FLORENCE’S POV“And that’s when he made me CEO,” I said, finishing my story with a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.Across the table, Mason blinked at me. His coffee had gone cold.He looked at me the way someone might look at a friend who just said they’d joined a cult. Equal parts admiration, suspicion, and pure confusion. “Wait, wait. Interim CEO? Of Blackwood?”I nodded, stirring my jasmine tea with a wooden stick because this café thought spoons were too mainstream.“Wow,” he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. “I mean… you deserve it. God knows you do. But with everything else going on with Raiden’s dad and the creepy, secretive meetings and this whole Verdantis mess…” He trailed off.“I know,” I said. “It’s a lot. And he still won’t tell me what’s going on. Which makes me think it’s even worse than I imagined.”Mason leaned forward, brow furrowed. “Honestly, this isn’t the time for you to stress about all that. You’ve got enough on your plate. Overthinking won’t
FLORENCE’S POVI had barely hit “send” on my text to Mason when his name flashed across my screen. He was calling. Not even ten seconds later.“Please don’t tell me you’re going alone?” he said the moment I answered. “This whole Verdantis thing is… off. Flo, it’s creepy.”I sighed, resting my back against my comfy new CEO chair. “I know, but I’ll be fine—”“No, you won’t,” he snapped. “Flo, after everything—after Daniel—you can’t just walk into these things alone.”I couldn’t blame him for being paranoid. The kidnapping… the Whitehill eco-takedown… the mob at the gallery. It was too much for anybody. Mason had every reason to worry. Still…“Mason, it’s a white-collar corporate guy with a French name. Probably wears loafers and carries an iPad.”“It could be a trap,” he said, voice quieter now. “You don’t know who’s behind this. And after what happened…”His words hung. He didn’t finish. But I knew what he was thinking. I’d been kidnapped. Drugged. Locked away in his house.I swa
FLORENCE’S POV“What the hell do you think you’re doing here?” I snapped the second I saw him, my voice louder than I’d intended, echoing in the quiet corridor outside my apartment.Daniel Lockwood leaned against my doorframe, arms crossed, looking perfectly unbothered in his navy shirt and those infuriatingly smug loafers. His smile didn’t reach his eyes.“Hello to you too, sunshine. What’s got you all grumpy? Mood swings? Hormones?”I blinked. “Excuse me?”He tilted his head, mock-innocent. “I mean, I’d be irritable too if I were under this much pressure. Interim CEO. Two men wrapped around your finger. Possibly carrying one of their children…” He gave a dramatic shrug. “Stressful stuff.”I stared at him, fury rising like a slow boil.“I know you have your guard downstairs,” he added, holding up his hands. “I’m not here to hurt you. I just want to talk.”My fists clenched. “I know Verdantis is your little puppet show. And you’re using it to drag the Whitehill name through the mud.”
MASON’S POVThe moment my mother said the word “engagement,” I stopped thinking. My brain shut down. Like someone hit a switch and short-circuited the whole damn system.Engagement?To Jade? No.No, that wasn’t possible. The car was already idling outside. I climbed in without a word to my assistant, without my phone, without a coat. Just rage and confusion in my chest, and the bitter taste of something I couldn’t name sitting on my tongue.I told the driver to take me to my parents’ house. He nodded, and I leaned back into the seat, staring blankly out the window as the evening skyline blurred past.This was a mistake. Some idiotic, overblown misunderstanding that would resolve itself as soon as I walked through the front door and cleared the air. My mother must have heard something from someone, misread it, exaggerated it. Maybe Jade had dropped a comment. A joke. That had to be it.Because things were going well with Florence. Finally. There was something soft between us again
MASON’S POVI should’ve been panicking. Should’ve been pulling at my hair, screaming into a pillow, throwing furniture across the room. But instead, I was… quiet.Still.Focused.Because right now, Florence needed me.And if I let myself think about Jade, even for a second—if I thought about that ring she was parading around like a prize, or her soft, trembling voice saying the words, “I’m pregnant, Mason,”—I’d lose my grip. I’d break. And I couldn’t afford that. Not now.So I sat across from Florence, nodding while she talked about her meeting with Raiden, her eyes lit up with that combination of curiosity and low-level panic she got whenever something didn’t add up. I wasn’t really listening.Not fully.Not the way she deserved.But I needed her to feel like I was.“And that’s when he made me CEO,” she finished with a wry twist of her mouth.She deserved it. Of course she did. But all I could think about was the stress. The long hours. The pressure.In her condition…She shouldn
RAIDEN’S POVFlorence Hart, Interim CEO.The words stared back at me from the screen, stark, bold, and completely absurd. Not because she didn’t deserve it—God, she deserved it more than anyone—but because of why I’d given her the title.***Two days before I made Florence CEO, I stormed into my father’s office like a man possessed. Rage consumed me, blinding, pulsating, uncontrollable. It was something I’d always suppressed—fearful of this man, his power, his disappointment—but not anymore. Not when Florence’s name was tangled in his web.“You’re not marrying her,” I snapped, voice shaking with fury.My father didn’t even glance up from the papers he was reading. “Excuse me?”I took a step closer, chest heaving. “I said you’re not marrying Joy Hart.”Now, slowly, deliberately, he lifted his eyes. The icy glare pierced through me, but I stood firm, unflinching. I’d been afraid my entire life, but Florence had changed something within me. She’d made me brave enough to confront the m
JADE’S POVBeing pregnant and planning a wedding gives you… access.And access was everything.“Move in,” Melissa had said sweetly over tea, as if I were some poor orphan she was graciously adopting. “You shouldn’t be in that penthouse all alone in your condition. You need people around you. Family. A home.”Of course, she didn’t mean any of it. Not really. This was less about taking care of me and more about getting her son in line. And what better way to keep tabs on your prodigal son than by moving his ‘pregnant fiancée’ into the house?She fluttered around like a proud grandmother-to-be, her gaze always lingering too long on my belly like she was willing it to swell.She spoke as if it were all inevitable.“Mason will come around,” she said one morning while pouring me fresh orange juice. “He’s always been stubborn. But when he sees this little baby’s heartbeat on the scan? He’ll soften. I know my son.”I smiled politely, nodding, sipping the juice, and pretending not to think ab
MASON’S POVIt was supposed to be an ordinary day.I had planned to pick Florence up for lunch—nothing dramatic, just something normal. Something ours. I wanted to see her smile, hear her laugh. I needed something real after all the noise. Everything with Jade, my mother, this fake engagement… it all felt like a grotesque play I had been forced into, and the only way I knew how to feel human again was by being near Florence.Luckily, my mother said she would hold off on announcing the engagement to the papers until Jade and I were ready. And to her credit, Jade asked that we wait. I didn’t know why. But I didn’t want to question it. I stepped out of the car, the familiar buzz of the Blackwood PR building grounding me. I adjusted my coat, ready to walk in.And then I heard it.Voices. Sharp, familiar, heated. My eyes darted to the side—toward the alley behind the building where the loading bay and staff parking were tucked away.Annalise.Clarke.I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I swear
FLORENCE’S POV“Not now, Annalise,” I muttered, brushing past her as I gripped a client file like it was the only thing tethering me to reality. My heels echoed through the corridor, sharp, precise, punctuated with barely restrained fury. I didn’t mean to be rude, but the last thing I needed was another emotional conversation about a man. Any man.Annalise, bless her persistence, quickened her steps beside me.“Flo, give me five seconds. I swear I’ll be out of your hair after that!”I stopped in my tracks and snapped the folder shut so hard it made both of us flinch. I turned to her, eyes tired, jaw tight. “What?”“Mason knows it was Clarke who initiated the divorce,” she said in a rush. “He overheard me yelling at Clarke outside the building. And he was super mad and I think—”“He came to see me,” I said flatly. “I told him to get out and never show his face here again.”The look on her face was… shock, I think. Disbelief. Sadness. Maybe a bit of all three. I understood. That w
FLORENCE’S POVMason picked me?The words repeated over and over, tormenting me in a vicious loop as I sat alone in my dimly lit apartment. Daniel had left barely ten minutes ago, but it felt like hours, his venomous words still echoing off the walls.Mason chose me?I stared at the ceiling, numb yet somehow painfully aware of everything at once. If Daniel was telling the truth—and he’d shown me the texts—then Mason had explicitly told him to release me. To save me. He’d chosen me over Jade. And yet—He still slept with her.What kind of sick, twisted mind game was this?I pulled my knees to my chest, wishing I could simply disappear. I wanted to vanish into a world where the men I trusted didn’t constantly pull the rug from under my feet.But Daniel could be lying, couldn’t he? Half-truths and manipulative outbursts were his signature. Maybe there was no pregnancy at all—maybe it was just another lie to screw up Mason’s life. I closed my eyes, pressing my fingers against my templ
MASON’S POVIt was supposed to be an ordinary day.I had planned to pick Florence up for lunch—nothing dramatic, just something normal. Something ours. I wanted to see her smile, hear her laugh. I needed something real after all the noise. Everything with Jade, my mother, this fake engagement… it all felt like a grotesque play I had been forced into, and the only way I knew how to feel human again was by being near Florence.Luckily, my mother said she would hold off on announcing the engagement to the papers until Jade and I were ready. And to her credit, Jade asked that we wait. I didn’t know why. But I didn’t want to question it. I stepped out of the car, the familiar buzz of the Blackwood PR building grounding me. I adjusted my coat, ready to walk in.And then I heard it.Voices. Sharp, familiar, heated. My eyes darted to the side—toward the alley behind the building where the loading bay and staff parking were tucked away.Annalise.Clarke.I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I swear
JADE’S POVBeing pregnant and planning a wedding gives you… access.And access was everything.“Move in,” Melissa had said sweetly over tea, as if I were some poor orphan she was graciously adopting. “You shouldn’t be in that penthouse all alone in your condition. You need people around you. Family. A home.”Of course, she didn’t mean any of it. Not really. This was less about taking care of me and more about getting her son in line. And what better way to keep tabs on your prodigal son than by moving his ‘pregnant fiancée’ into the house?She fluttered around like a proud grandmother-to-be, her gaze always lingering too long on my belly like she was willing it to swell.She spoke as if it were all inevitable.“Mason will come around,” she said one morning while pouring me fresh orange juice. “He’s always been stubborn. But when he sees this little baby’s heartbeat on the scan? He’ll soften. I know my son.”I smiled politely, nodding, sipping the juice, and pretending not to think ab
RAIDEN’S POVFlorence Hart, Interim CEO.The words stared back at me from the screen, stark, bold, and completely absurd. Not because she didn’t deserve it—God, she deserved it more than anyone—but because of why I’d given her the title.***Two days before I made Florence CEO, I stormed into my father’s office like a man possessed. Rage consumed me, blinding, pulsating, uncontrollable. It was something I’d always suppressed—fearful of this man, his power, his disappointment—but not anymore. Not when Florence’s name was tangled in his web.“You’re not marrying her,” I snapped, voice shaking with fury.My father didn’t even glance up from the papers he was reading. “Excuse me?”I took a step closer, chest heaving. “I said you’re not marrying Joy Hart.”Now, slowly, deliberately, he lifted his eyes. The icy glare pierced through me, but I stood firm, unflinching. I’d been afraid my entire life, but Florence had changed something within me. She’d made me brave enough to confront the m
MASON’S POVI should’ve been panicking. Should’ve been pulling at my hair, screaming into a pillow, throwing furniture across the room. But instead, I was… quiet.Still.Focused.Because right now, Florence needed me.And if I let myself think about Jade, even for a second—if I thought about that ring she was parading around like a prize, or her soft, trembling voice saying the words, “I’m pregnant, Mason,”—I’d lose my grip. I’d break. And I couldn’t afford that. Not now.So I sat across from Florence, nodding while she talked about her meeting with Raiden, her eyes lit up with that combination of curiosity and low-level panic she got whenever something didn’t add up. I wasn’t really listening.Not fully.Not the way she deserved.But I needed her to feel like I was.“And that’s when he made me CEO,” she finished with a wry twist of her mouth.She deserved it. Of course she did. But all I could think about was the stress. The long hours. The pressure.In her condition…She shouldn
MASON’S POVThe moment my mother said the word “engagement,” I stopped thinking. My brain shut down. Like someone hit a switch and short-circuited the whole damn system.Engagement?To Jade? No.No, that wasn’t possible. The car was already idling outside. I climbed in without a word to my assistant, without my phone, without a coat. Just rage and confusion in my chest, and the bitter taste of something I couldn’t name sitting on my tongue.I told the driver to take me to my parents’ house. He nodded, and I leaned back into the seat, staring blankly out the window as the evening skyline blurred past.This was a mistake. Some idiotic, overblown misunderstanding that would resolve itself as soon as I walked through the front door and cleared the air. My mother must have heard something from someone, misread it, exaggerated it. Maybe Jade had dropped a comment. A joke. That had to be it.Because things were going well with Florence. Finally. There was something soft between us again
FLORENCE’S POV“What the hell do you think you’re doing here?” I snapped the second I saw him, my voice louder than I’d intended, echoing in the quiet corridor outside my apartment.Daniel Lockwood leaned against my doorframe, arms crossed, looking perfectly unbothered in his navy shirt and those infuriatingly smug loafers. His smile didn’t reach his eyes.“Hello to you too, sunshine. What’s got you all grumpy? Mood swings? Hormones?”I blinked. “Excuse me?”He tilted his head, mock-innocent. “I mean, I’d be irritable too if I were under this much pressure. Interim CEO. Two men wrapped around your finger. Possibly carrying one of their children…” He gave a dramatic shrug. “Stressful stuff.”I stared at him, fury rising like a slow boil.“I know you have your guard downstairs,” he added, holding up his hands. “I’m not here to hurt you. I just want to talk.”My fists clenched. “I know Verdantis is your little puppet show. And you’re using it to drag the Whitehill name through the mud.”
FLORENCE’S POVI had barely hit “send” on my text to Mason when his name flashed across my screen. He was calling. Not even ten seconds later.“Please don’t tell me you’re going alone?” he said the moment I answered. “This whole Verdantis thing is… off. Flo, it’s creepy.”I sighed, resting my back against my comfy new CEO chair. “I know, but I’ll be fine—”“No, you won’t,” he snapped. “Flo, after everything—after Daniel—you can’t just walk into these things alone.”I couldn’t blame him for being paranoid. The kidnapping… the Whitehill eco-takedown… the mob at the gallery. It was too much for anybody. Mason had every reason to worry. Still…“Mason, it’s a white-collar corporate guy with a French name. Probably wears loafers and carries an iPad.”“It could be a trap,” he said, voice quieter now. “You don’t know who’s behind this. And after what happened…”His words hung. He didn’t finish. But I knew what he was thinking. I’d been kidnapped. Drugged. Locked away in his house.I swa