LOGINChapter 245: Olive's POVThe tears were running down her face now."That was the kind of brother I had.""Olive, I—""Zane didn't kill Klaus, Mom. Zane was put in an impossible situation by people who wanted to hurt him, and he made the choice Klaus would have wanted him to make. And then he carried that choice alone for eleven years because he didn't think any of us would understand.""I—""He is family. To me. He has been family for a long time, even before I knew the truth. He kept his promise to my brother for eleven years. He took care of Dad even when Dad didn't deserve it. He has done more to honor Klaus's memory than any of the rest of us have."I squeezed her hand."I'm going to him, Mom. Tonight. I'm going to see him, and I'm going to fight for him, and I'm going to find out if there is anything left of us to save. And I would really, really love it if you could give me your blessing instead of trying to talk me out of it."She was crying now. Real tears. The kind of tears t
Chapter 244: Olive's POVI spent two hours getting ready.That was probably embarrassing. Two hours of trying on dresses I didn't end up wearing, doing my hair in styles I ended up changing, putting on and taking off three different shades of lipstick before settling on the one that didn't make me look like I was trying too hard.I had no idea which way it was going to go.I had a feeling I should have made peace with that uncertainty before I left the house, but I hadn't, and I wasn't going to, because making peace with uncertainty had never been one of my strengths.I applied more makeup than necessary.I sprayed on more perfume than I should have.I stared at myself in the mirror and tried to remember what I usually looked like when Zane saw me, tried to find some balance between trying too hard and not trying hard enough, and failed at both.This was ridiculous.I was going to see a man who had been ignoring my calls for two weeks. I should not have been dressing up for him. I sho
Chapter 243: Olive's POVA familiar voice. Calm and steady, the way it had been for as long as I'd known him. The way it had been the night he'd called me and told me to come stop Zane before he did something he couldn't take back."Hello, Olive."Nikolai.I closed my eyes for a second. I had been hoping for Zane, and instead I had gotten his father, and somehow that felt like a kind of consolation prize that I shouldn't have been grateful for but absolutely was.Because Nikolai was the closest thing I had to a connection to Zane right now.And right now, I would take whatever connection I could get."Hi," I said quietly. "It's good to hear from you.""I imagine you've been worried.""I have.""I figured."He let the silence stretch for a moment."How are you holding up?" he asked."I'm fine," I lied. "Honestly. I'm fine. Just trying to settle back into normal life. My mother is out of the hospital. She's doing better. Brenda is staying close to her. We're all just—we're all just tryi
Chapter 242: Olive's POV"You could call him, you know?"Hunter was staring at me across the breakfast table with that look he got whenever he caught me drifting off into space. Eyebrows raised. Fork suspended halfway to his mouth. That mix of concern and judgment that only step-brothers could pull off without it being insulting."I tried," I said, sighing. "He's not picking up any of my calls."It had been two weeks.Two weeks of finding out the truth about my brother's death. Two weeks since the night I had walked into Williams's dining room and heard things I would never be able to unhear. Two weeks since Zane had walked past me without a word and driven away into the dark. Two weeks of trying to reach him through every channel I knew, only to be met with voicemails and silence and the terrible understanding that he was either ignoring me or had decided to disappear entirely.A lot had happened in those two weeks.My mother had been hospitalized the day after the warehouse. Stress,
Chapter 241: Zane's POVHis eyes were the eyes of a man who had been holding something in for so long that he'd almost forgotten what it felt like to let it out and standing beside him was Olive.I wasn’t expecting her to be here, and I didn’t know how long she had been here, and her face showed so many emptions and one which I hated so badly.Pity.And I had to turn my head aside to look at Nikolai who looked distressed."What are you doing here?" I asked."I came when you didn't answer my last call. I needed to see you and stop you from causing any problems.""Nikolai—""Zane."He took a step into the room.Then another.He stopped about three feet away from me. Close enough that I could see the fine lines around his eyes, the small scar on his jaw that I'd asked him about once and he'd told me he didn't remember how he'd gotten."Williams isn't going to tell you the rest," Nikolai said. "Because he doesn't think it's his place. And he's right. It's not.""Then whose place is it?""
Chapter 240: Zane's POV"Because you're not my son."The words landed quiet. Final. Like a door closing on something I hadn't realized was still open.I stopped breathing.I stood there in the middle of his dining room with my hands at my sides and my heart trying to beat its way out of my chest, and I waited for him to take it back, to laugh, to tell me he was being cruel just for the sake of it.He didn't."What?""You heard me, Zane.""Say it again.""You're not my son. You've never been my son. And I've spent twenty-eight years trying to make peace with that, and tonight, I'm done trying."I heard a sound that came out like a choke, it was Sophia crying.I could hear her even though I wasn't looking at her, the small choked sounds of her trying to keep it together and failing. Antonio had gone completely still in his chair, the wine glass abandoned in front of him, his eyes locked on Williams like he was waiting for the punchline that wasn't going to come.Cole was watching me. Hi
Chapter 41: OLIVE's POV"Stock's been climbing like crazy and I don't know, this whole board meeting thing involves us somehow."Brenda was speed-walking down the hallway, iPad bouncing against her chest, heels clicking against the polished floor. I followed behind, trying to match her pace while m
Chapter 42: Olive's POV"What?"I was still standing in the hallway, phone pressed to my ear, the world tilting sideways."You need to come here, Olive." Annie's voice was tight, urgent. "He really needs to see you.""How bad is it?" My hands were shaking. Actually shaking."I can't really explain
Chapter 44: Olive's POVHow do you describe the look on someone's face when their entire world is about to collapse?Because that's what I saw on Walter's face the second Zane's car pulled into the driveway."God. Fuck. He's here." My father's voice cracked, and suddenly he was clawing at the banda
Chapter 35: Olive's POVThe call came twenty minutes after I left Grayson's office.I was still standing on the sidewalk like an idiot, people rushing past me with their coffee cups and briefcases, living their normal lives while mine was actively imploding. My phone buzzed in my hand and I almost







