LOGINDelia’s POVI went to him because the invitation would not leave my hands. Noah was out. The card was still on the fridge like a slap; I kept walking past. Katia gets white. Katia gets vows. Katia gets a day the city will swallow whole. I got a signature and a man who was told to take me.Elliot opened the door like he had been waiting for the jealousy to ripen.“There she is,” he said. “The extra guest.”“Do not start.”“Come in and start for me.”I walked in. The place was quiet. No staff in sight. He poured nothing. He watched my mouth.“She is having a wedding,” I said. It came out raw. “A real one. Estate. Family. Aiden in a little suit. The baby in someone’s arms. Honour of your presence. Honour. Like, I should curtsy because they remembered I exist.”“And you signed a paper at a restaurant and a family thing kind of gathering with no press.”“I signed a paper. He did not even put the ring on my finger. No aisle. No one crying on purpose. Katia fucks her way into the will, and t
Delia’s POVThe envelope was thick. A cream stock with black ink. My name was written like I was still someone they had to be polite to. Mrs. Delia Vesper. As if that title sat in the same room as Mrs. Julian Windsor.I opened it at the kitchen counter with my coffee gone cold. Noah was in the other room on a call. The house was quiet in that expensive way that still did not feel like mine.I read it once. Then I read it again because my brain refused the first time.Julian Windsor and Katia Windsor request the honor of your presence at the celebration of their marriage.Honor.I laughed. It came out ugly.“Honour,” I said to the card. “She wants honor now, after she took the man, the house, and the name. Now she wants flowers so the city can clap.”Two months since Clara. Two months of pictures I did not ask to see. Katia glowing. Julian looking at her like she invented air. Aiden holding the baby like a prince in training. That old fool called Celeste in the frame like a blessing.A
Katia’s POVThe first pain came in our kitchen. It wasn't a small one, a real fucking one. It put my hand on the marble and took the morning with it. Aiden was talking about toast crusts and whether Clara, if it was a girl, would like dinosaurs. Julian was pouring coffee he would not drink. I waited for the tightness to pass. It did not pass. It came again, lower, harder, and I knew.“Julian.”He looked up and read my face before I finished.“Now?”“Now. I am not getting in a car.”He did not argue. That was the difference between our life and everyone else’s. The world came to this house.He was already on the phone.“Dr. Lang. It is time. East suite. Bring your team. No hospital run unless she tells me she wants one.” He stopped and looked at me and then spoke again. “Grandma first.” Another call. “Sam, lock the gate. Family only. Aiden stays on this floor until I say, "Aiden stood on the stairs with his dinosaur book.“Is the baby coming here?”“Yes,” I said. “This is home.”“Can
Delia’s POVNoah cooked again.He set the plate down like the night could still be simple if the food was good enough. I sat across from him and watched his hands. Younger than Elliot’s and kinder. The same mouth in a softer shape. I hated that I was doing it, lining them up in my head like two options on a menu I should not have been reading.“You are quiet,” Noah said.“I am tired.”He nodded and accepted it, because that was what he did. He accepted things. Elliot took them.We ate. He asked about my day. I lied in small pieces. I did not say his father’s fingers had been on my nipples. I did not say I had kissed a man I should have spat on. I sat in my husband’s house with my cunt still remembering a wall.My phone lit up under the table.Unknown.Then the message made the name unnecessary.Same place. One hour. Wear something I can get my hand under.I locked the screen.Noah glanced at it.“Work?”“Something like that.”I stood, kissed the side of his face, and felt like filth f
Delia’s POVElliot found me when I was alone.Not at Noah’s house, or a room with staff. A private lounge he had booked like it was nothing, the kind of quiet place men used when they did not want their names on a reservation list. I should have walked out the second I saw him standing there with a drink in his hand and that smile that never reached his eyes.I did not walk out.“Delia,” he said, like my name already belonged in his mouth. “Come here.”“I am not your wife.”“No. You are my son’s. That is what makes this interesting.”He set the glass down and crossed the room without hurry. I hated that my body noticed him. Older than Noah. Harder. The same bloodline in the face and none of the softness Noah still carried when he looked at me.“You look unhappy,” he said.“I look busy.”“You look like a woman who married the wrong Vesper.” His eyes dropped to my mouth. “Julian had more money. More name. More of the life you wanted. Don’t lie to me and say you don’t still taste that lo
Julian’s POVAiden was still in the house when I called Noah.That was the point. My son was upstairs with a book and a plate of toast he had barely touched. Katia was in the kitchen with her phone face down on the counter, as if looking at it would make another envelope appear. The note from the school gate was on my desk. One line, and that was enough.I did not ask Noah if he was free. I told him to come.He arrived looking like a man who already knew the day would go badly and had come anyway. Katia passed him in the hall and did not stop to be kind. She only said, “He is in the study,” and kept walking. That was mercy, in her language.Noah stood in the doorway until I told him to shut it.“Sit.”He sat, and I put the envelope on the desk between us. I did not unfold it. I did not need to. The shape of it was enough.“Your father went after my son.”Noah’s face changed, but it wasn't a surprise. Something worse. Recognition trying not to become speech.“What?”“Yesterday. School
~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
KatiaI woke up to the sound of people singing badly.“Happy birthday to you...” I blinked hard against the sunlight filtering through the curtains, my brain slow to reboot. The voices were getting louder, and for a second, I thought I was dreaming. A really weird, off-key dream.“Happy birthday, d
~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







