LOGINđ€ Alexandra đ€Fuck you, Alexandra. How dare you get your panties soaked just from his forehead on yours?I stood in front of the mirror in the hospitalâs ladiesâ room, both palms braced against the cold porcelain sink, and glared at my own reflection like it had personally betrayed me. Which, in a sense, it had.How dare you get like that just because his forehead was on yours. I pointed at myself in the mirror, fully aware I had lost whatever was left of my dignity the second I started lecturing my own reflection out loud. What the heck, woman.I could control my heart. Life had taught me exactly how to lock that particular door and walk away from it. I could control my brain. God knows Iâd spent half a decade proving that, building a whole new empire back up from nothing while raising four children mostly alone, no breakdowns, no slipping. But my body, specifically my pussy apparently, had never gotten the memo that Jacob Grey was supposed to be a closed case.It was like I tur
đ€Jacob đ€âEverything about Amaraâs financial records was traced back to Stella,â I said. âWhich is impossible because Stella is sitting in your custody.âShe turned, and I watched the last soft edges of the woman whoâd just held our children disappear behind something colder, something I recognized instantly even after five years, because I used to be the only person alive who got to see this version of her up close.âThen I need to torture the truth out of Amara,â she said. âEnough mind games. I want her alone, I want her scared, and I want her talking inside the hour.âThe old Lex. No performance in it, no hesitation, just pure clean intention with all the softness stripped out of her voice like sheâd peeled it off on purpose.God help me.âIs it weird,â I said, before I could stop myself, âthat I like this version of you better?âShe went still. Just for a second. Long enough that I knew the question had actually landed somewhere instead of bouncing off her.âExcuse me?ââYou hea
đ€ Jacob đ€Lex had barely finished saying help me find out who turned your mistake into a weapon before my phone started buzzing in my pocket, and some old instinct in me the one that had kept me alive for five years of running went cold before I even looked at the screen.Jack.I stepped a few feet further down the corridor before I answered, some reflex of keeping the worst of my life at armâs length from Lex still firing even now, even after everything.âTalk to me,â I said.âBoss, you need to sit down for this.â Jackâs voice had none of its usual flatness. That alone told me everything I needed to know about how bad it was about to get. âI pulled Amaraâs financials like you asked. Followed the money backward.ââAnd?ââSheâs been getting paid two ways. One small transfer, monthly, from an account Iâm ninety percent sure traces back to you the videos, the arrangement, whatever you had going. That partâs clean. That part makes sense.ââAnd the other way?ââThe other way is bigger. A
đ€ Alexandra đ€âThank you,â Jacob muttered, the second we got outside the ward.He pulled me into his arms before I had time to decide whether I wanted to let him.âThank you for keeping me alive in their little minds,â he murmured against my ear, his hold tightening like he was afraid I might disappear if he loosened it even slightly. âThank you for showing them what I look like.âI let myself stay there for exactly three seconds longer than I should have. Three seconds of his heartbeat against my ear, three seconds of a smell I hadnât let myself remember in years, three seconds where the only thing that existed was the relief of two children breathing on their own and a man who hadnât disappeared completely, no matter how hard heâd tried.Then I pulled myself out of his arms, because three seconds was already three seconds too many.âYou donât need to thank me,â I said, stepping back, putting air between us where his arms had just been. âThey exist because of your obsession with me
đ€ Alexandra đ€I had braced myself for a lot of things when Caleb dropped my other two babies this morning. I had not braced myself for this.I stood by the window with my arms crossed, not because I was cold, but because I needed somewhere to put my hands that wasnât reaching for something I hadnât decided yet whether I was allowed to want, and I watched Jacob fold to his knees on a hospital floor with two of our children wrapped around him like heâd never left.Daddyâs back from the trip.I had built that lie so carefully, so many years ago, the first time Freddy asked where his father was and I couldnât make myself say the truth out loud to a two-year-old. Working very far away. Iâd told myself it was a kindness. Tonight, watching it land exactly the way Iâd designed it to land watching my son cling to Jacobâs leg like gravity itself had finally been corrected I understood for the first time that it hadnât only been a kindness to them.It had been a door I left open for myself,
đ€ Jacob đ€When I walked through that door, five sets of eyes turned toward me at once, and for one full second nobody in that room moved at all.Lexâs face I could read instantly careful, watching, waiting to see what Iâd do before she decided what she would. But it was the four small faces that undid me, because they all wore the exact same expression for the exact same heartbeat: confusion. The polite, searching confusion of children trying to place a face they almost recognized but couldnât yet.And then one of them the little girl closest to the foot of the bed, the one with my eyes, my exact eyes, set in a face that was unmistakably half her motherâs broke first.âDaddy?âThe word came out small and unsure, more question than statement, like she was testing whether the word even belonged in this room. And God help me, I lost my breath completely. Five years. Five years and I still recognized myself looking back at me out of a five-year-oldâs face, and she knew me. She knew me.
đ€ Alexandra đ€None of this made sense. That was the thought repeating inside my head over and over again while I stood in the middle of the hotel suite staring at Jacob.Five years.Five entire years had passed without seeing him. Five years of therapy. Five years of rebuilding my life. Five year
đ€ Alexandra đ€âHOW THE HELL DID SHE GET ACCESS TO A PHONE?â My voice echoed through the entire suite as I paced across the living room with my phone pressed against my ear.I honestly didnât care that it was nearly midnight. I didnât care that I was standing in a luxury hotel in Los Angeles.And
đ€ Jacob đ€The second Stella ended the call, I grabbed my jacket and headed for the door. I wasnât thinking anymore. That was the problem.Every logical thought had completely abandoned me the moment she mentioned another child.A child.My child.Five years.Five fucking years.If Stella was tell
đ€ Alexandra đ€I genuinely didnât know what came over me. Seriously.What kind of temporary insanity possessed me to ask Jacob Grey out for a drink?A drink with Jacob after everything, after five fucking years and finally getting my life together. What exactly was wrong with me?I stood in front







