LOGINThe following days moved in a constant blur.
Samantha and I were always on the road, securing permits, meeting people I introduced to her, and handling every detail the new company needed.There was barely time to breathe, but neither of us slowed down.Sebastian kept delaying the divorce. He asked for a full week to review the papers my lawyer had sent.From the reports I received, Kylie was already living with him. She was three months pregnant now.And out of pure sThe next morning I insisted on being discharged before the sun was fully up.The doctor in charge tried to hold the line, standing at the foot of the bed with the chart still open.“Ms. Stonefield, you were unconscious for two days with pneumonia. Leaving this early isn’t advisable. Your lungs need more time under observation.”“I’m leaving,” I said. “Write the instructions and the prescriptions. I’ll follow them outside.”He looked at Alicia as if she might intervene, then realized she wouldn’t. He exhaled, defeated, and began listing the restrictions while a nurse prepared the discharge papers, no heavy exertion, complete the antibiotic course, return immediately if the fever climbed again or breathing turned short. I nodded through all of it. Weakness still sat deep in my muscles, but it wasn’t going to keep me in that room.Alicia handled the paperwork. The moment I was cleared I called Kevin and told him to bring a change of clothes. While we
I stayed where I was, shivering in the wet clothes, and listened to the front door, then the car engine starting, then the sound of it pulling away until it faded completely into the night. That was the finality. No more footsteps. No more chance to call her back from the hallway.I slumped to the floor because my legs wouldn’t hold. The cry that came out of me didn’t sound like my own voice. The heartbreak sat heavier than anything I had carried after Claire. It was sharper, more complete, as if losing the woman I loved had cracked open every older failure at once. I had power, authority, wealth, connections, everything that should have been enough to keep her safe and close, and I still couldn’t hold her. This failure was different. It kept stabbing in the same place without dulling.“What’s the use of any of it,” I muttered into the empty room, forehead against the side of the bed, “if I can’t make her stay. I failed again. This time I did it with my o
The weather matched the pain in my chest the moment I stepped onto the sidewalk.Rain came down hard and cold, the kind that soaked through fabric in minutes, and I barely registered the weight of it. Droplets ran into my eyes and down the back of my neck while I kept walking without a destination. Brooklyn’s streets blurred past. I didn’t feel the chill settling into my skin or the way my clothes clung heavier with every block. I only knew I had to keep moving until the noise in my head quieted enough to think.But it didn't.I ended up in a narrow alley between two dark buildings, the streetlight barely reaching the wet pavement. My legs gave out. I slid down the wall, pulled my knees in hard against my chest, and finally let the sobs tear out without trying to hold them back. My forehead pressed to my arms. My shoulders shook until they ached. Hours passed like that. The rain slowed and then stopped. Water still dripped from the fire escape above m
The shock kept me on the floor for a few more seconds before I managed to scramble toward the desk and pull the laptop closer. My hands were unsteady as I scrolled through the images one by one.The first clear photo showed me sitting in the leather chair from my CEO days at SOT, Alicia leaning in as if for a kiss. I opened my mouth at once.“That....never happened. I-I....remember that moment. We were discussing the turnover. She was pointing at something on the screen.”Samantha only looked at me, cold and unmoved. I scrolled to the next frames and kept explaining that none of them were real, that the angles were wrong, that the context was missing. She stepped back a fraction.“I already checked them for authenticity. They’re verified. All of them.”I shook my head and stood, still scrolling, until the last image loaded and my eyes widened because I knew exactly what that afternoon had actually been. The photo put me in a compromising position inside
Ruiz met me halfway across the lot. He was looking toward the road, where a dark car had just accelerated out of sight and vanished around the bend, then he turned back to me with a confused frown, as if the two facts refused to sit together.“Where are you headed?” he asked.“Home.”He scratched the back of his head, still glancing once more at the empty stretch of asphalt.“Strange. I just saw Ms. Xavier running for the car by the gates and taking off hard. Thought it was something urgent. Her face looked pale.”I stopped and looked at him, hard.“Say that again.”“Ms. Xavier. She came in, didn’t stay long, then ran for her car and sped off. Pale. Like something hit her.”The vehicle that had just disappeared down the road was hers. The recognition landed cold. Every easy intention I had carried out of the glass room collapsed at once, and I didn’t waste another second. I reached my own car, started it, and pulled out while the though
It was only three days before the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the energy-reserve facility.I went out to Maspeth myself to check the preparations. Samantha could not make it. She had something important to handle and needed to step away for a bit, so she asked me to supervise in her place. That was all she said, no exact reason, and no timeline beyond the vague shape of “important.”The ground floor of the facility had already been cleared for the post-ceremony banquet. Tables and chairs stood in staged rows while Claire moved beside me with the floor plan open on her tablet, marking adjustments as we walked.“The main serving line needs another three feet of clearance,” she said, pointing. “Otherwise the wait staff will bottleneck at the corner.”I nodded and made the note.“Shift the floral pieces toward the outer columns. Keep the sight line to the ribbon platform clean.”Yves passed us twice in the span of ten minutes, hard hat under one arm, ra
The first light of dawn was just creeping in when I reached for the tent zipper, still wrapped around Claire’s warm body. One second of peace. That’s all we got. The zipper ripped open and rough hands yanked me out by my hair. I hit the dirt hard, pain exploding through my ribs. Claire screame
I walked back into campus after a week of hell, my body covered from head to toe. Long sleeves, high collar, and pants that hid the fading bruises my father had left on my back and arms. Every step still ached a little, but I kept my face calm. The second Claire saw me in the hallway, her eyes li
The heavy wooden doors of the Stonefield estate felt colder than usual as I pushed them open. My body was still buzzing from the afternoon with Claire, but the second I stepped into the living room, the high disappeared. My father, Silverstein Stonefield, sat in his massive leather chair lik
My back slammed against the cold metal door of the bathroom stall as I crushed my lips against Claire’s. The kiss was hungry, almost violent, like we’d been starving for each other all morning. Her strawberry lip gloss mixed with the faint taste of coffee on her tongue. My hand was alre







