LOGINAmanda showed up Saturday afternoon with her daughter, Zoe, in tow, a bag of snacks, and the specific overprepared energy of someone who'd rehearsed a conversation in her car before coming up."The doorman already knows Zoe by name," Amanda said, setting her bag down in the entryway, glancing around the apartment the way she always did, half-admiring, half-amused by the sheer scale of it. "He gave her a chocolate from behind the desk. I think your boyfriend's building is spoiling my child.""He does that for all the kids in the building," I said. "Apparently it's a whole thing. Liam complained about the chocolate budget line item once, completely seriously, in front of Patricia.""Only a billionaire complains about a chocolate budget," Amanda said, settling onto the couch while Zoe wandered toward the window, already absorbed in the view of the park below, small hands pressed to the glass."He complains about the strangest things, honestly," I said, pouring her coffee from the machine
He didn't come back to bed until well past midnight, and when he finally did, I was still awake, staring at the ceiling, waiting, the apartment silent except for the faint mechanical hum of the building settling around us the way it always did this late."You don't have to tell me," I said into the dark. "Whatever it was last night. I don't want you to feel cornered into it.""I know." A long pause, long enough that I could hear him breathing in the dark. "I want to tell you anyway. I just needed a day to find the right words for it, which isn't usually a problem I have. I can talk a room full of lawyers into agreeing with each other. This is somehow harder.""Take your time. I'm not going anywhere."He was quiet another moment, and I heard him shift, sitting up slightly against the headboard, the faint city light through the curtains catching the line of his jaw."When we finally stopped hiding it," Liam said slowly, "when it was real, out in the open, not something stolen between tw
We ended up on the balcony that night, the city spread out below in the particular glittering sprawl that still occasionally made me forget I lived somewhere people paid seven figures for the view alone. Liam had poured two glasses of wine neither of us had touched yet, sitting on the low stone ledge instead of the furniture, like the conversation needed less ceremony than the apartment usually demanded. Somewhere below, a car service idled at the curb waiting for a call he'd told them not to expect tonight, one of the small quiet luxuries of his life that I still occasionally forgot to notice."Can I ask you something I've genuinely never actually asked you?" I said."Anything at all.""Back then. Before anything happened between us." I made myself keep my voice steady. "Did you see a marriage falling apart, or did you just want me? I need the honest answer, not the flattering one."Liam was quiet long enough that I almost regretted asking, the city noise below filling the space wher
"You know what today is," Amanda said, no hello, the moment I picked up, and I felt my stomach drop the particular way it did every year on this exact date, like my body kept the calendar even when I tried not to."I know," I said."You okay?""I'm fine," I said, and even I could hear how unconvincing it sounded."You're doing the flat voice," Amanda said. "The one you do every June sixteenth like clockwork. I've heard it enough years running to recognise it now."I sat down slowly at the kitchen island, the apartment quiet around me, Liam already gone for an early meeting downtown, the driver picking him up before I'd even finished my coffee."I still can't believe you remember the exact date," I said with a sigh accompanying it."I remember it because I was there," Amanda said, quieter now. "I covered for you, Nina. More than once, that first month. Told Daniel you were at my place when you weren't. Told myself I was helping my best friend and not actually thinking too hard about wh
"She's in," Liam said, striding into the kitchen at six a.m. with his phone still pressed to his ear, waving me over before he'd even hung up. "Okafor. She met with me last night, heard the whole timeline Drew fed her, and didn't love finding out she'd been used to rush a vote instead of actually being consulted on one.""So she's voting against him?""Better," Liam said, finally setting the phone down. "She's voting with Whitfield's motion to table for proper review. Publicly. This morning, before Drew even walks into the room.""How did you convince her?""I didn't, really," Liam admitted. "I just told her the truth about the timeline and let her draw her own conclusions. Turns out she doesn't love being managed any more than you do.""That changes everything," I said, feeling something loosen in my chest for the first time in days, a tightness I hadn't fully realised I'd been carrying since the elevator doors closed on him three nights ago."It changes the arithmetic," Patricia sai
"Whitfield's team leaked something to Patricia last night," Liam said, sliding a folder across the kitchen island toward me before I'd even finished pouring my coffee. "You should see this before we go in.""Show me everything," I said, and he did, no hesitation this time, no soft edit of what I could or couldn't handle before nine in the morning."Patricia thinks Drew's been building this for longer than we realised," Liam said, watching me scan the first page. "Possibly since before Camilla went public.""So the two things were never separate," I said slowly. "He was always going to try something. Camilla was just a cover.""That's my read too," Liam said. "Which means this isn't really new. It's just visible now."By the time we reached the office, Patricia was already waiting in the small conference room, three laptops open, a whiteboard half-filled with names and dates in her tight, efficient handwriting."Nina, sit," Patricia said, without looking up, sliding a chair out with he
“You need to see this,” she said, her voice breaking into laughter as she turned the screen toward me.I leaned forward slightly, squinting at the phone. “What now?”“Girl, they are dragging him,” she said, shaking her head, her tone somewhere between impressed and amused. “Look at this headline.
Deep down inside of me, I knew the quietness in this office wasn’t going to remain when Daniel arrived. I sat across from my lawyer, my hands resting on the arm of the chair like I needed something solid to keep me up. The clock on the wall ticked steadily, each second dragging, and I found myself
“Who is it?” My voice came out rough, because I had successfully finished a bottle of red wine on my own.The knock came again, this time loud and it seemed whoever it was had gotten impatient.I managed to drag myself up, my body resisting every movement as I stumbled toward the door, one hand lea
“Hello, Nina. It’s really nice to meet you.” Liam responded with a smile on his face.I could hear his voice echoing in my ears while my mind played back events from last night. It felt like my favourite memory had suddenly become a nightmare that I was living in.“What’s wrong, honey?” Daniel aske







