LOGINSamantha’s smile was still warm when the noise of the party pulled us back in.
We had just stepped away from our quiet corner when she spotted something near the pool.Kylie.“She’s here? She isn’t on the guest list you showed me.” Samantha instinctively held my hand. I squeezed back.“She isn’t,” I said. “Looks like your brother snuck her in while we were busy.” I kissed the rim of my glass. “Forget it. Don’t let her ruin your mood. They’re not worth it. Focus on your happinThe warmth of the moment held for only a few more seconds before someone cleared his throat beside the table.Sebastian stood there with his gaze already on our joined hands. A faint smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth.“Did I arrive at a bad time?”I raised a brow without letting go of Samantha’s fingers.“Yes. You did.”Samantha only tipped her chin toward the empty chair, the earlier softness still lingering around her eyes.“Sit down. We already ordered.”As if on cue the waiters arrived with trays and began setting the plates. I spoke before either of them could open the real subject, my voice low enough that it stayed between the three of us.“We eat first. Talk after. Samantha has been under pressure all day. I am not letting this conversation spoil her appetite.”Sebastian dropped into the chair and gave a short nod, already reaching for his napkin.“Fine by me. Same rule.”The three of us focused on the meal. Only when the pla
The reports arrived a few hours after Luis returned from the police station with the legal team.We gathered in the conference room, Samantha, Luis, the lawyers, and me, while the afternoon light cut long rectangles across the table. The agenda was narrow and direct. The two men who had posed as environmental inspectors. One of the senior counsel opened the folder and laid the outcome out in clean legal terms, voice steady against the quiet of the room.“Both individuals have been charged with fraud, impersonation of government officials, and forgery of official documents and identification. Transaction records confirm a payment of 500,000 dollars originating from a personal account registered to Kylie McKenzie. The funds moved shortly before the inspection attempt.”Samantha turned toward me, brow slightly drawn, the weight of the number still settling.“Is Kylie in a position to pay that kind of money? Half a million just to delay construction?”“We’l
The atmosphere on site shifted the moment the inspectors were taken into custody.The remaining crew stood in loose groups, waiting for direction. Samantha turned to them, voice steady despite the residual strain in her shoulders.“Rest early. We resume tomorrow.”A foreman shook his head.“We’d rather keep working than lose another day. We don’t want to disappoint you.”Others echoed the same. Samantha looked moved by the plain loyalty, the unexpected weight of it visible in the way her expression softened for a moment.“Don’t push yourselves past what’s safe.”Claire excused herself to return to inventory. Samantha’s gaze followed her a fraction too long before she nodded, and when the others finally dispersed, only the two of us remained in the ground-floor room, then her voice came quiet and strained when she finally spoke.“Why did you block a hit meant for Claire? Why didn’t you stop it instead of taking it yourself?”I sighed, the sound rou
From that day on, Samantha came with me every time I drove to Maspeth.Her conversations with Claire stayed strictly about work, and she never left my side for long, positioning herself like a quiet barricade between us. Whenever Claire approached with new delivery records, Samantha stepped in first.“Any updates on the site go directly to me from now on.”Claire stepped back without argument and kept the same polite smile, acknowledging the display of authority. I agreed out loud.“She’s the owner. It’s right that she hears everything first.”Samantha’s gaze on Claire carried the weight of a rival being measured. Claire felt it too, the discomfort showed in the careful way she began keeping extra distance whenever Samantha was present. The pattern held for days.Then came the morning Samantha was required in Opticon’s conference room with Luis for the monthly meeting, contract reviews and the first planning pass on employment hiring before the completio
The construction site in Maspeth ran loud under a clear sky.Steel and concrete no longer dominated the view. The energy-reserve building sat in its final stretch, equipment crates open along the eastern bay, cable runs being locked into place, solar-mount hardware staged in neat rows waiting for the last connections. From the outside the structure already looked finished, only the interior systems still needed closing.Samantha and I stood at the perimeter fence and watched. The progress sat plain on her face. She had not been able to walk the site herself for months, and the difference between reports and the real thing was written in the way she smiled.Ruiz spotted us and came over at once, hard hat under one arm, grin already wide.“Ms. Xavier. It’s good to see you here in person. We’ve missed having the owner on the ground.”“I’ve missed seeing it,” Samantha answered. “How close are we?”“Six weeks to full completion if the remaining installs stay
The server room settled into a thin, stretched silence.Only the soft click of keys from Ava’s station broke it while Maximus finished the last recovery pass. Every stolen cluster had been pulled back. A new prompt waited on the main display, clinical and patient.[Third-party device located. Requesting permission to initiate countermeasures.]Sebastian did not hesitate.“Permission granted.”Maximus moved at once. A targeted payload left the system, struck the remote device, and began stripping it bare. File after file transferred into a separate, newly created folder inside the isolated cloud, clean copies, original structure preserved, nothing left recoverable on the other end. When the process locked complete, Sebastian and I stood closer to the screen.“Summarize the origin of the access inside the old architecture,” I said.[Access was first granted on February 20, 2026. Simultaneous internal and external input detected at the moment
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







