LOGINLena gasped, scrambling backward. Her chair screeched loudly against the floor.Her hands shook violently as she touched her face and her neck them stared at the dark stain spreading across her clothes. For one terrifying second, she braced for burning pain.Ricardo was beside her in an instant."Lena!"He pulled her gently into his arms, his eyes wide with panic as he frantically examined her."Are you burned? Tell me — are you hurt?""N-No..." Lena stammered, her breathing ragged. "I... I don’t think so."His trembling hands brushed over the soaked fabric, checking her shoulders and arms before he released a shaky breath of relief."It isn’t hot enough," he whispered. "Thank God."Rosa rushed over, tears streaming down her face. "Oh, my goodness..."She grabbed a clean napkin and carefully dabbed at the coffee staining Lena’s blouse."Does it hurt? Please tell me if it hurts."Lena slowly shook her head. "It... it just scared me."Rosa cupped her face with tender, motherly hands. "T
Rosa sat perfectly still, silent tears rolling down her cheeks as she prayed for peace. With every venomous word, her heart shattered a little more.She had known this moment would come, yet the raw pain in the girls’ voices cut far deeper than she had anticipated. First Andres had stormed out of the kitchen without a word. Now the girls looked devastated — disappointed in their father and betrayed by the woman they had come to see as a mother figure.The family that had seemed so solid only minutes ago now stood on the edge of fracture. The breakfast lay cold and forgotten on the table between them."Your mother died from blood cancer," Ricardo said firmly. "Rosa would never hurt her. Do not make such accusations again."Gianna, the most composed of the three, though still visibly shaken, turned to Lena. "So let me guess — she’ll be your heiress now? Does Andres know about this?" Her voice trembled as she fought back tears.Lena kept her eyes lowered, tears slipping silently down her
Ricardo carefully placed his napkin on his lap, taking his time as though gathering courage. The entire room seemed to hold its breath. "Because she belongs at this table." A heavy silence descended, thick enough to choke on. Seraphina frowned. "What do you mean she belongs at this table? I don’t understand." "And I think it’s time you did." Ricardo looked slowly around the table, meeting each of his daughters’ eyes with a mixture of love and profound sadness. He reached beneath the table and squeezed Lena’s hand tightly, offering what little comfort he could. Lena’s heart hammered violently against her ribs. She could feel the weight of the coming storm. "Lena…" Ricardo began, his voice softening with such tender, open affection that it immediately captured everyone’s attention. "…isn’t just our chef. And she is not Andres’ partner because…" Seraphina frowned, impatience flashing across her face. "Because *what*, Father?" Ricardo drew in a slow, steadying breath. "Because
When Lord Ricardo entered the family dining hall, his three daughters—Seraphina, Gianna, and Keisha—greeted him with their usual affection, pressing soft kisses to his cheeks.But they quickly sensed something was wrong. His shoulders sagged under an invisible weight, and his smile looked strained, barely reaching his eyes.“Have you seen Andres, Dad?” Keisha asked, sliding into her seat. “He wasn’t at his post this morning. I wanted to go somewhere with him.”“Give him a break,” Seraphina replied, unfolding her napkin with an exaggerated eye roll. “He’s not your personal assistant. He has actual work to do now that Tarzan is gone.”“Well, I wasn’t talking to you,” Keisha shot back.“Can you two shut it?” Gianna interjected, her tone sharp. “Father doesn’t look happy, and you’re both too busy bickering to notice.”The sisters turned toward their father in surprise. Lord Ricardo sat at the head of the table, staring at nothing in particular, his jaw clenched tight. After a long moment,
“Patricia was my closest friend, she was a Chef too,” Rosa said, her voice thick with emotion. “And also a young widow who had her womb removed due to an illness . She begged me to let her raise you instead of… instead of the abortion I once considered. When I handed you to her, I always visited you two. I gave her every penny I earned. I nursed you. I held you. And I cried every time I had to leave her house.” Rosa’s face crumpled. “Soon, Patricia became afraid I would take you back. She ran away with you, and I couldn’t find her. I tried everything… but I failed.” A broken sob tore from Rosa’s throat. “For thirty years, I lived in regret. Every single day I wondered where you were, if you were safe, if you were loved. When I saw you again as an adult… I knew. The blood sample that was collected on your first day for safety sake—I secretly ran a maternity test with it. It confirmed what my heart already knew.” Lena’s face was drenched in tears as she watched her Rosa cry
Silence crashed over the kitchen like a heavy curtain falling on the final act of a tragedy.The only sound that remained was Christy’s quiet, broken sobbing. Ricardo stood frozen near the counter, every muscle in his body pulled taut as a wire. Rosa’s face had drained of all color, her hands clasped so tightly in front of her that her knuckles gleamed white. No one dared answer Lena’s question. Lena’s breathing grew shallow and ragged with hot tears running relentlessly down her cheeks. “So…” she whispered again, her voice cracking like thin ice underfoot. “It’s true.” She lifted her shattered gaze to Rosa. “You… you’re my mother?” Rosa opened her mouth, but no sound emerged. Her lips trembled. “Lena…” she finally breathed. “No!” Lena cried, stumbling backward until her back met the edge of the table. “Don’t say my name like that—like everything is normal. Don’t.” She turned to Ricardo, lips quivering, eyes wide with disbelief and betrayal. “And you…” Her voice fractured.
I looked up to ask her name and where her parents were — but the little girl in the yellow raincoat was already running down the sidewalk, braids bouncing. “Wait!” I called. She didn't look back. I stared back at the note in my hand, then at the rose. That was strange. I read the note agai
The walk to the café was supposed to take thirty-five minutes. I had been doing it for months now—every morning, to help with my weight loss journey. But this morning, I wasn’t thinking about any of that. All I had in my head was Mitch’s voice. "Let’s open our marriage."My feet moved on thei
MITCH'S POVI closed the bathroom door behind me and let out a long breath, finally free from her tear-stained face and those pathetic, hopeful eyes.That went about as well as I expected.Lena really is something.Always crying. It doesn't matter if she's happy, sad, or confused. Tears are her def
“We will close it when you get back in shape. What do you think?”He said it with a smile, which only confused me more.The words didn’t make sense at first. They floated in the air around me like smoke.“What do you mean by ‘open our marriage’? Our marriage wasn’t a secret, Mitch,” I whispered, ge







