LOGINKatia’s POVThe rain started before sunrise.I heard it first against the windows while I was still half-asleep, a steady, heavy sound that made the whole mansion feel smaller. By the time I got out of bed, the sky was the color of wet concrete. Julian was already awake, moving quietly so he wouldn’t wake Aiden. I found them both in the kitchen.Aiden sat at the island in his school uniform, legs swinging, chewing on toast like it was the most important job in the world. Julian stood at the stove in a dark shirt with the sleeves rolled up, scrambling eggs. The smell of coffee and butter filled the space.“Morning,” I said.Aiden looked up and grinned with crumbs on his cheek. “Mommy. It’s raining a lot.”“I know, baby.” I kissed the top of his head and stole a piece of his toast. He made a face but didn’t protest.Julian set a plate in front of me without asking. Eggs, toast, and a little fruit. He knew the mornings when my stomach was uncertain. I ate slowly while Aiden talked about
Noah’s POVI stared at my father standing in the middle of my living room like he still owned the air in it.“Get out,” I said. My voice came out low and flat. “Leave. Now.”Father wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand and looked at me like I was a mild inconvenience.“You don’t get to order me—”“I do in this house.” I stepped closer. “You told me to marry her. I did. But I did not marry her so I could divorce her the second you decided she was no longer useful. She is my wife. She stays. You leave.”For a second something ugly flickered across his face. Then he simply turned, walked to the door, and left. The door shut hard behind him.Silence dropped over the room.Delia stood a few feet away, one hand still pressed to her cheek where he had hit her. The skin was already pink and starting to darken. Her eyes were wide and wet, but she wasn’t crying. She was just looking at me like she wasn’t sure what version of me she was seeing.I crossed the spac
Delia’s POVThe doorbell rang just after eleven.I was in the kitchen rinsing the last of the breakfast plates, still wearing one of Noah’s shirts because it was the first thing I had grabbed that morning. My hair was loose. No makeup. The kind of ordinary domestic mess that still felt new enough to be fragile. I dried my hands on a towel and went to answer it without thinking twice.Elliot stood on the other side of the door.He looked exactly the same as the last time I had seen him—expensive suit, cold eyes, that half-smile that never reached anywhere real. He took one look at me in Noah’s shirt, and the smirk deepened.He walked past me into the house like he owned the floor under his feet.“So,” he said, glancing around the entryway, “you are fucking this reject?”My stomach dropped. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. The words sat somewhere behind my teeth, stuck.Noah came out of the hallway before I could find an answer. He must have heard the doorbell too. He stopped de
Delia’s POVThe shopping bags were heavy in my hands by the time I reached the front door. I had stayed out longer than I meant to, walking the same three stores twice just to avoid coming back too early. The house still felt too quiet most evenings, like it was waiting for something neither of us had figured out how to give it yet.I pushed the door open with my shoulder and stopped when I saw roses.They were everywhere. On the entry table. Along the sideboard. A few stems left loose on the console, like someone had been in the middle of arranging them and decided it was already enough. The whole place smelled like them—deep, real, not the cheap kind that died by morning.Noah stood in the hallway in a dark shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He held a single long-stemmed rose in one hand.He didn’t say anything at first. He just stepped forward, took the bags from me one by one, and set them down. Then he helped me out of my coat, hanging it carefully, and held the rose out.“For you
~Katia~I found Gail in the estate's garden the next morning, sitting alone on one of the stone benches near the fountain, a mug of tea untouched on the seat beside her.She looked up when she heard me approaching, and something in her expression braced immediately, as though she had been expecting this conversation since the moment she walked away from that podium."You are angry with me," she said, before I had even sat down."I am not angry," I said, settling onto the bench beside her. "I am confused. And worried. That was not the plan, Gail. We had a real strategy, witnesses, and an explanation that did not require you to lie to the entire city about who you are.""I know," she said quietly."Then why," I said. "Why did you do it?"Gail turned to look at me fully, her eyes calm despite the exhaustion clearly written across her face."You are my best friend," she said. "My brother's wife. My godson's mother. I was not going to sit back and watch you walk into a press conference, pr
~Katia~Julian and I watched the press conference from our own living room, the television volume low, both of us leaning forward on the couch as Gail stepped up to the podium set up in the estate's front garden. I had my legs curled beneath me, a cup of tea going cold in my hands, unable to focus on anything except my sister-in-law's face filling the screen."I am Catwoman," she said, her voice calm despite the visible tension in her shoulders.The room on screen erupted into noise, reporters shouting over one another, and beside me Julian went rigid, his hand finding mine and gripping it tightly enough that I understood exactly how much this had blindsided him too.She had not told us. She had left the estate that morning claiming she needed air, and instead she had called a press conference herself, deciding, apparently alone, that the fastest way to end this was simply to give Tessa Sterling the confession she wanted, true or not.I did not know how to feel about it, watching her
~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







