LOGINEliora's POVI pushed through the heavy ICU doors, my heart still hammering against my ribs from the confrontation with Elijah. My mind was a mess of frozen bank accounts and betrayal, but the second I reached room 312, the world outside simply ceased to exist.Ezra was laughing.The sight through the glass window stopped me in my tracks.The white light of the room felt different today, warmer, somehow. Ezra was sitting up, propped against a mountain of pillows, his color a vibrant pink that I hadn't seen in weeks. And there, sitting on the edge of the narrow hospital bed, was Kian. He was still in a thin hospital gown, a dark cardigan thrown over his shoulders, looking slightly pale but more alive than I had seen him in years.They were playing with a set of plastic dinosaurs."And then the T-Rex goes... roar!" Kian’s voice was a low, melodic rumble I hadn't heard in ages. He leaned in, bumping his forehead gently against Ezra’s.Ezra let out a high-pitched, infectious giggle, his
Eliora's POV "What is the meaning of this, Elijah? How dare you steal from me?"The heavy oak door to his office slammed against the wall with a crack that sounded like a gunshot. I didn't wait for him to look up. I marched to his desk and hurled the bank statements, the proof of my financial execution, directly at his face. The papers fluttered like dying white birds, scattering across his polished glass desk and the expensive Persian rug.Elijah didn't flinch. He sat there, perfectly composed in his slate-gray suit, watching a single sheet of paper drift onto his lap."Eliora," he said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "You should have called. I would have sent a car for you.""A car? With what money, Elijah?" I leaned over the desk, my hands trembling as I pressed them into the glass. "The bank manager told me. It wasn't my mother. It wasn't a random person. It was you?” It sounded more like a question than a statement.“You’re the one who flagged my accounts for suspicious activity.
Eliora's POV “If you don’t let him go, Eliora, I will make sure there isn't a single bookstore in this city that will carry your name on its shelves.”The voice cut through the quiet of my office like a jagged blade. I didn't even have to look up from my laptop to know who it was. The scent of cloying, expensive lilies, the kind that always made my throat itch, hit me first.It had been forty-eight hours since the surgery. Ezra was finally awake, his color returning, but Kian… Kian was still under. The doctors said it was normal, just deep exhaustion and a reaction to the anesthesia, but the silence from his room was eating me alive.I kept my eyes on the screen, my fingers hovering over the keys. "It’s 9:00 AM, Mia. Don't you have a social ladder to climb or a soul to sell?" My hands kept typing."Don't get smart with her!"That was Tonia. I finally looked up. They were a matching set of venom, Mia in a blood-red power suit and Tonia draped in enough Donovan diamonds to blind a pers
Eliora's POV “You might not want to hear this but I think he still likes you, Eliora.” Zoey whispered, leaning in close, her breath warm against my ear in the freezing hallway. “Come to think of it, you guys never got the closure that you needed. You know Kian just–”“Can we not?” I rubbed my temples, the skin there feeling paper-thin and raw. “My son is in surgery. My ex-husband is being used as a human pincushion. I can’t deal with Julian’s feelings right now.” I whispered-yelled at her, my voice cracking under the weight of the overhead lights.“You’re going to have to deal with them eventually,” Zoey said, her tone softening as she grabbed my hand. Her palm was the only warm thing in this entire building. “Especially now that Kian knows the truth. The storm is just starting, honey.”“I know,” I sighed, looking back at the red ICU light. It felt like an unblinking eye, judging me. “I know.”"Do you think Kian will ever forgive me?" I asked, the question slipping out before I could
Eliora's POVI blew a hot breath into my palms for the umpteenth time, the friction doing nothing to stave off the biting chill of the hospital’s industrial air conditioning. The hallway felt endless, a tunnel of sterile white and flickering fluorescent lights that hummed a low, mocking tune. Every few seconds, my heels clicked against the linoleum as I paced, a restless, jagged rhythm that echoed my racing heart.How did I get here? One moment I was in a back office, drowning in the scent of cedar and the heat of a man I had spent three years trying to forget. Now, I was pacing a floor that smelled of sickness and bleach, waiting for news on the two most important men in my life.*Wait, did I just say the two most important men?* My brain felt like it was short-circuiting. Kian wasn't supposed to be on that list. He was a ghost, a regret, a mistake. Keep telling yourself that Eliora. But as the thought of him lying on a surgical table down the hall, donating a part of his own bo
Kian's POV "Where is he?"My voice didn't even sound like mine. It was a jagged, hollow sound that tore through the sterile quiet of the pediatric wing. The nurses gave me a weird look but I didn't care. I didn't wait for an answer from the nurse at the station. I was moving on instinct, my expensive Italian shoes skidding on the polished linoleum making a squeaky noise that made me sick to my stomach.My eyes caught them at the end of the hall. Zoey, Drew and Margaret… People who knew more about my life than I did.Drew stood like a sentinel, his jaw tight, his eyes avoiding mine the second they made contact. Beside him was Zoey, her face streaked with tears and a look of pure, unadulterated loathing directed straight at me. And Margaret, the woman I’d seen in the background of Eliora’s life for years, my son's nanny, was sitting on a plastic chair, her head in her hands."Kian," Drew said, stepping forward to block my path."Don't," I rasped, pointing a finger at his chest. "Don't







