best way to make Julia and Ryan suffer without having blood on my hands? It was easier to send a hitman after them, extract information from them through torture and blow their brains out. I swear, it was tempting. But God forbid I stain my hands with their blood. God forbid I give them a quick death. I want them to suffer. I mean really suffer. Not the kind of suffering that comes from pain that fades in hours, but the kind that eats into their marrow, day after day, until they wish death would take them, and still, it doesn’t. So, what should I do? Hmm…get Roman to divorce Julia? Of course I would. Whether they liked it or not, they must get divorced. I refus
Adele~I'd be a pathological liar if I said that Mia’s visit didn't leave me miserable. Even though I wanted to convince myself that I walked away having the last words, her words remained hooked in my chest, squeezing my lungs until my breathing was ragged. And the worst of what she said was, “Your stubbornness already put your son in the ground…” True, had it not been for my stubbornness, Ethan would still be Julia's puppet. No, scratch it – she was his mother. I'd have still been in the dark. So, my stubbornness saved me. I think. But this time, it was different. Detroit wasn't Ethan. And his world was obviously more dangerous than living in the orphanage. So, should I leave him? I shook my head, that was out of the question. I love that man. But love didn't save Elisa. If they could kill a pregnant woman carrying the future heir of the West family, then what chance did I stand?The thought coiled cold in my gut, pressing so heavily against my chest that I had to grab the wall
Adele~Mia’s smile shifted then, no longer soft, no longer veiled in false kindness. It hardened, sharpened, until the cafeteria itself seemed to bend around her presence. This was the Mia Harrington everyone bowed to, the untouchable heiress who’d been born with the world at her feet.“I knew you were stubborn,” she said smoothly, her voice now edged with steel. “But your stubbornness has already put your son in the ground—or close to it. And now, you want to drag Leigh down like you did that boy and your ex-husband?”The words pierced me before I could even build a wall. My throat closed, and for a breath, my chest hollowed like she’d scooped the air out of me.She saw it. She knew she’d struck blood. I shouldn't give her the pleasure of seeing me cracking but I couldn't do it. “You know nothing about me.” My voice hardened, and my eyes flared, fierce and unyielding. “You think you can scare me with threats, with whispers of danger, with your perfect little stories? I’ve stared dea
Adele~Ever sat across from someone way above your league, someone you've seen countless times on TV with elegance that could make you trip over yourself, yet all you feel wasn't pressure but…nothing?Yes, that was how I felt sitting across from this person, so suddenly arrived at the hospital to see me. Maybe I stopped caring about her because she wanted to share my husband, or snatch him from me. Maybe I stopped caring because I wasn't in the right frame of mind at the moment. Grief has a way of flattening everything around you, stripping off the shine, the noise, the intimidation.So here she was, Mia Harrington, dripping in wealth and polished charm, a woman people bent over backwards for, a woman I, days ago, was making me panic and anxious. And now, all I could think was how tired I was. How little her presence mattered to me anymore.Her smile was poised, rehearsed, the kind that belonged to glossy magazines and red carpets. “Nice to finally meet you, Adele,” she said like we
Adele~Well, they wouldn't tell me who she was, which meant that I'd only see her once Ethan was discharged. As for the Open Week Festival, I was looking forward to it, I swear, I was, but unfortunately I missed it. But we could host any other one again in the future, considering that this one was a massive success.The Open Week Festival had boosted our resort beyond anything we'd ever dared to dream. Emily and Sarah said the guests we hosted were more than a hundred thousand. The resort and its surroundings weren't enough to accommodate them, but with my assistant’s quick thinking, we managed to arrange lodging for the international guests who flew in, in nearby towns and even rented cruise liners to dock along the coast. It turned into something bigger than anyone had imagined.Emily said the entire weekend felt like a dream with music, color, art, food, laughter. Cultures colliding, businesses shaking hands, memories being made. She said our name was being spoken in languages I c