LOGINAndrew’s POVI did not remember opening the car door.One moment I was sitting in the back seat, watching the Sterling gates rush toward me, counting my own pulse. The next, I was standing on gravel with the engine ticking behind me, and the only thing in the world was the staircase in front of the mansion.She stood at the bottom of it.Five years. I had imagined this moment so many times that I had worn the edges off it. I had pictured her older, harder, glittering with some new coldness. I had pictured myself saying something clever, or cruel, or nothing at all. But she was just Annalise. Her hair was tangled and her blouse was torn at the sleeve, and she had a smudge of dust across her cheek. She looked exhausted. She looked furious. She looked like the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.And beside her stood three small figures in capes.My chest tightened, hard, a fist closing around my heart. I pressed a hand to my jacket, over the pocket where the butterfly mask lay, and for
Annalise’s POV"Amazing?" I repeated weakly. "Xander, I just lost my children for three days, got locked in a security room, and nearly got dragged out of a taxi by your bodyguards. Which part of that is amazing?""The part where you had three kids and didn't tell your own brother!" He had not stopped staring at the triplets. He crouched down in front of Abby, who regarded him with grave suspicion, then looked up at Liam and Max, then back at me, his mouth hanging open. "Three! At once! And look at them, they're perfect. They're tiny superheroes. Big Sis, I'm an uncle. I'm actually an uncle, and I didn't even know it.""You're an uncle of five now," Tania said dryly. "Congratulations.""You're the one who gave my mommy a heart attack," Max informed him, folding his arms. "Just so you know."Xander blinked. "I did what?""You sent the bad guys after us.""They were my men! They were trying to rescue you!""We didn't need rescuing," Max said. "We had a plan.""He's right, Daddy," Annie
Andrew’s POVFor a few seconds, nobody in the garden moved.The quartet's bow hung frozen over a cello. A guest's champagne glass tilted until it spilled across her lap, and she did not notice. A cloud of rose petals, stirred up by the women's running feet, drifted slowly down onto the aisle and settled like snow. Somewhere behind the hedges, the fountain kept murmuring, as if nothing at all had happened.Then the whole garden exploded."Did you see that?""Those women just kidnapped those children!""No, no, they took them back! The kids called one of them Mommy!""Call the police!""Who was that? Who was she?""Andrew, what is happening?" The officiant had dropped his notes, and his round face had gone the color of dough. "Mr. Hale, should we pause the ceremony? Should I...?"I did not hear him.I was already running.I tore down the aisle, shoving past the ushers, trampling the white roses someone had spent a week arranging. My jacket flew open. My shoes slid on the wet petals. Beh
For a long, paralyzed moment, I could not understand what I was seeing.Black sedans pressed against the taxi on every side, so close that the door handles nearly touched. Headlights blazed through the windows and flooded the back seat with white glare, throwing our shadows across the roof in jagged shapes. Engines growled, idling low and menacing. The taxi had stopped so abruptly that my forehead had nearly struck the seat in front, and my heart was still lurching in my chest, thudding against my ribs like a trapped bird.Who were these people? Where had they come from? One second we had been speeding along an ordinary road, and the next, an entire convoy had materialized from nowhere and sealed us in. There were no gaps. There was no way out. My mind reeled, scrambling for an explanation that would not come, and my breath caught in my throat and refused to move."What's going on?" Tania whispered, her fingers digging into my arm hard enough to leave marks. Her face had gone ashen. "
Annalise’s POVWe ran through the Hale mansion's gate with the children clutched against our shoulders, and the iron bars swung shut behind us with a clang that rang in my ears long after we had left them behind. I did not look back. I could not. If I looked back, I was afraid I would see him standing there.Tania flung herself into the road and waved both arms at the first taxi she saw. It screeched to a stop. We piled into the back seat in a tangle of capes and sneakers and arms, the children's plastic swords and wands knocking against the door, and Tania slammed it shut and barked an order at the driver to go, just go, anywhere, now.The taxi lurched forward.I sat there, breathing hard, my chest heaving, my hair plastered to my forehead with sweat. My hands were still shaking. In my lap, three small bodies pressed against me, warm and solid and breathing, and a wave of relief rose up through me so strong that my eyes stung.They were safe. They were really here. I could feel the h
I turned my head, searching for the source of that tiny, furious voice.Everyone else was already doing the same. A wave of movement swept across the garden as the guests twisted in their seats, craning their necks toward the back of the canopy, and I followed the direction of their stares.Five small figures were marching down the petal-strewn aisle.They walked in a tight line, shoulder to shoulder, in matching superhero costumes. Capes streamed behind them in the breeze. Plastic helmets and glittering masks caught the morning sun. They moved with a startling, solemn purpose, like a tiny army on the way to battle.For a long moment, I did not understand what I was looking at. I wondered whether I had heard wrong, whether the strain of the last few days had finally cracked something loose inside my head. Children, in a garden full of lilies, in the middle of my wedding?The crowd began to murmur."What on earth is going on?""Who are those children?""Oh, look at them! Aren't they ad
My fingers instinctively tightened around the phone, hearing Tania’s words.I didn't hear her wrong, did I?“I checked your marriage certificate, Anna. It was fake!” Tania groaned. “Don’t tell me the scumbag tricked you!”Tricked me…Aiden himself asked me to marry him.Three years ago, he’d knocke
Cassandra pointed at me, her soft voice echoing in the hallway. That was when Aiden peeled his gaze from her, and the tender look on his face was instantly gone.But instead of appearing confused, only fear and frustration flashed in his eyes.He quickly let go of Cassandra, While Cassandra tremb
The next day, I discharged myself from the hospital.Standing across the bustling street outside the hospital’s skyscraper, my eyes squinted at the burning sun.For thirty minutes, not a single taxi stopped.Then, suddenly, a convoy of black luxury cars swept onto the street, instantly drawing ever
“We are sorry, Miss. We tried our best, but the fetus was gone. We had to evacuate it to prevent damage to your womb.”The word “it” echoed through my mind, cutting through my last strand of hope.Yet, the doctor’s words, along with the beeping of the heart’s monitor and every noise inside the hosp







