004— Staring At My Legs, Mr Knight?

..SOREN...

****

It was barely 9 a.m., and I was already exhausted. The phone was wedged between my shoulder and ear as I scrolled through emails.

“Yeah, I want everything perfect this year,” I said, tapping the desk impatiently. “Get her the roses, the white ones, not red. She hates red. And that perfume she liked from Paris—send two bottles.”

The guy on the other end mumbled something about deliveries and schedules. I cut him off. “Look, I don’t care what it costs. Just get it done before noon, alright? It’s our anniversary, and she deserves to be happy.”

The last word slipped out slower than I intended.

Happy.

God, when was the last time either of us had been that?

I hung up, dragging a hand through my hair. My tie felt too tight, my suit too stiff. For a second, I just sat there, staring at the framed photo on my desk of Cassidy grinning on a beach, sun kissing her smooth skin.

That was years ago. Before everything turned hollow. Now she's so plastic.

A burst of laughter drifted up from downstairs ad I frowned.

Cassidy wasn’t expecting anyone today, was she?

Pushing away from the desk, I headed down the stairs.

Cassidy stood in the middle of the living room, looking dazzling with heavy makeup that she's obsessed with. Her diamond necklace caught the light like she’d swallowed a chandelier.

And beside her was her twin sister, Riley.

Christ.

Seeing her up close……

Christ.

Baggy jeans, black hoodie, tattoos snaking down her arms, a pair of cute glasses that made her look like the kind of trouble you wanted to make twice.

Her undercut pixie bob cut was messy, like she hadn’t tried at all—and somehow that made her ten times hotter.

Shit. Why did I say that?

The twins couldn’t look more different if they tried. Cassidy was polished, precise, perfectly artificial. Riley was wild, sharp-edged, real.

“What’s going on?” I asked, my voice coming out flatter than intended.

Cassidy turned with that too-bright smile that usually meant she’d done something without telling me. “Soren! Good, you’re here.”

Riley’s gaze flicked toward me for half a second before dropping. She looked like she wanted to vanish into the floor.

Cassidy looped an arm around her twin’s shoulders. “You remember Riley.”

“Yeah,” I said slowly. “I remember.”

Every fucking inch.

“She’s going to be staying with us for a while,” Cass continued, oblivious to the tension thickening the air. “Helping out with the kids. You know, like a live-in nanny.”

My brain stalled. “What?”

Cassidy just kept smiling, too sweet, too fake. “She needed a job, and I could use the help. It’s perfect.”

“What the fuck, Cass?” I muttered under my breath, scrubbing a hand over my jaw.

Riley shifted awkwardly, pretending to check her phone. She wouldn’t meet my eyes, and maybe that was for the best. Because if she did, I wasn’t sure what she’d see there—shock, anger… or the memory of what we’d done.

Cassidy, completely missing the storm brewing, clapped her hands together. “Oh, and before I forget—today’s our anniversary!”

I stared at her. “Yeah, I’m aware.”

“I’m throwing a little party tonight. Nothing too big…just some friends, drinks, music. The kids are staying at Mom’s, so it’ll be fun. Riley’s going to help me set up everything.”

Fun. Party.

The kids are gone.

I felt the muscle in my jaw tighten. “I thought we agreed on a quiet night. Just the two of us.”

Cassidy waved it off like it was nothing. “Oh, please. We can have our moment later. Tonight’s about celebrating, not sulking.”

I took a slow step closer.. “Babe, can we talk? In private?”

Her smile faltered just enough for me to notice. “Now?”

“Yeah, now.”

Cassidy glanced at Riley, then back at me. “Alright. Give me a second.”

Riley finally looked up. Her lips parted like she wanted to say something, but she didn’t. She just turned away, heading for the kitchen, the faint scent of vanilla and cigarette smoke trailing behind her.

And for a moment—just a single, dangerous moment—I wished like hell she’d stayed gone.

Because this…

This was about to get messy.

I slammed the door behind us. Hard enough to make Cassidy jump, but she didn’t flinch. She never flinched

“Why do you always have to yell at me?” she snapped, arms crossed, “Gimme a break, Soren. Just for five minutes. You don’t have to treat me like a criminal every time I breathe!”

My hands shook at my sides.“Five minutes? You don’t get it, Cass! You—”

“Stop!” She cut me off. “Today is our anniversary. We have to fix what’s left of this marriage, okay? A wild party is what we need. So stop complaining! We are fine. So let’s act like it!”

“Fine?!” I shouted, the word cracking like glass. “You call this fine? You just invited Riley… your twin sister… to stay here and help with the kids?”

Her face hardened, daring me to keep going. “Get another nanny if it bothers you. She’s my sister. Deal with it.”

“Deal with it?” I laughed bitterly.. “You don’t give a shit about her! You ignore your Mom’s condition, you stay out of her life, and now you’re pretending to care?”

Cassidy’s eyes flashed with fury. “It’s none of your business!! We don’t need a nanny! You—yes, you—are the one who should be home taking care of the kids, how about that?”

My chest heaved. “And who’s supposed to…”

She cut me off again. “So who’s supposed to hang out with friends? Who’s supposed to get a makeover, go to dinner parties, maintain a perfect public life while dealing with Whitney? Besides, it’s stressful, Soren! Taking care of Whitney is exhausting, it’s draining, and I need…”

Her voice cracked slightly when she said Whitney’s name, but I could hear the undercurrent of anger that ran deeper than fatigue. My heart thudded in my chest.

Whitney is our oldest daughter. And she's paralysed. She couldn’t move, couldn’t talk, trapped in a body that betrayed her. She stayed at home unable to live a perfect life.

How could Cassidy, in her perfect little world, sound like this was just… stressful? How could she sound like fun, parties, and social life mattered more than her own daughter?

I shook my head, suddenly tired. Seeing Cassidy for who she really was. “Heartless,” I spat, repulsed. “Do you even realize what you’re saying? How could you—Whitney—how could you even sound like this is trivial?”

Cassidy’s face paled.. “Babe.."

I stormed off toward the guest room, slamming the door behind me.

God, I hated her. I hated my wife. All her polished hair, every calculated smile, every damn word out of her mouth. I’d spent years thinking we could fix… whatever this was. But right now? I couldn’t stand her. Couldn’t stand the way she made everything feel like a performance.

I sank into the leather chair, letting out a long, slow sigh. My fingers dug into the armrests.

And then, the bathroom door creaked open.

Riley stepped out, a towel wrapped around her body, wet strands of hair clinging to her sharp jawline. My eyes betrayed me before my brain could catch up.

Shit.

Riley—the tomboyish, chaotic, messy twin—was maddeningly curvier than Cassidy.

Her thighs pressed together under the towel, legs long and strong, a subtle strength that made the blood rush to places it shouldn’t.

“Are you staring at my legs, Mr. Knight?” she smirked.

I blinked, caught off guard. My heart was hammering like a fool. “I… uh…”

She tilted her head, letting one wet lock fall over her glasses. “Don’t lie. I can see it. Your eyes don’t lie.”

I stood up, trying to fight the pull, trying to remind myself of everything that should make me sane: Cassidy. Whitney. Our messed-up lives. But Riley… Christ, Riley had this way of twisting all of that into desire. Into temptation. Into… everything I wasn’t supposed to feel.

“I… I wasn’t staring,” I lied, though my throat was dry and my mind was already betraying me.

“Right,” she said, smirking again, and stepped a little closer. “Not staring at all. Just… appreciating the view?”

My pulse spiked, and I realized that no amount of logic would make me look away. She was fire, and maddeningly, she didn’t even have to try.

“Riley,” I said hoarsely. “You can… put the towel down and… leave, or—”

“Or what?” she interrupted in a mocking voice. “You’re going to tell your wife? Or are you going to admit you’re staring at me? Or should we keep this a secret too? Let's add this to a list of things we're not telling Cassidy?”

God, her words wrapped around my sanity like chains.