ログインMaya POVThe mansion looked different at night not because the building itself changed but because families reveal themselves in small ways after dark. Lights stayed on longer in certain rooms. Curtains remained partly open upstairs. Shadows moved across windows in familiar patterns that slowly stopped feeling random the longer you watched.I had been parked across the street for almost two hours.The black SUV I rented smelled faintly like leather cleaner and old cigarettes and the coffee beside me turned cold nearly forty minutes ago but I barely noticed anymore. My attention stayed fixed on the Carter estate sitting beyond iron gates and security cameras and guards who still had no idea I was there.Rain fell softly over Los Angeles that evening turning the windows of the mansion gold beneath reflected streetlights. Most people would probably call the place beautiful.I only saw Lena she was standing at those windows and Lena was carrying Ethan’s children and she live inside the li
Ethan POVThe first time I walked back into Carter Enterprises after seven months of being declared dead the entire building went silent.At first it happened floor by floor as people noticed security moving differently near the entrance and assistants suddenly standing from their desks with expressions that looked somewhere between confusion and shock and then whispers started spreading ahead of us faster than the elevator climbed.By the time the doors opened on the executive floor nobody pretended to work anymore every single person stared and I understood why.Seven months ago they buried me and now I stood in the middle of the hallway beside my pregnant wife wearing a dark suit Daniel bought three hours earlier because apparently disappearing internationally and returning from the dead did not excuse missing board meetings.The thought almost made me laugh.Lena’s hand rested lightly against my arm while we walked and every few seconds I caught people looking toward her with some
Maya POVThe first time I saw Ethan on television after losing him, I was hiding in a motel room outside Florence with the curtains closed and three different phones spread across the bed beside me.Rain tapped steadily against the window while the television played low in the background mostly ignored while I tried deciding which passport would get me furthest before authorities locked airports down completely. The room smelled faintly of cigarette smoke even though I specifically asked for non-smoking and the floral wallpaper peeling near the bathroom door irritated me more every time I looked at it.I hated places like this places built for people running from something. The news anchor’s voice sharpened suddenly and I looked up automatically when Ethan’s face appeared across the screen.Everything inside me stopped.My body simply forgot movement for a second because there he was stepping out of a black vehicle in Los Angeles while reporters shouted questions from every direction.
Lena's POVWaking felt wrong not painful exactly but heavy as though my body knew something my mind had not caught up to yet and decided staying asleep would be safer. My cheeks felt damp and for several seconds I lay still trying to understand why. Pregnancy made sleep strange lately. Some mornings I woke convinced I heard Ethan moving around downstairs or opening the wardrobe beside our bed and grief had become cruel enough over the months that I stopped trusting the first few moments after opening my eyes.Then I heard Eli with soft uneven sound he made while sleeping against someone and my eyes opened immediately the room stayed dim despite daylight. Curtains mostly closed and my first instinct was panic because Eli rarely slept away from me unless exhausted.I turned my head.Daniel sat near the bedroom window with Eli curled against his chest. My son looked impossibly small from here one fist still wrapped stubbornly around Daniel’s shirt while his curls fell over his forehead.
Lena's PovPregnancy made evenings feel longer.By the time the sun disappeared I usually reached a point where my back ached, my ankles felt swollen and the baby seemed determined to remind me every hour that she existed. I had stopped fighting the exhaustion weeks ago. Some nights I worked late in Ethan’s office after putting Eli to sleep because the quiet helped and other nights I stayed close to the nursery folding tiny clothes that did not need folding simply because keeping my hands busy was easier than thinking.That evening sat somewhere between ordinary and heavy.Eli had refused his afternoon nap and became clingy afterward and following me from room to room with sleepy eyes while carrying one of Ethan’s old photographs in a plastic frame my father replaced twice already because Eli kept dropping it.I found him near the living room rug talking softly to the picture not real words but baby sounds. His small finger tapped Ethan’s face. “Da.”The sound stopped me halfway towa
Ethan's POVDaniel had taken me to a safe house nearly an hour outside Lake Como while we waited for the private jet to arrive. I still did not remember much and the missing pieces frustrated me more now because every answer created ten new questions but I remembered enough to know Lena was my wife and enough to know we had a son named Eli and another baby on the way. My daughter or at least I thought it was one daughter.The articles only said pregnancy everything else I learned through photographs and strangers and the realization still sat badly inside me because fathers are supposed to know these things.I stood near the window of the small house Daniel rented under a fake name while rain moved steadily over the trees outside. The place looked temporary it has bare furniture and one suitcase near the door and bottle of whiskey untouched on the counter.Daniel sat at the kitchen table with two phones and a laptop open in front of him while speaking quietly to somebody. "No, do not
Lena’s POVI haven’t slept properly since that message came in.Every time I close my eyes, my body jerks awake like it forgot something important, like I left the stove on or the door unlocked or my whole life sitting wide open for someone to walk in and take.My phone is on the nightstand, screen
Lena’s POVThe clinic smelled like disinfectant and cheap coffee and for some reason that combination makes my stomach roll before I even sit down.Keenan notices right away. "Are you okay,” he asks, lowering his voice even though no one in the waiting room is paying us any attention. “You went kin
Ethan’s POVThe thing about bad news is it rarely shows up dressed like bad news most of the time it walks in wearing a suit, carrying a folder and smiling like it belongs there.I’m halfway through my second coffee when the email comes in. It wasn't marked urgent or flagged, just another update bu
Ryan’s POVI don’t meet Donavan in his office because I don’t want glass walls and assistants pretending not to hear things. I don’t want suits and fake smiles and polite voices. I want somewhere loud, somewhere rough, somewhere no one gives a damn if two men sound like they’re about to tear into e







