LOGINHelena's POVThere is a dangerous difference between making a mistake and refusing to correct one.I had crossed that line weeks ago.The realization did not come all at once. It arrived quietly, in fragments. A sentence overheard. A file left open for too long. A meeting that had suddenly become invitation-only.And now, standing outside Conference Room Three in the Ministry of Justice building, I realized something far worse than a wrongful prosecution was unfolding. They were no longer interested in finding Marcus Kuntz's killer.They were interested in making sure Dr. Karma Kuntz became one.The heavy wooden door wasn't fully closed, voices drifted into the hallway."...the jury pool needs to see consistency.""The media has already done half the work.""By the time this reaches trial, public opinion will already have convicted her."I remained perfectly still.Years on the bench had taught me that people revealed their worst intentions when they believed they were speaking to all
Karma's POVI couldn't bring myself to tell him.Which begged the question—why was I here?I had driven across the city with one purpose in mind, rehearsing the conversation at every red light, only for every carefully prepared sentence to disappear the moment Noah opened his front door.He stepped aside to let me in with that familiar, quiet smile. "You look exhausted," he said."I feel exhausted.""I can imagine."The apartment looked exactly as it always did. Warm. Honest. Books stacked where they didn't quite belong, the lamp in the corner casting soft amber light across the room, and the unmistakable smell of freshly brewed coffee lingering in the air.Home, his not mine.And somehow, against all logic, it had started feeling safer than my own.He handed me a mug the moment I sat down before sitting across from me."So," he said. "What happened?" I wrapped both hands around the warm cup, buying myself another few seconds.Nothing came, no clever opening, no carefully constructed
Karma's POVThe boardroom on the eighteenth floor smelled faintly of coffee and disinfectant, a scent that somehow managed to feel both expensive and clinical. Twelve leather chairs sat arranged around the long walnut table with almost military precision. Ten of them were occupied. At the far end of the room, Martins stood stiffly beside the podium, papers clutched in both hands like a shield.I knew exactly what this meeting was about.The moment my father's death became public, this meeting became inevitable. Men like the ones sitting around this table could smell weakness the way sharks smelled blood. They had spent years smiling at me during charity galas, congratulating me on expansion projects, praising quarterly reports, and pretending they weren't waiting for the first opportunity to pull me down from the position I had built with my own hands.And now they thought they had found it.What they didn't understand was that I had not survived Marcus Kuntz only to be intimidated by
Karma's POVNoah on his knees?I immediately stopped that thought before it could travel any further because my brain had a very inconvenient habit of taking completely innocent situations and turning them into something that I shouldn't be thinking, but him on his knees doing things to my body should be studiedI still could not stop laughing at the thought.The second surgery had gone faster than expected, and I walked back into my office. Memories of Noah on his knees were still very clear in my mind.A man who was usually so composed that I sometimes wondered if he had been born that way.On my office floor, because of a nonexistent shoelace.The thought alone was enough to make another smile threaten to appear, and I quickly pushed it away, a murder charge is still hanging over my head.I did not have time to sit in my office smiling like a teenager because a man is getting to me more than it should be.Unfortunately, my face clearly did not get the memo.The sharp ring of my offi
Noah's POV I stood in her office alone.I looked at the two empty containers in my hands.I put them in the bin.I looked at her desk and noticed that the file she had been holding was on the edge, slightly crooked. I straightened it. Then I straightened the pen beside it. Finally looking at my palms, I realized what I was doing and stopped."You are now tidying her desk?" I asked myself rhetorically then stepped back.You drove across the city with lasagna at three PM, and now you are tidying her desk like a man who has completely lost his mind.I had completely lost my mind.I picked up her coffee cup — it was cold, been there for hours — and I put it on the tray by the door. Moved a stack of files that had been leaning at a dangerous angle. Found a cap for a pen that had been sitting without one.I was still tidying.I sat down in the patient chair and looked at her desk and thought about the way she had said because they are yours — no, that was what I had said. I had said that.
It started with a phone call I didn't plan to make.Not planned. Not decided. Just somewhere between the chaos that surrounded me I looked up and realized that Noah Adler was the first person I wanted to call when something happened. Good or bad. Big or small.And that is so-o-o terrifying for someone like me.Because I never had a person like this since I was twelve.That night after Helena's call. I had been staring at the ceiling for two hours and my brain refused to stop thinking about the conversation with Helena that happened during the day. I wanted to call Noah.That was the problem.Not Reginald. Not Sandra. Not anyone with a legal standard or a strategy. I wanted to call Noah and say — you will not believe what just happened — the way people said that to their person. The way I had watched other women say it her whole life, from a distance, with a feeling I had never felt nor understood. I picked up my phone and kept it down.Picked it up again.“You are a twenty ei
Chapter 5The police car smelled like stale coffee and leather.Karma sat in the back seat, hands folded in her lap, watching the city pass through the tinted window. Buildings blurred into each other. Traffic lights, people walking in a hurry, an old woman walking a dog almost like she was crawli
Rosa's cleaning supplies fell to the floor and scattered. The spray bottle rolled across the carpet, leaving a trail of blue liquid running through the blood.The sound tore from her chest, echoing everywhere, filling the hallway as the once rowdy, loud and dirty hotel became empty that morning. S
Karma sat back in her booth, lifted her untouched drink, and watched her father drain his fourth glass of whiskey.Mia walked fast.She changed into something tighter—a red dress that barely covered anything. Reapplied her lipstick. Sprayed more perfume. Then catwalked straight to Marcus's table, l
Karma stood up so fast her chair had scraped against the floor. "Nurse," she called, stepping into the hallway. "I need you in here with the patient. Don't leave him alone. Not for any reason, not even if this building was collapsing."The nurse nodded and went inside.Karma walked straight to her







