เข้าสู่ระบบI turn my stool slightly to face him and pick up the last strawberry. “Rafael, Rowan is my neighbor.”“I'm aware.”“Good. Because I was starting to worry you didn't understand the concept of a neighborhood.”He doesn't laugh.I pop the strawberry into my mouth and chew. “And he's not one of your employees who has to submit a report every time he visits.”Rafael rests his palm on the counter. “I asked if he has dinner here often.”“And I heard you.”“That's a very long answer to a simple question.”I shrug. “He comes over sometimes. Sometimes we have dinner together. One time, Mama made him eat so much arroz con pollo he could barely stand afterward. Normal neighbor things.”Rafael says nothing.My smile widens. “What?”“Nothing.”“Really?”“Really.”I nod slowly. “Interesting. Because your face doesn't look like nothing.”His gaze drops to my lips for a moment before returning to my eyes. “Since when do you pay so much attention to my face?”I laugh. “Please. Your face takes up most o
Rafael takes off his bomber jacket and drapes it over the back of a chair. Now he's sitting on the rug with one knee bent, his black T-shirt pulling slightly across his shoulders as he helps Max attach pieces of cardboard to make a parking area.I'm standing in the kitchen, slicing strawberries into a small bowl, and from where I am, I can see most of the living room.“The truck needs to come out this way,” Max says.Rafael shifts one of the boxes. “Then the door needs to be wider.”“But Kevin needs parking, too.”“Kevin doesn't drive.”Max looks offended. “He can.”“Really?”“Yeah. I taught him.”I laugh to myself in the kitchen.Rafael turns his head slightly.I immediately go back to cutting strawberries, as if I have some professional reason to be watching two guys design a dinosaur garage.A few minutes later, Max manages to get his little truck into the new parking area.He cheers.Rafael holds up his hand, and Max immediately gives him a high five loud enough for me to hear fro
“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
Five years later.Los Angeles felt like a city built out of glass, sunlight, and people far too confident to ever admit they were confused.I stood in the twenty-third-floor boardroom at Jamesson Holdings, facing a presentation screen the size of a mortal sin, while Noelle Jamesson stared at the ho
The front door closed softly behind us, the quiet click echoing through our mansion in Brera, too beautiful, too silent, too expensive to be the home of a broken marriage.The foyer lights glowed softly over pale marble. The white flowers in the console vase were still fresh. Rafael’s coat had been
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
My house sat inside a gated community far too expensive for people who still had real-life problems, but Los Angeles had always possessed a slightly cruel sense of humor.At the front gate, the security guard gave a small nod when he saw my car. I lowered the window and offered the minimum required







