INICIAR SESIÓNMELANIE Keep yourself in check, Melanie. You’re literally here to buy a dress for Cassian’s engagement party. Sure, I might have agreed to stay at the Alistair mansion, but it didn’t mean I had to sleep with them. The lines have already been drawn. I just need to stay on my end of it. Yet, the distance between the middle of the room and where he sits feels both incredibly short and terrifyingly long. My legs tremble as I cross the plush carpet, every shaky and breathless step feels like a blatant confession of the dark, undeniable pull these men have on me. I know it's reckless. I know I should be keeping my distance, protecting whatever fragile pieces of my heart I have left, but my body simply refuses to listen to reason.I reach the armchair. Valentin doesn't even give me a chance to second-guess myself. His large hands grip my waist, and with one effortless tug, he pulls me down.I land squarely on his lap. The solid, radiating heat of his muscular thighs seeps right thr
MELANIE Guests of honor, what does that even mean?I grab the phone from the bed and stare at it, my wide eyes reading through the bold font on the screen. “In an interview with Pearl magazine, Evangeline Alistair states that the ceremony, although for her stepson and his lovely bride-to-be…” I hear Cassian scoff, but I continue. “...will be held in honor of her daughter and granddaughter who have both returned healthy and happy after several years out of the city. She says it will also be to celebrate her daughter’s escape from an abusive man and marriage, and show that while love is something to be celebrated, it is important for women to be strong enough to back down when situations become toxic. The billionaire and business mogul praised…”I can’t do this shit anymore. “Is she fucking serious? When did she even do all this? And Pearl magazine? Hasn’t she been in this house all day?” I lament, looking to the Alistair brothers for a response. Xavier shrugs, but I see the cautio
MELANIE Penelope is finally asleep, her tiny hands clutching the edge of the blanket.Her face is red and puffy, and watching the slow rise and fall of her chest makes my heart physically ache.I sit on the edge of the mattress, staring at the half-packed duffel bag sitting on the floor. It mocks me. My entire life is officially a poorly rated daytime soap opera where I am the unpaid extra. All I wanted was my mother’s respect. I wanted her to look at me and not see a massive, walking mistake for the first time since Dad died, but absence did not make her heart grow fonder…not even a little bit. There is a knock on the door, and I look up with tired eyes. “Who is it?” “It’s us, Mel.”A little part of me wants to grunt and ask them to leave, the other part—the far greater part—is happy that they’re here, happy that they always seem to show up at the best time. “You can come in.”The air in the room vanishes instantly as Valentin, Cassian, and Xavier step inside. They are alm
VALENTIN ALISTAIR When I find Evangeline, she is in the greenhouse garden. I stand silently in the arched glass doorway and simply watch her. How quickly did she manage to shed her pristine designer dress and slip into a canvas gardening apron, denim suspenders, and a wide-brimmed straw hat? She hums a quiet, classical tune, picking up ripe tomatoes from the green vine and placing them gently into a woven basket resting on her hip. This is one of the many things that drove my father absolutely crazy about her. “She grows her own vegetables, can you imagine?! She’s an angel, this one.” Yeah, right. She is so angelic that she managed to crawl perfectly into a married man’s bed without a second thought. “Are you going to speak, or are you going to keep staring at me?” Evangeline’s voice cuts sharply through the humid air of the greenhouse. I watch her rise to her full height, taking note of the dark soil carefully rubbed onto the knuckles of her expensive gard
VALENTIN ALISTAIR “Well, what did I say that was so wrong?” Evangeline’s high pitched voice fills the room. I raise a single brow, staring directly at her. The heavy crystal wine glass feels cold in my grip. My appetite is gone. The expensive food sitting on the plate in front of me could as well be a pile of ashes. Still, the clock is ticking. It is only a matter of time until I lose my temper completely. My father shakes his head, setting his cloth napkin on the table with a heavy sigh. “You spoiled her, Eva,” It’s almost amusing the audacity he has to sound disappointed. If I didn’t know better, I’ll think he has some kind of award…father of the year in all the worst ways. “Now she has absolutely no respect for you, even in the presence of her older siblings.” I scoff, lifting my glass to take a slow sip of the dark red wine. I’ve earned my father’s grim attention. “Is something funny, Val?” Nothing amuses me more than when my father speaks as
MELANIEHow do I know she’s about to piss me the fuck off? Easy. Her voice is dipped in absolute frost despite the Pennywise-like smile on her face. Right now, she has an uncanny resemblance to the cursed clown. Penelope seems to notice it as well, because shrinks instantly against my side. She can completely feel the coldness radiating off this beautiful, terrifying stranger. She peeks out from beside me, her little fingers nervously twisting the hem of her plain shirt. This is the first time she is meeting her grandmother, and the fairy-tale image in her head is rapidly crashing into reality.“Hi… Hi, Grandma,” Penelope whispers. She offers a tiny, hesitant wave, her big beautiful eyes wide with shy hope.Evangeline casually picks up her cloth napkin, shakes it out, and rests it on her lap.“Grandma?” She scoffs. “Oh wow, I didn’t see that coming,” Evangeline murmurs to Lucas. Her words are designed to slice right through me. They always have been, and I have a feeling they







