MasukCIERRA'S POV“Roman,” I said quickly, keeping my voice low despite the empty kitchen surrounding me, “Arthur knows everything.”There was a brief, sharp silence on the other end of the line before he spoke again, his tone considerably more alert now. “Everything meaning what, exactly?”“About the baby,” I said. “That Miles is actually the father, not Zach. Anabel apparently went straight to him and told him the entire truth.”“Does he know about me?” Roman asked immediately, his voice tightening with obvious concern.“No,” I said quickly. “He doesn’t know anything about you. This is purely about Miles and me.”I heard him exhale slowly on the other end, some of the tension easing slightly from his voice. “Okay. That’s something, at least.”“Roman, since he knows now, there’s no reason for me to keep staying here,” I said, glancing briefly back toward the staircase to make sure Miles hadn’t followed me down. “I’m coming over to your place. Tomorrow”“You can’t come here,” he said flatl
CIERRA’S POV“I need to go see Arthur myself,” I said, my voice climbing sharply as I began pacing the same way Miles had been minutes earlier. “I’ll go tonight, right now, actually. I’ll get on my knees in front of him if I have to. I’ll tell him I understand his anger, that I’ll do anything to fix this, that we deserve a second chance.”Miles let out another heavy, exhausted sigh and dropped onto the edge of the bed, rubbing both hands roughly down his face. “Don’t even think about it if you value yourself even a little,” he said, his voice flat with resignation. “I’ve told you what happened when I tried talking to him. He’s not interested in second chances, Cierra. Not from me, and definitely not from you.”“Then what exactly are we supposed to do?” I asked, my voice rising with frustration, panic bleeding through every syllable now. “Just accept this? Just pack up and move into some cramped apartment like a couple of broke college students?”“What other choice do we have?” he aske
CIERRA’S POV“Do you think I enjoy being evicted?” Miles snapped, yanking the wardrobe door open with more force than necessary. He dragged out a suitcase and dropped it onto the bed with a heavy thud that made me flinch slightly. “You think he told me this news and I just stood there happily accepting it? He didn’t give me a choice, Cierra. And from everything I’ve learned about that man over the years, once he gives an instruction, he doesn’t change his mind about it. Ever.”I stood there completely speechless, watching him yank the suitcase open and begin pulling items out of the closet with the kind of grim, mechanical resignation of someone who had already accepted defeat. It was like he had stopped fighting the moment the words had left Arthur’s mouth, like the thought of pushing back against it hadn’t even crossed his mind as a real possibility. That, more than anything else, terrified me. The Miles I knew never simply accepted defeat without exhausting every possible option fi
CIERRA’S POVI blinked multiple times, almost convinced I must have misheard him, some strange ringing settling into my ears that made his words sound distorted and wrong.“What? What did you just say?” I asked, confusion clear in my voice, my heart already beginning to pound harder against my ribs before I fully understood why.“You heard exactly what I said,” he replied, pushing himself completely off the bed and standing up. He was already pacing back and forth across the bedroom floor, his bare feet moving restlessly against the carpet. “We have less than forty-eight hours to leave this house.”My heart dropped instantly, a cold, sinking feeling spreading through my chest like ice water. My brows drew together sharply, my mouth already falling open before I could stop it.What?“Forty-eight hours to leave?” I said, forcing a laugh, hoping desperately he would suddenly turn around and admit this was all some kind of ridiculous, poorly timed joke, that he’d gotten me good and now we
CIERRA’S POV“Well, at least the water trick worked. I can see you’re doing a lot better now,” I said, sitting down on the edge of the bed and watching him carefully. It had been more than thirty minutes since I’d dragged him into that shower for what I could only describe as a forced reset, and it seemed to have actually done the job, sobering him up enough to at least stand upright without swaying.He didn’t answer. He simply continued buttoning his nightshirt with his back turned toward me, his movements stiff and deliberate, like he was buying himself extra time before he’d actually have to face whatever conversation was coming.If he genuinely thought avoiding eye contact was going to help him dodge my questions, he was sorely mistaken. I’d known this man for years, long enough to recognize exactly when he was stalling.“Now that your head’s clear,” I said, keeping my voice level, “I’d like to know exactly what happened tonight.”“Nothing happened,” he said coldly, finishing the
CIERRA’S POV “Ew, ew, ew,” I muttered, snatching my hands back from his belt the second I realized exactly what I was looking at. “No. Absolutely not. I am not touching him. I’m not taking that off with actual urine on it.” I stood there for a long moment, staring down at him sprawled across the bed, completely unconscious and utterly oblivious to the disgusting state he’d left himself in. Part of me genuinely considered just leaving him there exactly as he was, walking straight back downstairs, and sleeping in one of the guest rooms until morning. He could wake up in his own mess as some kind of poetic justice for whatever ridiculous bender he’d apparently gone on tonight. But realistically, I knew that wasn’t going to work. This was still my bedroom too, and I certainly wasn’t sleeping on some lumpy guest bed just because he’d decided to drink himself into a stupor and lose control of his bladder in the process. If I left him here like this, that smell would seep into everything,
ANABEL’S POVI woke up the next morning emotionally exhausted.The moment I opened my eyes, reality settled over me again. Cierra remained in the house. Miles was still avoiding me. And somehow everything that had happened over the past few days still seemed impossible to process even after everyth
ANABEL’S POV~ Four Days Later ~The atmosphere inside the church felt heavy the moment I stepped in.Soft instrumental music drifted through the speakers while low whispers spread across the room, as though people were afraid to speak too loudly around death.Everyone was dressed in black, their f
ANABEL’S POVMy fingers trembled over the laptop as I looked at the screen, still trying to convince myself there had to be another explanation for what I was seeing. Maybe I misunderstood something. Maybe my mind was twisting everything because of what happened last night. But the more I went th
ANABEL’S POVA low groan pulled me out of sleep.At first, I thought I was dreaming. My eyes stayed closed while I turned on the bed, reaching for Miles out of habit.The sheets beside me were cold.I frowned and opened my eyes. The other side of the bed was empty.The digital clock beside me read







