ログインFelix’s POVArya cursed so loudly that I flinched, and then her phone went flying across the room and cracked against the wall with a sound like a gunshot."Deranged!" she shouted, pacing in a tight circle, her hands clawing at her hair. "The man is completely deranged! I had no idea Alexander Sterling was such a dumbass. I give him a golden opportunity, a secret that could bury his enemy, and he accuses me of kidnapping his children? Who does that? What kind of idiot hears the words Andrew Hale and immediately thinks of his own kids?"I had heard every word of that phone call from the other side of the room, and when it ended, I had pressed my palm over my face and stood there for a good long minute, wondering if this whole plan had been a mistake from the very start.Alexander Sterling had been our last option. Our only one. Andrew Hale would not budge, and now his greatest enemy had hung up on us.So what now?Arya stopped pacing and turned to me, her arms crossed, her eyes narrowe
I exchanged a confused glance with Tania, and the words slipped out before I could stop them."Five grandkids?"Xander ran both hands through his hair, his shoulders heaving. "My kids, Annie and Jeff. They went missing this morning at the amusement park." His voice shook with fury, though I could tell most of it was aimed at himself. "That careless nanny and that useless driver. They had one job. One! Keep two little children in sight for a couple of hours. And I let them go without me. I should have gone with them. I should have followed them to that park myself.""Don't blame yourself," Cassandra said softly, laying a hand on his arm. "It isn't your fault. If anyone should be blamed, it's me. I was supposed to go with them today, remember? I'm the one who canceled my plans. If I had been there, maybe none of this would have happened.""Stop it, both of you," my father murmured, though his voice was heavy.My mother was still kneeling on the marble, her face buried in her hands, her
Find them before the day is over.I exchanged a confused glance with Tania, and in the same second I understood that something was terribly wrong here. This was not a family gathering. It was a search party. Whoever Xander was looking for, the whole mansion had been turned upside down for them.Then a voice cracked through the noise from somewhere in the crowd."Big Sis? Is that really you?"I turned toward the sound, and Cassandra came rushing across the lawn, her heels abandoned somewhere behind her, her hair loose and tangled. Her face was red and swollen, as though she had been crying for hours, and fresh tears spilled from her eyes as she threw her arms around me and held on with surprising strength."Where have you been all these years?" she sobbed against my shoulder. "We searched everywhere for you. Everywhere! We couldn't find you, Big Sis, not a single trace. What happened to you out there? Why are you so thin?"I did not have time to answer. A hush had swept across the lawn
Annalise's POVThe moment my feet touched the arrivals hall of L.A. International, nostalgia hit me so hard that I actually stopped walking.It was the smell first. That particular blend of jet fuel and fresh coffee and warm, recycled air that every airport carries, but this one carried something else underneath, something that belonged only to this city. The same bright signs. The same hurried crowds. The same overhead announcements echoing in two languages. I knew every corner of this place, and every corner knew me, and my chest tightened with a feeling I could not name properly. It was part homesickness and part dread, and a small, stubborn part of it was hesitation, the kind that makes a person want to turn around and climb right back onto the plane.Five years ago, I had walked out of this airport with my luggage in one hand and my stomach in the other, and I had promised myself that I would never return. I had built a whole life on that promise. A boutique, three children, an
Felix’s POVI stood there with the cigarette burning between my fingers, mouth hanging open, completely speechless. It was a speech worthy of a doctor's convention, delivered in a voice that barely cleared the height of my belt. Somewhere inside me, a small, cold fear began to creep in. What kind of child talked like that? What kind of child stayed awake after bedtime to deliver a health lecture to the adult paid to babysit him?Arya swiveled around in her chair, and to my horror, she was smiling at the boy. A sweet, warm, motherly smile I had never once seen on her face. She even clapped her hands."That was wonderful, sweetheart," she cooed. "Where did you learn all that?""I read it in a health magazine," Liam said."You can read?" She gasped dramatically, pressing a hand to her chest."I'm not a baby," Liam replied flatly.Then he turned his attention back to me, and I felt my insides twist. "When are you going to take us to Andrew Hale? We're already in L.A."I let out a nervo
Felix’s POV"He hung up on me!" Arya slammed the phone down on the desk so hard that the pens in the cup beside it jumped. "Can you believe that? He actually hung up on me!"I stared at her, genuinely thrown. In all the years I had known her, nobody had ever hung up on Arya and gotten away with it. People tended to stay on the line out of sheer terror."Wait," I said, scratching the back of my neck. "Are you sure that was really Andrew Hale's private number?"She shot me a look sharp enough to cut glass. "Of course it was. Do you think so little of me? I can get any number in this world if I want it. Presidents, bankers, the Pope, you name it. That was his private line, and he answered it himself."Which only made it stranger. I pulled out the rickety chair across from her and dropped into it, rubbing my jaw while I thought. The room we were in was a cramped little office above a shuttered laundromat, a place Arya used whenever she wanted to be somewhere nobody would think to look. A
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
I only glanced at the device once then went about my morning routine.After I was done, I picked up my phone to find several messages piled up.[Annalise, where are you? Why aren't you answering my calls?][Where did you sleep last night, Annalise?][What is going on between you and Alexander Sterl







