Compartir

Chapter 2

Autor: Allybee24
last update Fecha de publicación: 2026-04-07 08:01:04

It took an entire bottle of bourbon to make me forget what I had done days ago and an entire barrage of messages from Killian to bring me back to reality. I grimaced at my phone screen when another text from him popped up. This was his fifteenth one in three days and even after I blocked him, Killian still found another way to contact me.

It was frustrating to say the least. I wanted Kade to fall for me and yet, I made his twin brother obsessed with me. Great going, Mia.

I read the text this time, not ignoring it like I normally did.

It’s been days Mia. I’m not sure if I did something wrong for you to ignore me so much but I can make it up to you. Come on, let’s have dinner with my family tonight. My treat. I promise to make it worth your while. I sighed and dropped my phone on my desk, my attention being pulled back to the mountain of files I had waiting for me. I needed coffee. I left my office and went down to the cafeteria, hoping that two cups of coffee would be enough to get me through the day when my ears perked up a familiar voice.

“Did you hear the news, Mia? Your little crush is back in New York.”

I turned to see my best friend, Clover Fields, watching me with bright eyes and her signature smile on her face. She poked me with her finger when I didn’t speak and pouted.

“Come on I thought you’d be happy about this.” She mused, watching me pour out a cup of coffee.

“And who might my crush be this time?” I asked, turning my full attention to her.

Clover knew that I loved Kade. Hell, she knew about the mugging five years ago and how I'd spent every day since looking for the man who saved me, and she always found an opportunity to rub it in my face but she also shipped me with every man I called cute in a movie or something. So here I was playing the guessing game with her.

“Who else? Kade Carter is back in New York.”

I choked on my coffee and went wide eyed.

“There’s the reaction I was looking for.” Clover said with a grin and continued. “Well what’s the plan? You always wanted to meet him. How are you going to do it?”

“I’m not sure.” I muttered, still taken aback by Kade being back after so many years.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to meet him unless… Killian’s text came to mind.

Let’s have dinner with my family.

That may be my ticket to see Kade. It was risky going with Killian as a date but if it was to see Kade then it was worth it.

“Mia? Mia!” Clover’s voice called me back to the present. She looked at me with concern and furrowed eyebrows.

“Are you okay? You went mute for some seconds there.”

“I’m fine. I’m better than fine.” I told her as a sly smile formed on my lips and I rushed off.

“But Mia…”

“I’ll talk to you later Clover.” I shouted, leaving her behind and rushing back to my office.

I barely set my coffee on the desk before I grabbed my phone and texted Killian back.

Dinner with your family? Sounds great. Send me the restaurant name and time and I’ll be there.

I hit send and waited, staring at the phone and biting my nails. A minute went by, then two. Just when I thought Killian wasn’t going to respond, a new text message popped up.

Awesome. Don’t bother with driving here. I’ll send a driver to pick you up. Only the best for my princess.

I almost gagged at the nickname but I could accept it if it got me closer to my goal of being with Kade. With a sigh of relief, I sat down and dropped my phone, focusing on my actual work. The thought of Kade was enough to get me revved up and ready for tonight.

•••••

Evening came around fast but I was ready. I stood in front of my mirror for the last time, making sure that I looked good enough to appear before the Carter’s. Sure my goal was Kade but the Carter’s were one of the most influential families in the city. They were billionaires who ran in social circles that I could only dream of getting close to. Regardless of what happened tonight, I needed to make a good impression because if everything went well, I would become their daughter-in-law.

I smoothened out the imaginary crinkle in my black evening halter neck gown before toying with my honey colored curls. I had paired my outfit with my best gold jewelry that made my brown eyes pop. It wouldn’t be much in the Carter family’s eyes but it was something I guess.

Just as I started to fiddle with my purse, I heard the doorbell ring. My ride was here.

I left the house and with the driver’s help, was led to the back seat of the car. Once I got in we were off. It didn’t take long for us to arrive at one of the biggest restaurant’s in the city. The Velvet Fork.

I got down from the car and walked into the building, my eyes immediately colliding with Killian’s. He shot me a grin and approached me, waving the staff who wanted to attend to me. Once he reached me, he silently asked for my hand. I gave it to him and he kissed it.

“You look beautiful.” He flattered me. I smiled back, locking my arm with his as he led me to his table.

We walked to the back of the restaurant, shielded from the rest of the guests by a thin sheet wall for privacy. A pair of blue eyes locked on me and for a second I felt nervous. Eloise and Madden Carter, the heads of the Carter group, eyed me warily for a moment. Eloise's face was a stoic mask, even though a hint of curiosity flickered in her eyes.

“Mum, dad, this is Mia Perez. The woman I told you would be joining us for dinner.” Killian spoke up, pulling a chair open for me.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you both.” I admitted before taking a seat and trying not to turn away from their pointed gazes.

As quickly as I felt ice settle into my veins, it was dispelled when Eloise grinned at me suddenly.

“It’s so nice to meet you Mia. I’ll admit, Killian told us about you only just tonight.”

“Is there any special reason why our son would invite you to a family dinner just after some days of meeting with him?” Madden asked, his eyes far more skeptical of me.

I glanced at Killian, silently asking if he told his parents about our rendezvous when I caught him glaring at his father.

“He doesn’t know but I do keep tabs on women who fraternize with my son.” Madden answered drawing my attention back to him.

“So, what’s the reason?” He asked again.

“Well…”

“Mia and I are dating. She’s my girlfriend.” Killian answered, taking my hand in his. I froze.

“Oh that’s wonderful.” Eloise beamed.

I returned her smile with less enthusiasm and opened my mouth to shut this down. I couldn’t let them think that I was here for the wrong brother. But just as I started, a voice cut me off.

“Who’s dating Killian?”

Continúa leyendo este libro gratis
Escanea el código para descargar la App

Último capítulo

  • FORGOTTEN IDENTITY   Chapter 132

    Spring came back to the garden in April, the way it always did, with the particular, unhurried confidence of something that had been here before and intended to be here again and had no interest in making anything of it beyond simply arriving.Killian was in the beds at seven on a Saturday morning, the specific, early quality of someone who had been waiting for the season to turn sufficiently that there was real work to be done, and who had been watching the garden through the winter with the patient, attentive love of someone for whom absence was not absence but simply the part of the cycle that made the return possible.Eli was with him, as he always was on Saturday mornings, notebook in hand, the longitudinal study now in its ninth year, the emergence data building into something that Dr. Marchetti had described, in their most recent exchange, as potentially the most comprehensive amateur phenological record in the country for this specific garden ecosystem.He was eleven now, and

  • FORGOTTEN IDENTITY   Chapter 131

    Eloise died in January, on a Tuesday morning, quietly and in her own house, which was what she had wanted and what had been possible, which was the specific, particular grace of an ending that matched the life it concluded.Killian called me from her house at half past nine, and the quality of his voice when he said my name was the specific, contained quality he had when he was holding something enormous and choosing how to hold it rather than whether to."She's gone," he said.I sat down, because the information required sitting down for."How?" I asked."The carer found her this morning," he said. "The cardiologist said it would have been peaceful. In her sleep." A pause, the particular quality of someone choosing their next words because they mattered. "She was in the chair by the window. The one she always sat in when she was reading. She had a book in her lap."I held that image for a moment, Eloise in her chair by the window with a book in her lap, having simply moved from readi

  • FORGOTTEN IDENTITY   Chapter 130

    Eloise's last Sunday dinner at our house happened in November, though none of us knew at the time that it was the last one, which was perhaps the most honest thing about it.She arrived with the carer, a practical arrangement that she'd accepted with the graceful, unsentimental pragmatism that characterised her approach to all the adjustments the autumn had required, and sat at the head of the kitchen table in the configuration that was simply how this family occupied this room, and was present in the specific, entirely herself way she'd been present for fifteen years of Sunday dinners.She was thinner. Her hands, when she reached for her glass, had the particular, fine quality of hands that had given what they had to give and were now simply resting in the time that remained. But her eyes were entirely her own, clear and direct and warm, and her attention was as complete as it had ever been.Hope sat beside her, which had become their configuration in the months since Hope's solo vis

  • FORGOTTEN IDENTITY   Chapter 129

    The change in Eloise came in September, gradually at first and then with the particular, undeniable quality of something that had been accumulating beyond the visible for some time and had reached the point where it could no longer be contained within the ordinary rhythms of a Sunday dinner and a phone call.She was tired in a way that was different from the ordinary tiredness of age, the specific, bone-deep quality of a body that was doing less than it had and requiring more than it had needed before. The cardiologist was clear and honest, which was the quality we'd come to expect and appreciate from her, that the heart was managing but that managing was increasingly what it was doing, rather than simply functioning.We had a conversation, all of us, the kind that required the full honesty of people who had spent years learning to have exactly this kind of conversation and who brought to it the specific, hard-won skill of not managing their way around the difficult truth in the centr

  • FORGOTTEN IDENTITY   Chapter 128

    Hope's GCSE results arrived in August, on a Thursday morning that began like any other Thursday morning in the household and then, at precisely eight-thirty when the results portal opened, became something else.She had taken eleven subjects and the results were released simultaneously, which meant that the specific quality of the morning was the particular, suspended stillness of waiting for a comprehensive accounting rather than a single outcome.She sat at the kitchen table with her laptop, the three of us arranged around her with the deliberate casualness of people trying not to communicate the level of attention they were actually paying, and opened the results with the composed, methodical quality that was simply how she engaged with things she'd worked toward.She read them. All eleven, in the order they appeared on the screen, with the focused, absorbing attention of someone making sure they'd understood what they were seeing before forming a response.Then she set the laptop

  • FORGOTTEN IDENTITY   Chapter 127

    The second book was finished in December, on a Tuesday afternoon when both children were at school and the house had the particular, quiet quality of winter daylight that made the kitchen feel like the only warm place in the world.I wrote the last paragraph at the kitchen table, in the same notebook Killian had given me years ago, now full enough that the pages at the back had the specific, compressed quality of a document that had held a great deal, and I sat with it for a while after I'd finished, the way you sat with something that had required a long time and a great deal of honesty to complete and that you were not quite ready to release from your immediate attention into the world.The second book was different from the first in every way that mattered. The first had been, essentially, autobiography, the honest account of a practice I'd lived and the understanding that practice had produced. The second was something harder, the attempt to write accurately about experiences I ha

  • FORGOTTEN IDENTITY   Chapter 1

    The room was quiet except for the sound of our uneven breathing. My mind and body drained from the wave of pleasure and ecstasy I had just come down from. I knew that Kade Carter was an amazing man but I had no idea that he was an amazing lover as well."God, you're amazing." The man of my dreams m

  • FORGOTTEN IDENTITY   Chapter 5

    My coffee burned hot as I sat in my seat. The Carter twins had bought my company off the previous day and I had immediately clocked out of work early.Pretending to be sick was easier than staying.I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t have screamed if I had stayed.My desk was full of the unfinished documents

  • FORGOTTEN IDENTITY   Chapter 4

    I woke up the next morning to my head splitting in two from a migraine. I groaned and pushed myself off the bed, dreading the work day ahead of me already. After that dinner with Killian and Kade, well, the train wreck I barely survived, I had headed home and forced myself to go to bed. Unfortunate

  • FORGOTTEN IDENTITY   Chapter 3

    "Who's dating Killian?"I knew who spoke before I saw his face. That voice was unmistakable. I pulled away from Killian and turned to come face to face with Kade. His gray eyes landed on me and he made a face, like he had seen me somewhere before but couldn't quite place his finger on it.I stayed

Más capítulos
Explora y lee buenas novelas gratis
Acceso gratuito a una gran cantidad de buenas novelas en la app GoodNovel. Descarga los libros que te gusten y léelos donde y cuando quieras.
Lee libros gratis en la app
ESCANEA EL CÓDIGO PARA LEER EN LA APP
DMCA.com Protection Status