MasukDaniel's pov I knew the moment it changed, and I didn’t need her to say anything for me to understand it.It was in the way she looked at me, in the way her eyes stayed on me a second longer than usual, and in the silence that followed when I chose not to answer her. Jocelyn had always been observant, and I had known that from the beginning, but this was different. This wasn’t just her noticing small shifts or reading between the lines. This was her putting things together, piece by piece, until she reached something that felt real enough to question.She didn’t know everything but she knew more than enough and that was where the problem started.I stood where I was, not moving, not speaking, and I let the silence stretch because there was nothing I could say that would change what she had already seen. The words I would say would only complicate it, and explanations would only raise more questions, and I wasn’t ready for that.I exhaled slowly, calming myself in a way that had becom
Jocelyn’s POVI received one undeniable piece of evidence that explained everything and left no room for doubt. This came in pieces, small, disconnected parts that didn’t make sense on their own, but refused to stay separate once I started putting them together.And that was what made it worse.I sat in the same position I had been in for hours, the glow of the screen the only light left in the room, and I stared at the data in front of me without blinking.It wasn’t much enough to prove anything completely but it was enough to make me pause, enough to make me go back and check it again. Enough to make my chest tighten in a way that didn’t feel like curiosity anymore.The first piece had been easy to dismiss. A missing link between two records that should have connected. That alone didn’t mean anything.I believed it for a while until I found the second piece.It wasn’t directly connected to the first, not in a way that stood out immediately, but the timing overlapped just enough to m
Jocelyn’s POVI knew something was wrong before he said anything.Daniel didn’t need to explain it. He didn’t need to act differently in a way anyone else would notice. It was in the small things, the quiet shifts that most people wouldn’t catch, the way his attention lingered somewhere else even when he was right in front of me. I had learned him enough to know he was troubled by something and doesn't want me to know.And once I saw it, I couldn’t ignore it.At first, I told myself it would pass. That whatever it was, he would handle it the way he handled everything else, controlled and neat, without letting it touch anything outside of what he allowed. That was how he worked. That was how he kept things in control.But this time, It wasn’t staying contained.He didn’t say anything directly. He didn’t bring it up, didn’t even hint at it in a way that could be questioned openly. But the silence around it was too deliberate. Too careful. It wasn’t the kind of silence that came from som
Eunice's PovI did not need to be in the same room with him to know exactly when it reached him, and that was the part I found most satisfying because it meant everything had gone exactly the way I planned it. Timing had always been important to me, and in this case, it was everything, because I knew the kind of man Daniel was and I understood what it would take to shake him in a way he would not recover from easily.So I waited with full awareness of what I had set in motion and what it was going to do once it settled. There was a difference between acting and observing.I stood by the window, looking out without really focusing on anything beyond the glass, because my thoughts were elsewhere, already ahead of the moment, already tracing the reaction I knew was unfolding. I could picture it clearly without needing to see it directly, and that clarity came from experience, from knowing him, and from knowing exactly where to press.Daniel was not unpredictable. People liked to believe
Daniel’s POVI closed the file and left it closed. I have decided to control the space and limit my exposure. I will also reduce the movement. That was how I will handle everything else, and for a few seconds, I told myself this was no different.It was just a file.Just something pulled from the past and thrown in front of me to provoke a reaction from me.Nothing more.I adjusted slightly and stepped away from the desk, forcing my posture back into something calm, something familiar. The tension in my hands hadn’t gone away, but I ignored it. It didn’t matter. What mattered was how I handled this, and losing control over something internal was not an option.Not when everything else had just been pulled back into place.I moved toward the window without thinking, my reflection faint against the glass as the city stretched out beyond it. Everything out there was still moving, still functioning, still unaware of anything that had just shifted inside this room.That was how it should s
Jocelyn's PovDaniel had been different since everything happened, but this wasn’t the same kind of difference I had seen before. It wasn’t the controlled distance he used when he wanted to keep things cool, and it wasn’t the cold detachment he used when he was calculating something. This felt heavier than that, and I couldn’t ignore it no matter how much I tried to convince myself to give him space.He was in the room with me, and yet it felt like he wasn’t..That was what unsettled me the most.I stood by the table for a moment longer, pretending to go through the documents in front of me even though I wasn’t reading a single line. My attention stayed on him instead, on the way he moved, on the silence that followed him, and on how deliberate everything seemed without actually leading anywhere.He wasn’t avoiding me in an obvious way..That would have been easier to deal with.Instead, he was present, but not fully there, and I could feel the distance even when he was standing a few s
JOCELYN’s POVI stood frozen, my limbs and entire being went numb. My eyes went wide open but I was unable to catch sight of anything important for a moment.However, I could hear screams and voices behind me. Probably all over me for a while. Unfortunately, I couldn’t register who it belonged to
ARIA’s POVThe drive home felt longer than it should have. My father’s grip on the steering wheel was tight, the veins standing out on his hands. His jaw worked as though he was grinding his teeth. I sat in the back seat, slouched against the leather, unable to look at him. My throat burned from al
JOCELYN's POVI could have cried. Okay, maybe I was being dramatic but right now, it was like my mood had done a complete one eighty. After hearing the way the sponsors I’d always counted on had downgraded my effort, design, and practically the whole show, I’d been burning with fury because of how
JOCELYN’s POV“I just spoke with the person in charge of the printing. How couldn’t you notice that error until it was this late? I said as I entered my office, slamming the door behind me. I listened to the response while shaking my head because like I’d expected, it was all just excuses. I massa







