LOGINFelix’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
Courtney wiped her tears with the back of her hand so fast that I almost missed it, and by the time she turned toward my mother, her face had rearranged itself into something soft and shy. Her cheeks even held a little color, the way a bride's should."It's nothing, Mom," she said, with a small, embarrassed laugh. "We were only talking."She lowered her lashes and let a blush bloom across her face, and I stood there and watched the performance with a kind of numb fascination. She was good at it. Better than good. A stranger walking in would have believed every second.My mother looked from her to me, and then something in her expression shifted, as if she had stumbled into a moment that was not meant for her eyes. A pleased little chuckle escaped her."Oh, I see," she said, waving a hand. "I'm sorry for interrupting. Don't mind me. You two will have plenty of time for this after the wedding." She stepped forward and looped her arm through Courtney's. "Come, dear. Come downstairs with
The Meridian Diagnostic Imaging Suite occupied the entire basement level of the hospital, and it felt exactly the way my mood did. Cold, pale, and swallowed by silence. The walls were a washed-out gray that no amount of fluorescent lighting could warm, and the air carried that sterile, metallic scent that clings to every hospital corridor no matter how expensive the building. A nurse in light blue scrubs walked ahead of me, her rubber soles squeaking against the polished floor, and I followed her without really seeing anything around me. A clock ticked somewhere behind a closed door. Somewhere farther down the hall, a child was crying, and the sound traveled through the empty corridor like something lost."Please change into the gown, Mr. Hale," she said, handing me a folded bundle of thin blue fabric. "The technician will call you in shortly."The whole-body scanner stood in the center of the examination room like a monument to everything I had been avoiding. It was a massive white
Annalise's POVI opened my mouth, then closed it again. I had no answer. I did not even have the energy to chase the question down to its root. My mind simply refused to carry one more thing.I let the phone slip from my fingers. It landed on the cushion with a dull thud, and I stood up quietly, my legs moving before my thoughts could catch up, and I headed toward my bedroom.But I never made it that far.I passed the kids' room first and my feet stopped on their own. The door was half open, a thin strip of light from the hallway falling across the floor, and for a moment I only stood there with my hand against the frame. Then, without deciding to, I pushed the door wider and walked inside.The room still smelled like them. Like baby shampoo and crayons and the faint sweetness of the strawberry lotion they fought over every night.It was a large room, and I had arranged it so that each of them would have a corner of their own, though in the end each corner had arranged itself.Liam's
Annalise's POVThe school bus driver was shaking so badly that I could see it even through the glass partition. His voice came out thin and cracked through the speaker, and every few words he stopped to swallow."I swear I had no hand in this," he pleaded, his eyes darting between the investigator and the wall. "I didn't know anything about it, sir. I know the triplets, yes. I drive them every morning. But we never talked beyond hello and goodbye. I'm telling you the truth."The investigator did not look convinced. He leaned back, studied the man for a long moment, then turned to the man seated beside him and ordered him to speak up.The bus driver's brother cleared his throat. He was a heavy man with restless hands, and he kept rubbing his palms against his knees as though he could wipe the question off them."The kids came to me," he finally admitted. "Last week. They asked if I could take them to L.A. But I swear I didn't agree. I told them to go home. I never agreed to anything."H
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







