LOGINDAMON'S POV My head was killing me again. Not the normal ache from the surgery, this was different. Like someone was inside my skull with a crowbar, trying to pry memories loose that didn’t want to come out. I’d been sitting on the couch for the last hour, eyes closed, trying to force it. Trying to remember. Nothing. Just fragments and pieces that didn’t fit together. I saw Sophia’s face, clear as day. She was smiling at me, but it felt wrong. Then the image shifted and she was crying. Then she was yelling, then she was gone. I couldn’t tell if these were real memories or my brain making shit up. I pressed my fingers to my temples and tried harder. “Damon?” Eve’s voice pulled me out of it, she was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, one hand on her belly, looking worried. “You okay? You’ve been sitting there like a statue for twenty minutes.” I opened my eyes. The room tilted for a second before settling. “Yeah. Just… trying to remember.” She walked over and sat on the
EVE'S POV I was still sitting on the couch when my phone buzzed. Jessica. Jessica: You home? I heard Sophia showed up. You okay? Me: Yeah. I’m home, Sophia came, tried to start shit with Damon, I kicked her out. I’m fine. She replied almost instantly. Jessica: I’m coming over, don’t argue. I’m already in the Uber. I didn’t argue. I needed someone to talk to who actually knew the full story. Damon was asleep in the master bedroom. The doctor had him on some new pain meds that knocked him out for a couple hours in the afternoon, which was good. He needed the rest. And I needed to breathe without him looking at me like I was the answer to everything. I got up, made myself a cup of ginger tea, and waited. Twenty minutes later the intercom buzzed. I let Jessica up. She walked in wearing jeans, a hoodie, and that worried best-friend face I’d seen too many times in the last year. She hugged me the second the door closed. “You look like hell,” she said. “Thanks. I feel like it too.
EVE'S POV I was in the kitchen making tea when the doorbell rang. Damon was on the couch, half-asleep with a book on his chest. The doctor said he still needed lots of rest, so I told him not to move. “I’ll get it,” I said. I wiped my hands on a towel and walked to the door. When I opened it, my stomach dropped. Sophia. My sister stood there in tight jeans and a leather jacket, looking like she owned the place. Her eyes flicked past me straight into the apartment like she was checking if Damon was home. “What are you doing here?” I asked, keeping my voice low. She smiled, but it wasn’t friendly. “I heard my favorite brother-in-law got out of the hospital. Thought I’d come check on him.” “You’re not welcome here, Sophia.” She laughed, short and sharp. “Come on, Eve. We’re family. And Damon and I have lots of history. He’d want to see me.” Before I could stop her, she pushed past me and walked straight into the living room. Damon sat up slowly when he saw her. “Sophia?” “He
EVE Saturday afternoon came too fast. I’d spent the morning trying to tidy the penthouse even though the doctor had ordered strict bed rest. Damon helped, moving slow, straightening pillows and clearing the pill bottles off the coffee table. We kept circling each other like polite strangers. “You should be resting,” he said when he caught me organizing the kitchen. “So should you.” “I’m fine.” “You had brain surgery a week ago. You’re not fine.” “Neither are you. The doctor said bed rest, Eve. That means in bed.” “I can’t just lie there while your parents are coming over. The place needs to look decent...” “My parents don’t care what the place looks like. They’re here to check on us, not do a home inspection.” He took the dish towel from my hands and steered me toward the couch. “Sit. I’ll finish.” “Damon...” “Please. Let me help. It’s one of the few things I can actually do right now.” I sat down. He was right. I was supposed to be resting, keeping stress low, taking ca
EVE'S POV I lay in the guest bedroom staring at the ceiling, listening to Damon moving around in the master bedroom. The penthouse was quiet except for the fridge humming and the faint city noise outside. Inside my head, though? Total chaos. I’d just told him we were separated. I watched his face as he tried to wrap his head around it...his pregnant wife sleeping in the guest room, us under the same roof but not really together. I’d lied. Not completely. We had been separated. That part was true. But I left out the divorce, Sophia, the stairs, everything that actually mattered. The doctor said big stress could mess up his recovery, and I was too scared to drop the whole truth on him right now anyway. My phone buzzed. Jessica. Jessica: How are you? Settled in? Me: Yeah. We’re both home. Both resting. Jessica: And? How’s it going? Me: Weird as hell. He knows we were separated but not about the divorce. Jessica: Did you tell him anything else? Me: No. Just that we had problems
DAMONThey discharged me on Friday afternoon.14 days after waking up from the coma.Days after finding out I was going to be a father.Dr. Patel went through the discharge instructions one more time while a nurse helped me get dressed in clothes Marcus had brought from the penthouse.“No strenuous activity for at least six weeks. No driving until I clear you. Someone needs to be with you at all times for the first two weeks in case of complications.”“Eve will be there,” I said.“Mrs. Sterling is also on strict bed rest. She’s not in a position to be your primary caregiver. You’ll need additional help.”“We’ll figure it out.”Dr. Patel looked like he wanted to argue but just sighed. “Fine. But I want you both back here next week for follow-up appointments. And if you experience any dizziness, confusion, severe headaches, or memory issues, you call immediately.”“Got it.”Marcus appeared in the doorway. “The car’s downstairs. Driver’s waiting.”“Is Eve...”“She’s already down there.
I didn't sleep.Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Catherine's face. Heard her voice. Common. Middling. Not our kind of people.Around three AM, I gave up and went to the kitchen.Damon found me twenty minutes later, sitting in the dark eating cereal."Can't sleep?"I shook my head.He sat down acr
The kiss ended and we just stood there breathing hard, foreheads pressed together. "Fuck," Damon muttered. That one word snapped me back to reality. What the hell were we doing? I pulled back. Put space between us. My lips were still tingling and my heart was doing this crazy racing thing but
I was in the middle of a design project Monday afternoon when Jessica appeared at my desk with that look on her face.The "we need to talk right now" look."Lunch," she said. Not a question. A command."I'm kind of busy—""Now, Eve."I saved my file and grabbed my bag.We ended up at the Thai place
Three days.It had been three days of this new arrangement and I was losing my mind.Not in a bad way. In a "I can't stop thinking about him" way. In a "every time he looks at me I remember exactly what he looks like naked" way.We'd fallen into this routine. Work during the day. Pretend to be norm







