تسجيل الدخول“Liam, that's not how dinosaurs work!”I stop in the living room doorway with a glass of iced coffee in my hand.Max is sitting cross-legged on the rug, wearing a white T-shirt with a triceratops on it and gray shorts that have ridden up almost to his chubby thighs. His black hair is a mess, his long bangs falling over part of his eyebrows, and his handsome little face looks incredibly serious as he points at the iPad screen in front of his knees.On the screen, two boys are arguing with him.“YES, THEY DO!” Liam yells from the other end of the video call.“No!” Max shakes his head hard. “T-Rex has tiny arms. He can't open the door!”Theo, who's been busy showing off a red toy dinosaur, suddenly turns around and narrows his eyes. “BUT HE CAN BREAK IT!”Max pauses. “Actually...” He raises one little finger. “That's a good point.”Gabriella, who's sitting on the couch going over the homeschooling schedule, looks up as I approach.“How long have they been arguing?”“Twenty minutes.”“Abo
Oh, you've got to be kidding me.Of all the questions she could ask after the conversation we've been having for the past ten minutes, that's the one she decides to go with.I shift my handbag onto my left arm and straighten the hem of my blazer, which is already perfectly straight. I have this bad habit of fussing with little things whenever I'm trying not to say something I'll regret. It usually works. Sometimes.“Noelle,” I say, letting out an irritated sigh. “You're asking the wrong person.”She frowns. “I just want to know if—”“I heard you.”She stops.I look at her, then glance at my watch. Almost noon. I should already be in my car, calling Gabriella to make sure Max isn't using homeschooling as an opportunity to build a dinosaur empire in the living room.Instead, I'm still standing in the hallway of Jamesson Holdings, my feet starting to hurt, with a beautiful woman who wants me to explain why her boyfriend is planning to leave her.Her boyfriend. God, I didn't even know th
I didn't answer.Noelle watched my reaction, perhaps looking for something that would explain why I'd gone completely blank for a few seconds.I had no idea Rafael had told her that, and I wanted absolutely nothing to do with knowing about it.Not once, throughout all our conversations about Max, security, the Malibu project, or the anonymous photos, had Rafael mentioned that he was considering ending things with Noelle.I remembered her introducing him that morning.My boyfriend, Rafael Moretti.And how she'd rested her hand on Rafael's arm before he slipped away to take the document.Damn. I really wished I hadn't noticed that earlier.“Noelle...” I tried to find the right words, something that wouldn't make an already bad situation worse. “I didn't know.”“I know.” She looked away, toward the long stretch of windows along the hallway, where the Los Angeles skyline stood beneath the bright morning sky. “But I told him I wasn't ready to let him go.”I raised an eyebrow.Noelle quickl
Henry nodded, then turned to Claire to discuss the next steps in the review.I jotted down a few things I needed to pass along to Athena and the project team, but my mind was still stuck on one piece of information.The sender had already contacted someone outside the Jamesson family.Which meant photos of Max, my marriage documents, and details about my personal life might already be in more hands than we knew about.I glanced at my phone lying beside my notebook.There was a message from Gabriella.A photo of Max sitting at the dining table, working on the worksheet he'd finally agreed to do, while Kevin sat in a little chair beside him wearing a homemade paper hat.Underneath the photo, Gabriella had written:He says Kevin graduated from breakfast.I fought back a smile and texted her back, telling her to make sure Kevin wasn't granted permission to use scissors without supervision.When I looked up, Rafael was watching me from across the table.His gaze dropped briefly to my phone
I looked at him.Henry raised a hand slightly, as if he didn't want me to misunderstand what he meant.“This person isn't asking for money. They haven't made any contractual demands. They want us to question the relationship between Aster House and Moretti Holdings. What I want to know is whether there's a business motive behind these threats or if someone is dragging a personal matter into the company.”I crossed my legs.“That's what we're investigating. My counsel has already requested preservation of all the original emails, including attachments and headers. Some of the personal information in those documents also relates to a security matter outside the Malibu project.”Henry studied my face. “Does that have anything to do with the photos of your child?”I held my pen just above my notebook.Beside Rafael, Noelle lowered her gaze.“Yes,” I answered.Henry turned to Claire. “I want any information involving a minor separated from the project document distribution. Access should b
I arrived a few minutes before eleven.Athena was already waiting for me near the executive elevators with our legal counsel. She was wearing a gray blazer and holding a black leather folder thick enough to make me feel better about the whole situation.“Please tell me that's the entire Malibu history.”“From the first proposal to the final approval.”I took one of the folders she handed me. “Excellent. If someone's going to spend their day reading documents, I want to make sure they really suffer.”Athena glanced at my outfit.“What?”“Nothing.”“Athena.”“You're wearing a white dress to a governance review.”I looked down at my simple ivory dress, which I'd paired with a cream blazer and nude heels.“And?”“Nothing. You look like you're about to win the case and buy the building while you're at it.”I smiled. “Finally. A compliment.”We stepped into the elevator.When the doors opened on the executive floor, one of Henry's assistants greeted us and escorted us to a conference room o
By ten twelve, I had already left Aster House with my laptop still warm in my bag, one unfinished contractor call in my ear, and Nina’s last text message sitting on my screen:[If the tile vendor calls again, I’m faking my own death.]I replied with one hand at a red light.[Do it after lunch. We ha
We went downstairs together. The house was still full of clean morning light, the large glass windows in the living room catching the color of the ocean in the distance. In the kitchen, Max’s breakfast was almost gone: small pieces of pancake, strawberries, scrambled eggs he had eaten while complain
Today, Maxime Rivera decided that uniform shorts were a form of oppression.I knew this before he said it, because he was already lying flat on his back on the bedroom rug with one leg in the air, his black hair sticking out in every direction, his bangs covering almost half his forehead, and his wh
Max pressed his lips together, then slowly pulled out the chair. He tried to climb up by himself, his chubby knee pushing into the seat cushion, one hand gripping the edge of the table. His face was so serious, as if he were scaling the Pottery Barn version of Everest. Once he managed to sit, he im







