LOGINOSTARA’S POV“Are you serious?”The question left my mouth before I could soften it.Natalie sat across from us in that cold little room, her cuffs glinting faintly under the fluorescent lights, and nodded once.“Yes.”Her voice was quieter than I remembered. There was no drama in it now, no calculated fragility. Just exhaustion and a strange kind of resolve.Anthony leaned back in his chair, still visibly trying to decide if this was some elaborate trick. “You’re offering Donna your entire trust fund.”Natalie swallowed. “Yes.”“No strings attached?” Anthony asked suspiciously. “None,” she said. “That’s what Michael is here for,” she gestured to her lawyer. “He has all the paperwork for you to look over. She will have access to it after she graduates from high school.” She looked at me. “I know money doesn’t fix what I did. I’m not stupid. But… I thought maybe I could at least be an aunt to her for once.”Something painful moved through my chest.Anthony was still suspicious, under
ANTHONY’S POVNatalie had some nerve.That was my first coherent thought as I stood by the kitchen counter, phone pressed to my ear, staring out at the grey London morning.“You’ve run out of favours to ask me,” I said flatly.On the other end of the line, she was quiet for a second. Then: “I know.”There was something in her voice that made me pause. Not innocence. Not manipulation exactly. Just… exhaustion.“Then why are you calling?” I asked.“I want to see Ostara one last time.”I laughed once, short and cold. “Absolutely not.”“Anthony—”“No.” I turned from the window and paced once across the kitchen. “You don’t get to keep appearing in our lives every time you decide you’re emotional enough to deserve another audience.”“I’m not asking for forgiveness,” she said quickly.“That would be smart, because you’re not getting it.”“I know that.”I stopped walking.For a second, I heard only the hum of the refrigerator and the faint tick of the clock over the stove.“Then what?” I aske
ANTHONY’S POVThe shop didn’t look like a shop.From the outside, it was just an old stone building tucked on a side street off Bond Street. No flashy signs or window displays… just a brass plaque.Inside, it was quiet and warm. Wood panels, soft light, a faint smell of polish and something floral. Not a mall, not a showroom—more like the living room of someone very, very rich. A woman in a dark dress approached me with a professional smile. “Mr. Möller?”“Yes.”“Welcome. We have a selection prepared for you. Right this way.”She led me into a smaller room with a round table and two chairs. That was it. On the table were just three velvet trays laid out like this was a tasting menu.“These are based on the criteria your assistant sent across,” she said. “Minimalist design. Strong lines. Nothing too flashy.”Mark had done well.When she left, I sat down and opened the first tray.Three rings.My heart was beating harder than it had in any board meeting.The last time I’d done this, I
OSTARA’S POVHe shifted his weight, eyes flicking away from mine. “I just… have something I can’t move.”Anthony always had “something.” A call, a crisis, a meeting in three time zones at once. But he’d just stepped down from Zenith and Möller and signed a Harvest Bloom contract. Noon tomorrow was supposed to be his official first meeting in my world.And now there was suddenly a mysterious “something” he couldn’t move?I studied his face. He wasn’t cold or distant. If anything, he looked… nervous? “You know,” I said lightly, “most new hires wait at least a week before they start dodging meetings.”He huffed out a laugh, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I swear I’m not dodging.”“What is it then?” I asked. “Can you move it?”His jaw tightened just a fraction. “I just need the morning,” he said. “Please, Ossie. I’ll be there for anything after lunch. Every day. I’ll make up for it.”The “please” did it.Old Anthony would have avoided answering, would have shut me out. This version of
ANTHONY’S POVI adjusted the laptop so my face was framed properly. Behind me, the Christmas tree still blinked faintly in the corner, refusing to accept that the holiday was over.“Alright,” came Mrs. Kaplan’s crisp voice as more little rectangles blinked into life on-screen. “We have Anthony, we have Mark. Is everyone here?”Faces appeared one by one—board members in their respective offices, some at polished desks, some clearly at home.“Thank you all for joining,” I began, slipping easily into the tone I’d used a thousand times. “I’ll keep this brief. We’ve had a strong year despite… unexpected turbulence.”A few people gave tight, knowing smiles at that.“I’ll send a full written review later this week,” I said. “But I do want to share one major change. Effective by the end of next month, I will be stepping down as CEO of both Möller Industries and Zenith.”Silence.For once, not even Mrs. Kaplan spoke. A couple of the newer board members glanced at each other onscreen like they
OSTARA’S POVThe holiday season finished in a blur of food, family, and an insane number of fairy lights. Eventually, reality called.It came in the form of emails, voicemails, and one particularly long message from Davina that began with: “I have IDEAS” and ended with three PDFs.By the first working Monday of January, I was back in the Harvest Bloom conference room with Elijah at the head of the table, Ethan half-slumped in a chair, and Davina with her laptop open and a notebook full of scribbles.“So,” Davina said, tapping the screen. “Festive flavours for this year. I was thinking we lean into comforting and nostalgic more than experimental. Last year’s smoked chili cinnamon did well but it scared some people.”“It scared me,” Ethan said.“You ate a whole bar,” she shot back.“Because I was trying to figure it out,” he said. “I couldn’t tell if I was eating chocolate or signing my soul over to the devil.”Elijah snorted. I bit back a laugh.Davina glared at Ethan. “You are either
OSTARA’S POVBy the time I understood what was happening, we were already gone. One second, I was listening to the noise outside, trying to pick Anthony’s voice out of the chaos. The next, a door behind us banged open, and a hand clamped over my mouth.“Quiet,” a voice hissed in my ear.Peter.His
OSTARA’S POVTime had started folding into itself.Minutes felt like hours, hours felt like nothing at all. The warehouse hummed around us, and Natalie was dozing lightly in her chair—head lolled forward, breathing uneven. Peter hadn’t come back. Zane hadn’t shown his face. And in the strange quie
ANTHONY’S POVI didn’t go back to my room immediately.Even after Elijah’s voice faded and the door shut behind me, something inside me was still stuck on repeat.They can’t know.It’s been years.Those two sentences alone were enough to keep any man awake for a week.By the time I made it to my st
OSTARA’S POVPeter was pacing again, barefoot on concrete, gun hanging loose in his hand as if it no longer knew what to do with itself. The noise outside had fractured him completely. His thoughts were coming out in pieces now — apologies tangled with threats, memories misfiring, logic collapsing







