LOGINElliot’s POVI was halfway through reviewing the quarterly numbers when the door opened without a knock.Jude walked into my office like the floor owed him something. His shirt was open at the collar, and there was blood on his chin and a fresh cut at the corner of his mouth. He stopped in front of my desk and stood there with his hands at his sides.“Boss,” he said. “Your plan failed.”I set my tablet down, leaving the numbers on the screen, and studied him for a long moment before leaning back in my chair.“Failed how?” I asked. “Gail has been desperate for love since Anthony left her. That was the entire point. She was supposed to be easy.”Jude wiped the blood from his chin with the back of his hand, only managing to smear it further. “I came running out of her house. You didn’t even tell me she was a Windsor.”I almost laughed at his excuse. “You were supposed to make her leave the Windsor estate, get her own place, and then take everything she owns. You were supposed to fǔck a d
Katia’s POVI almost did not want to go.Julian had read Gail’s text three times before setting his phone face down on the kitchen counter. She wanted us to come to her house in three days to meet the new man in her life. Julian had looked at me over the rim of his coffee and asked if I wanted to cancel. I had said no because Gail had asked us herself. She had never asked for much, and the way she had asked, sounding careful and hopeful, made it difficult to refuse, even with Tessa’s live video still sitting in the back of my mind.So we went.The drive took twenty minutes. Aiden sat in the back with his tablet, repeatedly asking whether Gail’s new house had a pool. Clara was asleep in her car seat, with one fist curled against her cheek. Julian drove with one hand on the steering wheel and the other resting on my thigh. He was quiet in the way he usually became when he was thinking about something he had not said out loud yet. I watched the city pass outside my window and tried not t
Katia’s POVI turned the car onto the long driveway leading to Grandma Celeste’s house and kept both hands on the wheel, even though the road was empty. The radio was off, and my phone was face down on the passenger seat. I did not want any more noise. Tessa’s live video had been running through my head since I left the office, and the silence in the car was the only thing stopping me from repeating every word out loud.She had stood in front of her camera wearing that deep red top and told her viewers she had a source. A real one this time. Someone who knew the difference between telling the truth and covering for someone else. She said Gail Windsor was not Catwoman.She claimed that Gail had stood in front of everyone after the race and pretended to be Catwoman to protect someone else. She also promised to keep investigating until she discovered the real driver. She had not mentioned my name or Julian’s. But she had looked straight into the camera and smiled as though she already kn
Katia’s POVI dropped Aiden off at school first. He hugged me at the gate, his backpack half open, and told me he had a spelling test that morning. I asked him to spell the word courage, but he ran off before I could check whether he knew the answer.Clara was still asleep in her car seat when I arrived home. She was only six months old, but she was already getting heavy. I carried her inside the Windsor house, where Gail took her from my arms. I kissed the top of Clara’s head and quickly left before she woke up and started crying for me.After that, I drove to IG Technology, ready to focus on my responsibilities as CEO.My office smelled of fresh coffee and printer ink. Several contracts were stacked neatly on my desk, alongside three pens and my laptop, which I had left running overnight. I signed the Meridian distribution agreement, approved the supplier terms, and tried to convince myself that it was going to be a normal morning.But nothing had felt normal since Gail publicly cla
Delia’s POVNoah was not home. That was the only reason I went.I had spent most of the night thinking about Tessa in that red dress, and I was so upset that I could barely sleep. Elliot had fucked me. He had put his mouth on me. He had told me to come back when I was wet. Yet the very next day, that annoying racer had sat across from me at lunch, drinking my wine and telling me she was going to become my mother-in-law. I was supposed to be the woman Elliot wanted. Not his wife. I knew that. But his woman. The one he called. The one he used. If he was interested in someone else, did that mean I was no longer enough for him? Just one night in his bed, and the next day he was already entertaining another woman. The thought bothered me so much that I eventually got into my car and drove to his office.Wasn’t I supposed to be his woman? Why would he ask Tessa out? What had happened between the night I spent in his bed and the lunch where she announced their relationship? Had I stopped bei
Delia’s POVTessa Sterling called the next morning while Noah was still in the kitchen and I was still sore from what I had done with his father.I was standing at the counter wearing Elliot’s shirt from last night, the one I had not returned, and drinking coffee I did not even want. Every time I sat down, I could still feel the soreness Elliot had left behind. There was no bruise I could show anyone, only the unmistakable feeling of having been used. I had enjoyed it while I was in his bed, but I hated feeling it in my husband’s kitchen.My phone lit up with a name I certainly did not consider a friend.“Lunch,” Tessa said the moment I answered. “Today. I will not keep you long.”“The last time you sat across from me, you called me a fool.”“And you still answered my call. One o’clock. The restaurant on Mercer. They serve a white wine you will pretend not to like.”“I did not say yes.”“You will. You hate not knowing what people want from you.”She hung up before I could refuse again
~Katia~“Get out!” my mom screamed, her voice tearing through the hallway like a bomb going off in a small room.The sound hit the walls and bounced back so violently, like the house itself was flinching. Even the air felt startled, buzzing with the kind of tension that makes your skin crawl. My he
~Katia~I woke up to the sour taste of bile creeping up my throat, and my legs threw me out of bed before my brain could even catch up. The morning light seared into my eyes like punishment, and I stumbled across the cold floor, my feet slapping against the wood, straight into the bathroom. My knee
~Katia~"Do you know how hard I've been holding myself?" I didn't answer because all I wanted was to get laid. I could still feel the ache between my legs. He carried my bridal style and led me to his hotel room. "Now, I can fuck you however I want because you are now my wife, princess." The room
~Katia~Vegas heat hit me like a wave the second I stepped off the private jet. The runway shimmered under the late afternoon sun, and I squinted past my sunglasses, already half-listening to the ping of updates on my encrypted racing burner phone. Six hours before the race, and my heart was alread







