LOGINEPILOGUE Three Years Later Paris was everything Nadia had imagined it would be, and also nothing like she had imagined it would be, which was the thing about Paris that nobody could really prepare you for until you were actually standing in it. She had imagined it from photographs as a child, from travel books she had bought and kept on her shelves long before she had any real reason to think she would ever go. The reality was louder. More alive. More everything. And backstage at Paris Fashion Week, with thirty minutes to go before her collection walked, it was also the most concentrated version of chaos Nadia had ever personally occupied. Models moved in every direction. Stylists applied final touches. A translator was speaking rapidly near the door to a French production assistant who was speaking equally rapidly back, neither of them apparently arriving at an agreement but both of them clearly committed to the attempt. Nadia stood at the edge of all of it, looking at the co
Nadia’s POV I walked toward him, Richard’s arm steady under my hand, and the whole thing felt so different from the last time I had done something like this that it wasn’t even a useful comparison. Richard placed my hand in Callum’s. He looked at Callum steadily for a moment, just one moment, and said quietly, “Take care of her.” Callum looked at him and answered without a second’s hesitation. “I will.” Richard nodded once. Then he stepped back. Callum looked at me. “Hi,” he said, very quietly, just for me. I smiled. “Hi.” The officiant welcomed everyone and began the ceremony. Then it was time for the vows we had written ourselves. Callum went first. He looked at me and said, “I promise to stand beside you. Not in front of you, not behind you. Beside you. As your equal, in every room, in every decision, in every version of this life we’re building.” He paused. “I promise to never ask you to make yourself smaller so that I can feel larger. I’ve watched you fight your wa
Nadia POV I woke up on the morning of my wedding and lay still for a moment, looking at the ceiling. The room was quiet. Early light was just beginning to come through the curtains, before the noise started. I stayed there for a little while, just breathing. Then I got up and went to the window. Standing there, looking out at the city in the early morning light, a memory came back to me. Another morning, years ago. The morning of my first wedding. I had woken up early that day too. I had believed, that morning, that love meant someone would always choose you. That a person who loved you would stand beside you in every room, without question. I had been wrong about all of it. Not wrong to want those things. Just wrong about where I was going to find them. I stood at the window this morning and felt certain. I smiled at the window. Then I went to make coffee. Mara arrived at eight-thirty, carrying a bag large enough to suggest she was planning an extended stay rather than a
Callum’s POV I started from scratch that same afternoon. I called the penthouse staff and told them what I needed, which was help without taking over. I spent three hours deciding what to use and what to leave out. Candles, because Nadia had once mentioned, casually, in the middle of a completely unrelated conversation, that she found candles more comfortable than overhead lighting when she was somewhere she wanted to relax. Flowers, but not the elaborate arrangement kind, just simple ones in colors she actually wore, the colors she gravitated toward in her collection, which I had paid close enough attention to that I knew them without having to look anything up. I found the photograph from her first fashion showcase. I had taken it myself on my phone, without telling her, from across the room, right at the moment she had walked onto the runway and the applause had started and her face had done that particular thing where the feeling she was having was too big to contain and it s
Callum POV I had closed deals worth more money than most people would see in several lifetimes. I had sat across tables from men who used silence as a weapon and had stayed quieter than them. I had walked into rooms where the entire energy was designed to make me feel like the smaller person and had walked out with what I came for. I had built my business from nothing but a set of blueprints, a belief that it was going to work, and a stubborn refusal to accept any version of the answer that wasn’t yes. None of that had prepared me for buying an engagement ring. The box was sitting on my kitchen counter, small and dark blue, it was completely unremarkable from the outside. I had picked it up from the jeweler two days ago and had opened it approximately fourteen times since then. Not because I was worried about the ring itself. But because opening it and looking at it was the only thing that made the whole plan feel real rather than something I had constructed in my own head. I ope
Nadia’s POV I looked at her for a long moment then I said, quietly, “I heard you’ve been selling your jewelry.” She went very still. “I also heard most of your friends have stopped answering your calls,” I said. “The charity boards. The Galas. Those lunch invitations.” I paused. “Tell me, how are you enjoying going broke?” The words landed exactly where I intended them to. “I didn’t destroy you, Vivienne.” She looked at me. “You destroyed yourself,” I said. “This was bound to happen anyway.” Suddenly, she did something very unexpected. She cried. I hadn’t expected that, but I wasn’t particularly moved by it either. Not because I didn’t understand that she was suffering. I did understand it. I just also understood that the suffering was the consequence of choices she had made freely, across years, toward people who had never done anything to deserve them. Her voice shook when she finally spoke again. “Congratulations,” she said. “You finally succeeded. You took everything.
Ariel sat quietly, her hands clasped tightly in her lap, feeling the judging eyes of the adults on her but she kept her gaze fixed straight ahead. Professor Grayson stood silently by the window, his arms crossed over his chest, his attention seemingly focused on something far outside. The college ad
Inside the building, Ethan came walking quickly, almost jogging to get closer to her. “Hey! Ariel!” he called out. She turned her head and gave him a quick smile. “Hi, Ethan. I'm almost late for my first class. I'll talk to you later, okay?” He blinked his eyes, looking a little surprised. “Oh. U
Ariel stirred against the pillow, her skin still clammy from the fever that had kept her curled up in bed last night. The small, damp cloth that had been resting on her forehead had become a little dry and slipped down as she slowly opened her eyes. The ceiling fan spun gently above, and for a momen
As she stepped out into the cool night air, he leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “I’d love to do this again.” he said, hopeful in a way that made her stomach twist from guilt. Ariel hesitated. “Ethan... I appreciate tonight. Really. But I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I’m not looking fo







