Levi’s POVThe door shut behind me with a muted click, and I just stood there, gripping the handle like it was the only thing keeping me tethered to the ground. Like it was the only thing holding me down as everything within me was unraveling every second that passed.I didn’t even bother with the lights. What could it do to me at this moment? Nothing.Absolutely nothing.The duvet felt heavy in my arms—too heavy, like the weight of everything I’d been pretending I could ignore. I dropped it onto the bed and pressed my back to the door before sliding down to the floor.My knees bent up. My elbows rested on them. And my hands clutched at my face.God.What the hell just happened?I could still see her face. The tears she tried to blink away. The tremble in her voice. The dinner she made.The food I never touched.Guilt was already bleeding into the cracks of my anger, but I couldn’t push it away fast enough. It was all too loud in my head—Ronald’s voice, the smug edge in it when he la
Nova’s POVI stood in the quiet after Ronald left, his ultimatum still ringing in my ears like a fire alarm that wouldn’t shut off.Thirty days.One month to get pregnant or… or what? Levi loses the company. The board turns against him. The Adams crumble.And somehow, I thought that would help us.I truly believed that maybe this pressure would force him to talk to me. That maybe Ronald’s visit—his presence, his harsh words—would push Levi to finally break his silence. That he’d turn to me, maybe even with anger, but at least something.But what I got instead… was a storm.“Did you plan this?” Levi snapped, spinning around so fast that the sharpness in his voice cut the air like a knife.I blinked, still near the table, my hand trembling slightly around the edge of a wine glass.“W-what?”He pointed toward the door his grandfather had just walked out of, his jaw locked tight. “Did you call him? Invite him here? Tell him I’m being cold and you needed backup?”“No,” I said immediately.
Nova’s POVI heard his key in the lock before I heard his footsteps.My heart nearly leapt out of my chest.I wiped my palms on my dress and quickly smoothed my hair, glancing at the table one last time. The food was still warm, the candle still flickering low and hopeful. I stood up just as the door opened.There he was—Levi. The man I loved, the man I missed, the man whose silence was slowly killing me.His eyes met mine for the briefest moment before they darted away, already burdened. Already guarded.“Hi,” I whispered, my voice too small.He didn’t respond. Just walked past me, loosening his tie with one hand.“I made dinner,” I tried again, moving toward him, my words almost stumbling over themselves. “Your favorite. I thought maybe we could talk, just for a few minutes—”“I’m not hungry.” His voice was a wall, hard and cold.I froze.He didn’t even look at the table.I could feel my throat tightening as I followed him with my eyes, watching as he moved to the hall closet and pu
Nova’s POVI couldn’t go to the office today. I just… couldn’t.The moment I stepped out of the car earlier, the whispers started again—too loud to ignore, too sharp to endure. I could feel their eyes trailing after me, cutting through me like knives.They pretended to be busy when I looked, but I saw the way they paused mid-keystroke, the way conversations abruptly ended when I passed.And I’d had enough.So I walked away.I didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t leave a message. I just slipped back into the elevator, pressed the button for the lobby, and walked out of the building like I was invisible.Now, I sat by the fogged window of a small café tucked between two boutiques in a quiet part of town. I’d found it once on accident, months ago, when Levi and I got caught in the rain during a lunch meeting and ducked into the nearest spot. We hadn’t even liked the coffee, but we’d laughed the whole time, soaked to the bone, hands clasped beneath the table like teenagers.I missed that version
Levi’s POVI barely had time to take my first sip of bitter black coffee before my phone rang.Not the office line. My personal one.I didn’t need to check the caller ID. Only one man alive had the nerve to call me this early in the morning and expect answers with nothing more than a sigh.“Grandfather.”“Levi.” His voice was sharp, measured, and instantly put my spine on alert. “Do you want to explain what in the hell is going on?”I sat back in my chair and pinched the bridge of my nose. “If this is about—”“It’s about your name being dragged across every media outlet I can find,” he cut in coldly. “And mine. The family name. Do you understand the damage this is doing?”“I’m handling it.”“Are you?” he challenged. “Because from where I’m sitting, it looks like you’ve done nothing but sulk behind closed doors while your wife is being picked apart like a carcass.”I gritted my teeth. “She lied to me.”“She had a past,” he snapped. “So did you. I don’t care if she dated the bloody fell
Nova's POVBefore daybreak, I had put on a wrinkled cream silk blouse that now stuck to my skin like a second layer of anxiety, and I hadn't even taken it off. With shaky fingers, I had pulled my hair into a sloppy bun, but it was now escaping. The kind of unrelenting tears that leave your face raw and swollen caused my eyes to boil. But my appearance didn't matter to me.I needed to see him.For what seemed like hours but was really just minutes, I stood still in the silence Levi left behind after he departed that morning.His fragrance and the faint traces of his sandalwood shampoo were still present in the bathroom air, and his scent hung in the room like a ghost. Every breath made me realize how far he had already gone and how totally he had cut himself off from me in only one talk.I had attempted to call his phone. Directly to voicemail, tried sending a text. The messages appeared to have been delivered but not read, which felt worse than if they had been completely disregard