ログインMILES’ POVDmitri climbed the steps to the stage with the same unhurried, easy confidence he’d carried all night, and the entire hall erupted into applause around him, a wall of sound that seemed to press directly against my chest. I stood frozen, my mind struggling to catch up with what my eyes were telling me, the pieces refusing to settle into any shape that made sense.The chairman of Ambercaz. The man Cierra and I had spent the last several minutes tearing apart, mocking, calling broke, calling nothing, an empty barrel with all talk and no substance. And he’d stood there, taking every single insult without a single flicker of retaliation, without once revealing the truth that would have silenced us instantly.He’d had the perfect opportunity, right there in front of us, to shut us both down with a single sentence. Instead, he’d let us keep talking, kept letting us dig ourselves deeper, and now, standing on that stage in front of the entire room, he’d found an infinitely more deva
MILES’ POVThe announcer was clearly about to call up another representative from Ambercaz, the same way they had every single year for as long as I could remember, nearly a decade of the same predictable pattern playing out at this exact gala.But there had been whispers circulating earlier tonight, quiet murmurs I’d caught fragments of while making my rounds through the crowd, something about the chairman of Ambercaz finally stepping forward himself this year, breaking whatever tradition of anonymity he’d maintained for as long as the company had existed. I wasn’t entirely sure if it was true or simply another baseless rumor, the kind that always seemed to circulate at events like this, everyone hungry for some fresh piece of gossip to chew on between courses.My eyes swept slowly across the crowd, searching for any obvious cluster of security, any tight formation of bodyguards positioned protectively around a single figure, the kind of arrangement I’d grown up watching surround Gra
DMITRI’S POVI watched both their faces as realization slowly kicked in over what I’d just said. This was what happened when someone operated entirely on confidence and absolutely no actual thought behind it. If they’d paused even for a moment to consider things properly before walking over here, they wouldn’t have ended up looking quite this foolish in front of me.“Or are you going to say I rented my way in here too?” I said, sarcasm dripping from every word.They both fell silent, the truth of it settling heavily over them, the realization that their entire assumption had been built on nothing but careless arrogance. And I wasn’t finished yet.“Arthur really needs to sit the two of you down properly,” I added. “Does he even know what’s going on between you both?”Their expressions hardened instantly, anger and surprise tangled together.“How do you know Grandfather?” Miles demanded, then, without waiting for an answer, spun toward Anabel instead. “And you, have you been going aroun
DMITRI'S POV “You know, your voice is really starting to get on my nerves,” the woman said, her tone sharpening further, venom bleeding into every syllable now, her manicured fingers tightening slightly around the stem of her champagne glass. “Just because I said you might have decent looks doesn’t mean you should let it go straight to your head.” She turned her attention back toward Anabel, her expression shifting into something almost pitying, the kind of look reserved for someone she considered beneath actual sympathy. “We might not have been the closest of friends, or co-wives, whatever you want to call it, but I honestly thought you were better than this.” “Hold on,” Anabel started, her voice tight, clearly trying to salvage the situation before it spiraled any further out of her control. “Firstly, this is all just a misunderstanding. The two of us aren’t..." “What’s the misunderstanding, babe?” I said, the words sliding off my tongue smoothly enough that anyone listening woul
DMITRI’S POVI hadn’t planned on saying anything at first. If it had been entirely up to me, I would have simply excused myself and walked away the moment things started tensing up between Anabel and her husband, or soon-to-be ex-husband—whatever the correct term was at this exact point in their unraveling marriage. It wasn’t my place to insert myself into something so personal, something that had clearly been building between the two of them long before tonight, long before I’d ever entered the picture. But the moment she reached out and tugged lightly on my sleeve, silently asking me to stay without saying a single word, I’d decided to simply stand quietly beside her instead, present but uninvolved, a silent buffer rather than an active participant in whatever was unfolding.But now, this woman had walked up out of nowhere and opened with that particular word, aimed squarely at Anabel, and something about the sheer boldness of it shifted my earlier resolve to stay out of things enti
ANABEL'S POV I let out a small, sharp scoff, genuinely almost amused by how ridiculous his question sounded. “You think you still have the right to be called my husband after everything you’ve done?” I asked, my voice cutting cleaner than I expected it to. “On paper, yes,” Miles said, entirely unbothered, adjusting the cuff of his sleeve like this conversation was barely worth the effort he was putting into it. “I’m still legally your husband. And come on, don’t make me out to be the villain here. It’s not like I’m the first or last married man to ever cheat, is it?” he added. “Screw you,” I said, the words leaving my mouth easily, almost effortlessly. “I love how casually that rolls off your tongue. But just wait. A few more days, and I’ll cut every single link tying me to you and your name off for good,” I added. He let out a small, dismissive scoff, rolling his eyes exactly the way he always did whenever I brought up the divorce, like it was some empty threat he’d heard a hundr
ANABEL'S POV I took a small breath, steadying my emotions and finally pushing away all the tears I'd been crying for the past few minutes. Every now and then, I could still feel the heaviness lingering in my chest, but I couldn't keep breaking down forever. There was no room for tears anymore. Y
ANABEL’S POVA man stood there holding a glass loosely in one hand, his expression calm but amused. Even through my blurry vision, I could tell he was attractive. Very attractive.Tall, dark hair, sharp jawline.The kind of face people noticed immediately.I stared at him blankly for a moment befor
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







