LOGIN**Nadia**My phone buzzed hard on the nightstand and ripped me out of sleep.I grabbed it fast. Dominic's arm stayed heavy across my waist. His skin felt warm against mine. The screen lit up with notification after notification. I opened the first post and my stomach dropped.Garrett stared back from the photo. His eyes were red and wild. His tie hung loose. He stood outside his old office building like everything had been taken from him. The caption hit me straight in the chest. "Fired. Broke. Ruined. All because of that gold digging bitch Nadia who sank her claws into Dominic Marcello. She destroyed my life."I sat up quick. The sheets slid down my bare legs. Dominic woke right away. His hand found my thigh and squeezed."Show me," he said. His voice sounded rough from sleep.I handed him the phone. More posts loaded fast. Comments poured in under Garrett's rant. People called me every ugly name. They said I deserved payback. Death threats mixed with the hate. Sharp words promised
**Nadia**My eyes caught it the second we walked into the bridal suite.Lisette and Raffael stood too close again. Her shoulder brushed his arm while she reached for a swatch of fabric. He leaned down to whisper something, lips near her ear, fingers grazing the small of her back for one beat too long. They didn't announce anything. They didn't hold hands or kiss in front of us. They were just suddenly always slightly too close, like the wedding planning had pushed them into so many tight corners that pretending finally broke.I felt a soft warmth bloom in my chest. I said nothing. I just smiled, turning back to the mirror as the seamstress pinned my hem.Dominic stood across the room, arms crossed, watching the chaos of dresses and samples with his usual calm. His gaze flicked to me, checking like he always did now. I met his eyes for a second and let my smile stay.Lisette glanced at me in the reflection. Her cheeks flushed quick and guilty. She stepped half an inch away from Raffa
**Nadia**I stood in the soft morning light of the penthouse, my fingers still tingling from where they'd traced Dominic's jaw the night before. The air between us felt charged, heavy with everything we'd rebuilt after my day of deliberate distance. He watched me now, his dark eyes locked on mine as I pulled the gray sweater over my head, letting it drop to the floor. No barriers today. Just us."We married drunk in Vegas for revenge," I said, my voice steady even as my heart hammered against my ribs. The words hung there, simple and raw. I wanted him to feel the weight of them, the way they had shaped everything between us from the start. "I want a real wedding. For us."Dominic froze. His hand, which had been reaching for my waist, stilled mid-air. Those sharp features that usually commanded every room softened in shock, his brows drawing together as if he couldn't quite process what I'd just said. He sat up straighter on the edge of the bed, the sheet pooling around his hips, exp
**Nadia**I waited until the morning light had fully claimed the penthouse before I began.I dressed in silence, choosing a soft gray sweater and black trousers that covered every inch of skin Dominic usually demanded access to. No silk robe left teasingly open at the thigh. No bare shoulder brushing his chest as I passed. I moved through the kitchen like a woman who had simply woken up alone: pouring coffee, checking my tablet, answering a single work email with the calm precision of someone whose world had not tilted on its axis.He felt the absence immediately.At first it was subtle. The way I stepped just out of reach when he entered the kitchen. The way my fingers didn’t graze his wrist when I set his coffee down. I watched him tell himself it was coincidence. He was still half-asleep, still adjusting to the new rhythm we had found after the contract reset.By midday the absence had teeth.He found me in the living room, curled on the wide sectional with my laptop. When he sat
**Nadia**I stared at Dominic across the dim hotel room, my heart hammering so hard it felt like it might crack my ribs. No more hiding. No more careful words. The research papers sat heavy in my lap, printed out and folded like a weapon I didn't want to use but had to."I know you can't feel anything," I said, my voice steady even though my hands shook. "Except me."His jaw tightened. Those dark eyes flicked away for a second, then locked back on mine. "Nadia, don't."He tried to stand, but I moved faster, stepping right into his space. My fingers brushed his chest, right over his shirt, and I felt the sharp inhale he couldn't hide."Don't what?" I asked. "Don't say it out loud? I read the files. The accident. The nerves. The doctors who said you'd never feel touch again. But you feel me. Every time."Dominic's hands came up like he might push me away, but they just hovered there, trembling. "You're wrong.""I'm not." I picked the papers and held them up between us. Calm. Like I prom
**Nadia**"They're staring.""They're always staring," Dominic said, his hand at my lower back, steering me through the entrance with the unhurried certainty of a man who had never once considered that a room might not make space for him."It's different tonight," I said.He glanced at me. "How."I thought about how to say it. "Before, they were staring because they were trying to figure out what I was. Trophy. Scheme. Scandal waiting to happen." I looked at the room, at the faces that were tracking us with the specific attention of people who had been following a story and were now seeing a new chapter of it. "Tonight they're staring because they've decided.""Decided what," he said."That we're real," I said.He was quiet for a moment. Then his hand pressed fractionally firmer at my back, the specific pressure I had learned to read, and we moved further into the room.The gala was the Harlow Foundation's annual event, the same circuit we had been moving through since Vegas, the same
**Nadia**I sat in the back of the car beside Dominic. The drive home from Marcello Global felt endless. My wrist throbbed where Garrett had grabbed it. Red marks burned against my skin. Dominic had not spoken a single word since we left the building. His body stayed rigid. His hands clenched into
**Nadia**I walked down the long hallway at Marcello Global with a stack of files in my arms. My heels clicked steadily against the marble floor. The meeting I had just finished had gone well. I felt proud of the work I was doing here. This job had become mine. Something I earned with my own effor
**Nadia**I stood in Dominic’s office, heart still racing from the long day. The door clicked shut behind me with a soft final sound. He had waited until the entire floor emptied. Now it was just us, the city lights glowing through the large windows, the wide desk between us like a line we were ab
**Nadia**I stood in Dominic’s office with my shoulders back and my chin high. The morning light came through the large windows behind his desk. “I want to work at Marcello Global. In events and PR.”Dominic looked up from his laptop, his eyes narrowing slightly. “You do not need to work.”The word







