MasukThe car stops in front of my mansion and Alec opens the door. I step out first, then reach back in and take Sienna’s hand. She’s still weak as hell, wobbly on her feet, but she manages to stand. I keep a firm grip on her until she’s steady.I guide her toward the front door and we walk inside. She keeps looking around at everything. The high ceilings, the big chandelier, the staircase. She only spent one night here five years ago. I can’t tell what the fuck is going through her head as she stares at it all again.I push the door wide open and we step into the sitting room. Skye is sitting at the dining table with her watercolor pens scattered everywhere. She’s painting something on a piece of paper, something I'm sure she's gonna force one of us to look at very soon. Her little legs are swinging in the air because they don’t even reach the floor.I watch Sienna before Skye even notices her. Her hand goes straight to her chest and she just stares at our daughter like she’s seein
"The fuck do you mean 'the real horror,' Sienna?"I say it out flat because my chest is already full. I don’t have room for more surprises today. She looks at me with those amber eyes without blinking. "I didn’t drop our baby on your doorstep, Cairo... they did."My heart thuds like a fucking gunshot. I straighten up in my chair. "What?"She nods slowly, like she’s been saving that nod for five years. "Her name is Skye, right?""You already know that.""I named my baby Jasmine. She looked so pretty.""She's no longer a baby... she's grown now," I cut her off."Okay." She exhales."When they took her from me, I begged them to at least tell you her real name. I hoped they did. But I guess they didn’t." “I guess they just left my baby outside your door. I’m sure it took hours for you to find her. They didn’t even let me take her to you myself.""Sienna." I cut her off because I can’t listen to any more without getting the main thing out. "I don’t want stories about how Skye got to my
~~~CAIRO~~~I’m sitting on a cheap plastic chair next to the hospital bed with my elbows on my knees and my hands hanging between my legs.The monitors keep beeping harshly in the quiet room. Sienna looks small lying on her bed, pale as hell, with an IV taped to her small arm. Her eyes are red-rimmed like she’s been crying in her dreams.The doctor already came and left. He said she’s stable now. At least she doesn't have any major sickness I have to worry about.Said she just needs rest and she’ll wake up when her body is ready. So I just sit here and wait.I'm looking at her face and I don’t even know what the fuck I’m supposed to feel. Five years of searching, wondering if she was dead or alive, and now she’s lying right here in front of me looking fragile as glass. I should be pissed. I am furious. But right now, watching her breathe so weakly, the anger just sits and waits in my chest like a heavy rock I can't just throw away.She looks a bit weaker. Softer. The Sienna I kne
~~~DIANA~~~"Are you okay, Diana? Diana, talk to me," Pippa yells from behind me as I fully step out of the courthouse, staring into the far end of the road.The sun is hot on my face, but I don't feel anything.Pippa grabs my arm, holding me tight, tugging me to say something, but I can only hear her voice somewhere in the back of my head. It sounds like she's speaking underwater—muffled and far away.I'm staring at the taillights of Cairo's car that just left the courthouse a few seconds ago. They're red and small, disappearing into the far end of the empty street. The car keeps getting smaller and smaller until it's just a dot, and then it's gone.I stare into the empty street for one more second, waiting just to see if the car reappears. Just to see if it turns back and remembers I'm still here.But... I don't see his car anymore.I'm supposed to be shocked. I'm supposed to scream because of how much that girl looked like me. But that's not happening to me right now. I don't kn
The room is still buzzing like a damn beehive after Sienna dropped that bomb. Everyone is whispering, shifting in their seats, turning to look at each other. The judge bangs his gavel twice like he wants to break it.“Order! I will have order in this courtroom!”The noise slowly dies down. Sienna stays standing at the witness stand like she didn’t just blow up my entire life in front of everyone. Her face looks too fucking calm, like she practiced this for a whole year before stepping in here.The judge looks at her. “Miss Harris, before this court proceeds, I have a few questions for you.”She nods. “Of course, Your Honor.”“You claim to be the mother of Mr. Arsher’s child. You claim to have knowledge of your mother’s activities. But you’ve been absent from this entire process until now.”“Forgive my skepticism, but I must ask—have you been compensated in any way for your testimony today? Has anyone paid you or promised you anything in exchange for speaking on Mr. Arsher’s behalf?
My time is still frozen. My brain is splitting with the shock.What the fuck?I’m staring at Sienna, and I can’t look away. She’s wearing a long black leather jacket that covers her whole body. A white shirt tucked under a black leather skirt that almost touches her knees. High heels. Brown hair exactly like Diana’s used to be. Amber eyes exactly like Diana’s.Our eyes meet across the room and the floor tilts for a second. I can’t tell if I’m breathing. I can’t tell if I’m standing or sitting or floating. All I know is that she’s really here. I spent five years looking for her and now I don’t know what to do with that.The memories I’ve tried to forget start gunning against each other in my head. The way she used to laugh. The way she used to tell me I’m the only man who can keep up with her. I thought I was over her. I told myself I was over her. But seeing her standing there in the flesh, after five years of hunting and wondering and giving up, is doing something to my chest t







