LOGINMoments later, they were seated opposite each other in the restaurant, a quiet place tucked away from the city's louder corners. The establishment occupied the second floor of an older building, its entrance marked only by a small brass plaque that bore no name, just an elegant symbol etched into the metal.Andrea leaned back slightly in his chair, his shoulders relaxing as he took it all in. His gaze swept across the familiar space."Sarah, have you ever been here?" he asked, smiling, as though sharing a small secret.She shook her head gently, resting both hands on the table before clasping them together. Her fingers interlaced with the kind of precision that came naturally to her. "No," she said plainly, her tone neither apologetic nor particularly curious. "I'm not interested in this type of cuisine."Andrea paused for a second, surprised. The statement had been delivered without pretense, and it caught him off guard.He shifted in his seat, adjusting his posture, then chuckled so
Sarah stood alone in the living room long after Melissa had gone upstairs, the house settling into its usual evening quiet. The envelope from prison lay on the center table, unopened, as though it carried a sound that would erupt the moment she touched it.She had known it was from Tiana the instant she saw the handwriting, even the sender address attached behind it showed her name; sharp, impatient, almost aggressive even in ink.She picked it up finally, slid her finger under the seal, and unfolded the paper.The words hit harder than she expected.Tiana did not waste time with pleasantries or explanations. She accused. She warned. She demanded. Sarah was to stay the hell away from her daughter. Away from anything that concerned Melissa. Away from a life Tiana still believed she had a claim to, even from behind bars.Sarah read the letter once.Then again.Her face did not change, but something tightened quietly inside her chest. She folded the letter carefully, not because it deser
Andrea's new company didn't arrive quietly as most newly established companies did.Within weeks of its launch, his name began circulating in the same circles Sarah had dominated for years—tech panels, innovation forums, closed-door investor dinners where people spoke softly but listened hard.He was no longer introduced as Sarah Williams' former tech specialist. He was introduced as Andrea Moretti, founder and CEO.That distinction mattered.And Sarah noticed.Not with insecurity, but with something close to pride, something she hadn't expected to feel.They met often, though never formally. Sometimes it was a quick call after work that stretched longer than intended.Other times it was coffee that extended into two hours because neither of them was watching the clock.Andrea would talk through product roadmaps, staffing challenges, ethical compromises investors kept nudging him toward. Sarah listened as someone who understood the cost of leadership intimately."You know," Andrea sai
Sarah didn’t look at James when he walked in.If she did, she knew the weight of everything he had broken would rise too fast, too sharp. She stayed still, her posture calm, her face unreadable, her focus entirely on the small girl sitting beside her.She wouldn’t have been here if not for Melissa.That truth sat clearly in her chest.Melissa needed her father now. Not the version the media knew. Not the disgraced man behind headlines and bars. She needed the man whose absence had carved anger into her little hands and confusion into her heart.She stood slightly behind Melissa, her posture straight, her face calm in that way it always became when she had already decided why she was there and how long she intended to stay.This visit was not about closure, forgiveness, or reopening old wounds. It was about a child who was beginning to crack under weight she never asked to carry.James noticed that immediately.He walked toward them slowly, the weight of the room pressing into his shou
The drive home was quiet at first.Not the peaceful kind of quiet; this one sat heavy between them, thick with everything neither of them knew how to say yet.Melissa stared out the window, her forehead resting against the glass, watching buildings slide past like scenes from a life she wasn’t sure belonged to her anymore.Sarah kept both hands on the steering wheel. Her jaw was tight, her mind still replaying the head teacher’s words, the blood on the classroom floor, the way Melissa’s small body had carried so much anger in one single punch.They pulled into the driveway. The gate closed behind them with a soft mechanical hum. Inside the house, the staff had been dismissed early. Sarah wanted space. She always did when emotions got too loud.Melissa dropped her bag by the door and stood there, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. She looked like she wanted to run upstairs. Or disappear.“Melissa,” Sarah said gently. “Come. Sit with me.”They settled on the couch in the li
The letter arrived on a quiet afternoon, slipped between contracts and reports that demanded Sarah's signature.It was thinner than the rest, handwritten, the paper slightly creased as if it had been folded and unfolded too many times before finally being sealed.She noticed the prison stamp immediately.Sarah didn’t open it at once. She already knew who it was from. Some instincts never dull, no matter how much time passes or how far you distance yourself from the source.When she finally did, she read it standing, her back against the edge of her desk, the city stretching endlessly beyond her office window like a landscape from another world entirely.James did not ask for forgiveness. That surprised her.He asked about Melissa.The words were careful, measured, almost timid; so unlike the man she remembered. He wrote that he had been informed his daughter was now living with her. He thanked her. Repeatedly.The gratitude appeared in nearly every paragraph, humble and raw. He said h







