เข้าสู่ระบบMoments later, Sebastian entered our bedroom, after driving Kylie back to her place.
I was already in my silk nightgown, but the moment I saw him, I smiled sweetly and rose from the bed.Things needed to accelerate now that Samantha was part of my equation. I had to keep Sebastian leashed, satisfied, dependent, and completely blind to what was growing between his sister and me.I padded toward him barefoot, the silk whispering against my skin. I took his hand gently and began und>>>Back to Mikayla's POVConsciousness came back in pieces, and at first there was only darkness.No edges. No light. Just a deep, weightless black that felt endless, like I’d been floating inside it for longer than I could measure. I didn’t know where my body ended. I didn’t know if I still had one. All I had was the slow sense of being again, thin and distant, pulling itself together in the dark.Then sound arrived.Not all at once. It drifted in the way a long dream thins at the edges before it breaks. Soft beeping. Steady. Measured. Voices somewhere close, layered and far at the same time. Then one voice cut through clearer than the rest.Samantha.I couldn’t make out every word, only the shape of them, the way her voice cracked when she held on too tight. Sobbing. My name, maybe. Something about waiting. Something about not leaving. The words floated and slipped, but the feeling of them stayed.My body still felt far away. Heavy. Th
>>>Samantha's POVOver the next few days the calls between St. Agnes and the Neuro team never really stopped. Papers kept landing in my hands, and I signed every one of them, including the consent for documentation, because I knew she would have wanted her name attached to something that might help other people the way this might help her.They moved her into the operating room with the observation glass already set. Outside, the media swarmed for a chance to sit behind that glass. I shut every request down. The stream would be enough. The hospital gave them a stretch of sidewalk and a line of barriers instead, and that was where they waited, cameras already pointed at the entrance.I waited there too.When the team finally came through, Lawrence was in front with Miguel and Viktoria close beside him. Security pushed the reporters back as flashes went off and voices climbed over each other, one question crashing into the next. Lawrence stopped only long
>>>Samantha's POVSeventeen hours in, the stream lit up again.I was still in the chair beside Mikayla when the notification hit and I pulled the laptop closer. On the feed, movement filled the recovery bay. Nurses shifted equipment. One of the observation cameras swung toward the bed where Mike Davis lay. His fingers twitched first. Then his eyes opened, slow, unfocused, real, after five years of nothing.The chat exploded. Someone in the room let out a sound that wasn’t professional at all. Dr. Brandt stepped into frame, checked the monitors, and when he spoke his voice carried the weight of the whole team behind it.“Brain activity is stable and within normal functional range. Mr. Davis is responsive. We are calling the Neuro-Pathway Treatment Plan a success.”Another set of medbots and doctors took the handover from there. The recovery team would handle full rehabilitation, his body needed a different kind of care after so long of being still.
>>>Samantha's POVThree months had passed since the accident, and Mikayla was still the same.Neither of us were losing hope. We stayed by her side the way we always had, following the schedule with the small adjustments that came once Claire and her family joined in. Some days felt heavier than others, but the routine held us together.Then Lawrence finally sent the news I'd been waiting for.His message was short. Watch the livestream of the Specialists and Medbots Collaboration Training on MagentaX's official site. He attached the link. Every documentation and progress they could share publicly was going up there in real time.I opened my laptop beside Mikayla's bed and started the stream. The second the feed loaded, every emotion I'd been holding in a careful line started moving at once. Hope pressed up under my ribs. Fear sat cold at the base of my throat. Nerves made my hands unsteady on the keyboard. All of it crashed through me while I s
>>>Samantha's POVThe press room at SOT was packed tighter than usual. Cameras lined the back wall while reporters filled every seat and stood along the sides.I sat behind the long table with James on my right and Kevin on my left. Caroline stood at the center podium with the stack of papers neat in front of her, looking calm in the way only someone who'd already won on paper could look. Silverstein was in the front row with his own lawyers. He'd been invited in a way that left him no clean path to refuse, so he came ready, his team sitting straight with folders open and pens waiting, still not knowing what was about to be read.Caroline adjusted the mic and began in that steady professional tone she always used when the room needed to listen.“Good morning. I'm Caroline Mosrov, personal counsel to Ms. Mikayla Stonefield. Under a signed and notarized legal document, whenever Ms. Stonefield cannot run Stonefield Optimum Technology herself, authority over
>>>Samantha's POVThe hope was still sitting warm in my chest when my phone rang.Kevin’s name lit the screen. I almost let it go to voicemail, I was still holding Mikayla’s hand, still replaying Lawrence’s words, but something in the timing made me answer.“Ms. Xavier. SOT is in crisis.” His voice was tight, stripped of the usual calm. “We had just entered a stable period after Ms. Stonefield took full control, and now this. Your name is listed as her legal representative. We need you at the office as soon as possible.”The words landed like a physical blow. Legal representative. My free hand tightened around the phone until my knuckles ached. That meant she had already prepared something, papers, a will, authority written down in case something happened to her. She had seen the state of her own body clearly enough to plan for this. The thought cut straight through the fragile lightness I’d been carrying and left me hollow again.“I—” My voice
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







