LOGINBLURB Layla Thompson was once a confident, slender girl with a bright future and a loving boyfriend. After a near-fatal illness left her with a fuller, plus-size body, her world began to crumble. Rejected and shamed by the man she thought loved her, Layla finds herself lost in the night—until a devastatingly handsome older man enters her life. One impulsive, passionate night with a mysterious stranger awakens desires she never knew she possessed. But fate has a cruel sense of humor. The stranger is none other than Mateo Reyes—her new CEO, her ex-boyfriend's father and her soon-to-be stepfather. The stranger that makes her leg shake is about to become her stepfather, the boy who told her she was not worth looking at is about to become her stepbrother. Layla realized that the man who truly sees her beauty may be the one she can never openly claim. Now, Layla must navigate forbidden attraction, intense guilt, and overwhelming /ust.
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Layla’s POV “You know what, Layla? I’m fucking ashamed of you now. Look at yourself. Those chubby cheeks, that face staring back at me every single day. It disgusts me. I’m done pretending this still works.” The words hit me before I could even brace myself. Wyatt stood there in the middle of our living room, his hands shoved deep into his pockets like he was trying to keep them from shaking, and looked straight at me with that flat, tired stare I had started seeing more and more these last few months. I stayed sitting on the edge of the old couch we had bought together right after graduation, the one with the faded blue fabric that used to smell like his cologne and my vanilla body spray. My hands stayed folded tight in my lap, my fingers pressing into each other until the knuckles ached. I didn’t trust myself to move. If I did, I might reach for him, or I might start throwing things. Either way, it would end the same. He kept going, his voice rising like he had been holding this in for way too long. “I didn’t want to say it like this, but I can’t keep acting like I don’t see it. You got sick senior year, okay, that shit happens. But you never came back from it, Layla.” He paused, sighing out loud. “The weight stayed. And it kept coming. I met you when you were fit, when you walked into any room and heads turned. Now? I have to stand next to you at every get-together with our old course mates and pretend I don’t hear what they’re whispering. I see how they look at me, like they’re wondering why I’m still here with… this.” My throat closed up so fast it felt like I was choking. I swallowed hard, once, twice, trying to push the lump down, but it wouldn’t budge. “This?” The heat rushed up my neck and into my face, and my eyes started burning. I blinked fast, staring at the floor between his feet instead of at him. I could still feel his eyes on me though, heavy and judging my body. “S-So that’s what all of this has been about?” I finally asked, my voice coming out quieter than I wanted, almost shaky. “All those months of you pulling away, canceling plans at the last minute, barely touching me even when we were alone… this is what you’ve been thinking the whole time?” “Yeah. It is.” He ran a hand through his hair, the same quick, frustrated motion he used to do before big exams, except this time it wasn’t school stressing him. It was me. “You don’t turn me on anymore, Layla. The way you look now, it just irritates me. I can’t even pretend when we’re in bed. I’m ashamed to be seen with you. I’m sure you noticed yourself. I’m tired of acting like I don’t care.” The tears came whether I wanted them or not. They filled my eyes fast and spilled over, hot against my cheeks. I wiped them away with the back of my hand quickly, feeling the softness there that he hated so much now. My mind kept replaying the hospital days from senior year, the way the meds had saved my life but changed everything else. I remembered how careful I had been afterward, counting every calorie, walking extra steps, but nothing stopped the scale from climbing. And Wyatt had been there at the beginning, holding my hand, telling me it didn’t matter. Until one day it clearly did. I thought knowing this breakup was coming would make it easier, but it didn’t. Not even a little, this shit hurts like hell. “I kept waiting for you to just say it,” I whispered, more to myself than to him at first. “The way you stopped reaching for me at night, the way your hand would pull back when I tried to touch you, the sex that just… stopped completely. I felt all of it, Wyatt. Every single day I felt it.” He let out a short, bitter laugh that cut right through me. “Well, now I’m saying it. I can’t do this anymore. You changed, and I didn’t sign up for this version of you.” I sat there completely still, letting his words sink deeper. My chest hurt like someone had punched straight through it. Part of me wanted to scream at him, to remind him of all the nights he used to pull me close, the way his hands would slide over my hips when they were smaller, the way he would kiss down my stomach and tell me I was perfect. But the bigger part of me stayed frozen because I knew if I moved, I would break right there on that couch. “You really think I wanted any of this?” I asked, my voice cracking but holding steady enough. “I don’t! It affected me too! The job interviews where they looked me up and down like my degree didn’t matter if I wasn’t the right size? Or was it last year at our graduation party where I only stayed ten minutes because I heard people talking about how big I’d gotten? I felt every bit of that shame, Wyatt. Every single day. And I still stayed with you, hoping you would keep seeing me the way you used to.” He shifted on his feet, his jaw tight, his eyes flicking away from mine for a second before coming back harder. “I tried, Layla. I really did. But I’m not attracted to you like this. The face, the body, everything. It’s done for me.” I could see the way his shoulders tensed, the slight clench in his fists at his sides. He wasn’t just saying this to hurt me. He meant it. That realization sat heavy in my stomach, colder than anything else he had said tonight. My mind flashed back to the early days, when his touch used to light me up, when he would press me against the kitchen counter after class and kiss me like he couldn’t wait another second. Those memories felt so far away now, like they belonged to two different people. “I’m not attracted to this version of you,” he repeated, quieter this time but no less final. “I’m ashamed to even post pictures anymore. I keep thinking about what people say when they see us together.” I wiped my face again, the tears still coming even though I tried to stop them. My hands felt heavy, my whole body felt heavy, like the couch was pulling me down. Inside my head, everything was loud. Part of me kept hoping he would take it back, that this was just a bad night and tomorrow he would hold me again. But another part, the part that had been watching him drift away for months, knew this was really the end. He stood there a little longer, like he was waiting for me to say something else, to fight or beg or maybe even agree with him. I didn’t do any of those, I just sat there, breathing slow and deeply, feeling the ache spread from my chest down into my stomach. The man I had loved for years, the one who used to make me feel wanted and safe, was looking at me like I was someone he barely recognized anymore. And for the first time, I started to wonder if I even recognized myself in his eyes.Chapter 116 Final Layla’s POV “Stand still, I haven't done the last button, and you keep turning toward the window,” Audrey said, with a pin between her teeth. “I'm checking the garden.” “It's the same garden as ten minutes ago.” The dress was ivory, cut close at the waist and hip and left full through the skirt, and it held every curve of me the way I'd asked the dressmaker to. I looked in the mirror. Months ago I couldn't have stood in front of it without crossing my arms over my stomach, and now I turned from one side to the other and only thought that I looked like myself. “You're crying,” Audrey said. “I'm not.” “You are, and you'll ruin your face.” The knock came at half past three. My mother stood in the doorway in a pale blue dress with her hair pinned up, holding the green scarf folded over her arm. She looked well, better than she had in months, and there was a colour in her cheeks that I hadn't seen since before the wedding. “I wasn't sure you'
Chapter 115 Scarlett’s POV “The evidence is complete, sir,” I said, and I laid the final report in front of Mr. Reyes at the head of the table. The board sat in silence while I took them through the last two weeks. Mr. Wyatt had come to my office on a Tuesday evening, unasked, with a lawyer, and given a statement that matched every record I'd collected. Miss Zoe had refused to give one at first, and then she'd read the logs, and she'd given one too. “The payments were routed through three accounts and approved under Mr. Wyatt's login,” I said. “The photographs and the private lift footage were obtained by Miss Zoe, using the audit access of her department, and Mr. Wyatt agreed to send them.” Mr. Delacroix took off his glasses. “How much money is involved, Miss Scarlett?” “Four hundred and twelve thousand, sir, and I've traced every transfer back to its source.” “Has any of it been recovered?” “Mr. Wyatt has agreed to repay what he can, sir, and the rest will be pursued.” M
Chapter 114 Layla’s POV “Everyone starts the first week feeling like a fraud,” Adrian Cole said, setting a stack of contracts on the desk of my new office. “You'll stop in about a month, and I'd like you to know that I'm usually right.” “You said that about the lift in this building as well.” “It broke down once, and the point stands.” The office had a door. It had a window, a plant someone had left, and a nameplate that read *Layla Thompson, Head of Commercial Contracts* in small black letters that I touched with one finger when nobody was looking. I hadn't planned to take the offer. I'd decided on a Thursday in the shower at Audrey's, with the water running over my face, that I couldn't build anything honest while I walked past Mateo's door every morning. I called Adrian from the hallway in my towel, and he said only that the job was still mine and that he was glad. I started work on Monday, and by Wednesday I'd stopped looking at the lift doors each time they op
Chapter 113 Layla’s POV “You've eaten half a piece of toast in three days, and that's not an exaggeration,” Audrey said, setting a bowl of soup in front of me on her small kitchen table. I'd been staying in her spare room for eleven days. I woke every morning and checked my phone for a message from my mother, and every morning there wasn't one, so I put it face down and went to work somewhere else, because I'd started going to Calloway and Reed for interviews. Mateo had sent me one line the first night, saying he hoped I was safe, and I hadn't answered it. I'd typed a reply four times and deleted it every time, because anything I wrote would have been a way back to him, and I wasn't ready to find out whether I'd take it. “Loving him doesn't cancel what you did to her,” Audrey said, sitting opposite me. “You know that.” “I know.” “So stop punishing yourself in this kitchen and eat the soup.” “I'm not punishing myself.” “You're sitting there like a woman waiting for a verdict
Chapter 7Layla’s POV“What!!!!!”“Mom… I got the job! After so many months!” I squealed, shoving the phone screen right in front of her face.My hands were shaking so badly I almost dropped it. The email glowed on the display, bold letters screaming the exact news I’d been praying for.Congratula
Chapter 6 Layla’s POV Next morning “Hmm..” I moaned as the morning sun hit my face, smacking my lips sleepily. I opened my eyes slowly, then closed them again. But something about my surroundings felt completely unfamiliar, and my eyes snapped wide open. “What the fuck!” I muttered, qui
Chapter 5Layla’s POVBefore I could even process his words his mouth dove in.This wasn’t a gentle lick at all, he buried his face in my cunt like he wanted to drown in it. His tongue dragged up my slit in one long, nasty stripe, then latched onto my clit and sucked hard, his lips smacking loud
Chapter 4Layla’s POV“I—I-ah” I stammered, unable to utter a word or even cover myself. His dark eyes didn't snap away in politeness. Instead, they darkened instantly, dropping down from my shocked face to slowly, deliberately rake over every single inch of me. He looked at the heavy weight of m












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