LOGINAva’s POV The drive to the Blackwood Estate felt shorter than it should have. Maybe because my mind refused to stay in one place long enough to measure time. Every few minutes I found myself staring out the window only to realize I didn’t actually see any of the scenery passing by. The city lights slowly disappeared behind us. Buildings gave way to trees, traffic disappeared, and the closer we got to the estate, the quieter everything became. My stomach twisted tighter with every passing mile. I looked down at my hands. They were clasped so tightly together my knuckles had turned white. By the time the car pulled to a stop, my nerves were all over the place. The driver stepped out and walked around the vehicle. A second later my door opened. Cool evening air rushed in. I took a slow breath. Gathering whatever courage I had left. I stepped out of the car. My heels touched the stone driveway. I smoothed my dress once. Looked up—and completely forgot whatever I had been
Ava’s POV I woke up before my alarm. Not because I was well rested—because my body didn’t know how to stay still anymore. For a few seconds, I just lay there staring at the ceiling, listening to the quiet of my apartment like it might tell me something useful. It didn’t. It never did. Then it hit me. The Blackwood family dinner was tonight. My stomach tightened instantly. I sat up too fast, my hand going to my forehead like that could physically push the memory back into yesterday where it belonged. It didn’t belong in today. It didn’t belong in my real life. But the fact that it was real, was the worst part. I don’t know how fast the days had run that it was already weekend. The conversation happened so fast, by the time I’d realized what I had agreed to, it was already done and there was no clean way to take it back without making it something heavier than it already was. I swung my legs off the bed slowly, pressing my feet into the floor. Desperate to feel something
Ethan’s POV The restaurant was too polished for what I needed it to be. Soft lighting. Expensive silence. The kind of place people chose when they wanted to believe they were still in control of their lives. I didn’t feel like I was. I sat at the back corner table, where the mirror-like glass wall reflected everything but revealed nothing useful. My fingers tapped lightly against the table even though I wasn’t paying attention to the rhythm. I haven’t been paying attention to much lately. Especially not work, not anything that didn’t somehow circle back to Ava. I exhaled slowly through my nose and forced my eyes away from the entrance. The chair across from me finally pulled back. Serena Hayes sat down like she owned the space around her before she even touched the table. She didn’t greet me, never really did. Her bag was placed beside her, precise, controlled. Her expression, however, was not. “You’re getting sloppy,” she said, clearly irritated. I leaned back sligh
Adrian’s POV The drive from Victoria’s penthouse to Ava’s apartment should have taken twenty minutes. Somehow it felt like an hour. Every traffic light seemed longer than usual, every red light felt personal, and every memory Victoria had dragged out of me refused to stay where it belonged. By the time I pulled up outside Ava’s building, I was more exhausted than I had been after some of the worst business negotiations of my career. I remained seated inside the car for several seconds after the engine died. The city moved around me without pause, people hurrying down sidewalks, taxis blaring their horns, delivery trucks blocking entire lanes as if they owned Manhattan. Everything looked normal. Meanwhile my thoughts felt like a battlefield. Victoria had changed. That was the problem. The woman I remembered had always been difficult, passionate, stubborn, and impossible to predict. What I had seen today was something else entirely. Something sharper. Something obsessed. And s
Adrian’s POV The drive to Victoria’s penthouse felt longer than it should have. Manhattan moved around me in a blur of headlights, traffic, and impatient horns, but I barely noticed any of it. My attention remained fixed on one thing. Victoria. I hadn’t seen her in years. Not really. There had been photographs occasionally. News articles. Reports from people who thought I cared enough to hear updates about her life. I never listened. At least that’s what I told myself. Because secretly I wanted to know. The truth was more complicated. For a long time after she left, I couldn’t go a day without thinking about her. Then a week. Then a month. Then eventually an entire year passed and I realized I had survived it. Not healed. Survived. There was a difference. The city lights flashed through the car windows as I leaned back against the seat. I still remembered the day everything ended. Not the crash. Not the hospital. After. When she pushed me away. I had spent weeks trying to sta
Adrian’s POV I called Ava the moment I got to the office. Not because I had a reason to but because I wanted to hear her voice. I gave her a week leave from the office to rest after everything that happened in Chicago. The thought irritated me more than it should have. I loosened my tie as I stepped into my office and closed the door behind me. The city stretched beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows while my phone rang twice before she answered. “Hey, good morning.” I said softly, surprised on how easy that came out “Good morning,” she replied. She sounded tired. “You sound exhausted.” The kind of tired that comes from spending an entire night thinking. “I didn’t sleep much.” I frowned immediately. “You okay?” A brief pause followed. “Yeah.” I leaned against my desk. “You don’t sound okay.” That earned a small laugh. Then she sighed. “I got another text last night.” I sighed deeply this time around. “I’ll be right there.” Before she could respond, I ended the call. Something
Adrian’s POV The silence lingering across the executive floor after Daniel Mercer’s termination felt thick enough to choke on. Employees avoided eye contact as security escorted him through the lobby carrying a cardboard box filled with the remains of his career, and the fear hanging in the air r
Ava’s POV The elevator ride to the thirty-second floor felt longer than it ever had before. Every second stretched painfully as I stood beside Adrian in complete silence, hyperaware of the warmth radiating from him and the cold knot twisting tighter inside my stomach. My reflection stared back at
Adrian’s POV Something is wrong with Ava Sinclair. I know it the second she steps onto the executive floor the next morning. The air changes around her before she even reaches her desk. Most people would never notice it. To everyone else, she looks exactly the same—elegant, composed, impossible t
Ava’s POVThe door closes behind me, soft and almost weightless against the storm building inside my chest. I keep walking, one step after another, my heels striking the floor in a steady rhythm that doesn’t match the chaos in my pulse. I don’t stop in the hallway, not when the receptionist glances







