LOGINMaya's POVAlex had been remarkably patient with me lately.Every mood swing, every sudden craving that vanished the moment it arrived, every irrational moment of frustration directed at him for absolutely nothing.... he absorbed all of it with a steadiness I genuinely admired. The delivery date crept closer with each passing week, and I found myself increasingly restless, counting down toward the moment I could finally return to the office, back to decisions and meetings and the familiar chaos of running a company that had become, over the past year, almost a second heartbeat.But something had shifted in him over the last twenty-four hours.He'd gone quiet.Withdrawn in a way I'd learned to recognize, the careful distance he created when something troubled him deeply enough that he didn't yet know how to share it.I asked him directly."I'm alright," he said. "Nothing's wrong."His face told an entirely different story.He'd taken to the pool beside the penthouse, sw
Mason's POV I left my father's house with more than resentment weighing on me. I was running out of money... Most of my usual channels were gone. I couldn't walk into a bank. Couldn't touch anything connected to my name without risking exposure. I sat in the car, running through options, and eventually landed on the one I should have thought of first. The warehouse. I'd kept cash there for years. A contingency fund, hidden among inventory that wouldn't draw attention, exactly the kind of resource I'd built specifically for a situation like this one. I drove carefully. Kept distance from the main road, the practiced caution I'd developed across weeks of evasion, checking mirrors, taking routes that avoided cameras where I could. As I approached, I saw the police vehicles. I stopped immediately.... Pulled into a hidden position off the road, far enough back that I could watch without being seen myself. Officers moved in and out of the warehouse. Others stood near the entra
Mason's POVI went back to my Father with another question.One that had been sitting beneath everything else since the first morning I'd walked into this house.... beneath the Association, beneath the Ducēs and the Servi and the cold confession of my father's involvement in Edwin's death."Why was Maya always so important to you," I said.He looked at me for a moment."She was Edwin's daughter.... Everything that Edwin worked his whole life for," he said. "That's all.""I don't believe that," I said. "You pushed me toward her long before I understood why. Every conversation, every gentle suggestion about who I should be spending time with.... none of it was subtle once I actually think back on it."He was quiet"Maya inherited the company," he said finally. "Everything connected to it. Edwin spent decades building Hargrove Meridian, and even after his death, things remained inside it that were still useful to the Association.""What kind of things," I said."Access,"
Alex's POVThe call came just after ten."Sir," my security chief said. "We found something."I was on my feet before he'd finished the sentence.He met me at the monitoring station, pulling up footage from the cameras positioned outside Maya's office building. A man in a dark jacket, standing across the street, unmoving for nearly twenty minutes early that morning."Same man returned later," my security chief said, advancing the footage. "Stayed near the building for several minutes this time. Didn't approach, didn't leave any message, didn't do anything we could point to directly. Just watched....""Do we know him," I said.He shook his head."Not yet," he said. "Two guards followed him when he left. Lost him in traffic near the fourth intersection."I stared at the frozen frame on the screen.The deliberate stillness of a man who understood exactly how to position himself, exactly how long to remain before someone might grow suspicious of his presence.Pr
Selina's POVLunch hour had become mine.Not officially.... nothing in this place operated through official channels once you understood how it actually functioned. But the yard, the mess hall, the hierarchy that had assembled itself around me across the past several months belonged to me in every way that mattered.My followers moved through the crowd first.Collecting.The quiet tax I'd instituted weeks ago, framed as protection because framing mattered even here, even among people who understood exactly what was actually happening beneath the polite language.Most paid without complaint... Without asking questions. They know never to dare resist The new one didn't.I noticed her from across the mess hall.... young, still carrying the defiant posture of someone who hadn't yet learned how quickly defiance became expensive in a place like this.She pulled her tray back when my girl reached for it...."Pay now or face the consequences," my girl tells her.... B
Mason's POV I couldn't sleep. His voice kept returning... I did what I had to do to earn my place. No hesitation in his tone. No weight in his eyes that suggested regret. Just the flat, composed certainty of someone explaining a decision he'd never once questioned. I went back the next morning. "Why did you kill him," I said. "I thought he was your best friend." He looked at me as though the answer should have been obvious. "Like you betrayed Maya without a second thought and clinged to her bestfriend.... ohh I forgot, you divorced her secretly without her knowing...." I stared furiously at my Dad, his truth tasted bitter in my lips... "Look son, Edwin had evidence," he said. I shook my head. "Buy You could have left him alone," I said. "Warned him. Given him a chance to disappear, to stay silent voluntarily. Anything other than what you actually did." His expression hardened. "Don't talk to me about this morality bullshit, as if you had not done worst..." I looked up, a
Maya’s POVThe coordination suite felt smaller with just the two of us in it. The harbor glittered beyond the glass like it was mocking us both, endless, indifferent, moving on without caring who drowned.Selina didn’t bother with the soft, apologetic mask anymore. The moment Lila’s footsteps faded
Maya’s POVThe alarm screamed at 6:00 a.m. sharp, a shrill, unforgiving sound that drilled straight into my skull“Damn it,” I hissed, slapping the phone silent before it could cycle into its second round. My head throbbed part hangover from too much crying, part exhaustion from staring at the ceil
Maya’s POVI stayed until the last possible minute.Not because there was work left. Because I needed time to rebuild the mask.By the time I stepped into the executive hallway leading to the private parking garage, my heels clicked with deliberate calm. My makeup was fresh, concealer over the red
Maya’s POV“She is two months pregnant.”“I can’t believe it,” Mason’s voice carried through the cracked boardroom door, low and reverent, the way he used to speak to me only in our earliest days before the miscarriages, before the silence grew between us like frost on glass. “Two months?”My fing







