MasukCeleste’s POVI wasn’t expecting to see Grace walk into Rosemary so soon.Not after everything. Not after the way her world had collapsed overnight.But there she was, standing in the doorway of my office, bundled in an oversized cardigan, her hair pulled into a messy knot, eyes still swollen but somehow… steadier. Different. As if the worst had already burned through her and left behind something quieter, stripped down to its core.“Grace,” I breathed, rising from my chair before I even realized it. “You should be resting.”She gave a tired smile, the kind that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I know. But resting at home was making me feel like I was drowning.” She rubbed her arm, exhaling shakily. “I needed to be here. With you. With everyone.”I crossed to her and wrapped my arms around her, feeling her tremble just a little before she steadied herself. “You don’t owe Rosemary anything right now,” I murmured into her shoulder. “You’ve been through enough.”“I know.” She pulled back, bl
Celeste’s POVThe news broke before sunrise.Rachel texted first, just three clipped words: It’s out, Cel. And then the link followed a local business bulletin reporting Gideon’s arrest, his real name, the forged credentials, and the planted evidence.Vanessa’s supposed involvement was mentioned only once, in a single speculative line, but it was enough to make my stomach lurch.By the time I reached Rosemary, the link was already dead.Every article was gone. Every gossip page that had screamed betrayal an hour ago now seemed scrubbed clean. It was like watching a fire blink out mid-flame.I found Jenny in the marketing office, half-hidden behind a stack of folders she was reorganizing like someone trying to rebuild a life out of paper. Her shoulders stiffened when she heard me approaching.“Jen,” I said softly.She turned, and the tiny smile she offered made something twist in my chest. She looked better, more herself, but still a little hollow around the eyes, like the humiliation h
Celeste’s POVI thought the worst was over.Finding Bonnie half-frozen on a concrete step, feverish and alone, felt like the kind of trauma that would break any child into softness, into reflection, into apology.And for a few days, it almost seemed that way.She clung to me with a quiet desperation that reminded me of the little girl she must have been before the world taught her to perform hardness.But trauma isn’t linear. Healing even less so.And whatever had been festering inside Bonnie, resentments, loyalties, fears she didn’t have the language for, had not vanished with warmth, or soup, or my mother’s gentle hands.It simmered.It grew teeth.And it waited.I tried. God, I tried. Even with the chaos at Rosemary swallowing my days, the press outside the doors, the reporters hungry for scandal, Vanessa’s fingerprints showing up in every dark corner, I carved space for Bonnie.I left early, came home early, paused calls, postponed meetings. Claire stayed with us, helping Molly wit
Vanessa’s POVDamien slammed the bedroom door so hard the walls shuddered.I stood in the center of the room with my arms crossed, forcing myself not to flinch. If I flinched, he’d think he’d won.“You’re being ridiculous,” I said, keeping my voice clipped, cool, as if I wasn’t one breath away from snapping. “If Bonnie wants to stay with Celeste, then let her. She clearly prefers it.”His head whipped toward me, eyes blazing. “She’s my daughter.”“And?” I arched a brow. “She ran away, Damien. She chose Celeste. Maybe that tells you something.”“That tells me she’s hurt,” he shot back. “And that she needs me. I don’t care where she is, I need to see her. I need to see my daughter’s little face.”His voice cracked on the last word.Pathetic.But I didn’t say that. Not when he looked like a kicked dog, humiliated, furious, grieving all at once.Bonnie had always been his soft spot, the one blind angle where logic died. He couldn’t see how much easier everything would be if he just… let he
Celeste’s POVGrace’s building felt colder tonight than it ever had before.Maybe it was just me.Or maybe it was what waited behind the door, the aftermath of a truth so brutal it could split a person open.The elevator ride felt endless, each floor dinging like a warning bell.By the time I reached her apartment, I didn’t even have to knock. The door was already cracked open, a light spilling weakly into the hallway.“Grace?” I called softly as I stepped inside.The silence that answered me felt heavy, trembling at the edges. Then I saw her, curled on the living room floor, knees pulled to her chest, eyes swollen red from crying.She looked smaller than I’d ever seen her. Not the fierce, impulsive Grace who could storm into a boardroom and turn executives into statues.Not the woman who laughed too loudly, loved too quickly, and threw her whole heart into people who didn’t deserve it.Just a girl who’d been betrayed again. And this time, it was by the man she’d trusted with her child
Celeste’s POVI never thought the quiet hum of Rosemary Atelier could feel so suffocating at night, but as I stood beside Ryan in the dim glow of the task lamps, waiting for his tech guy to finish setting up, it felt like the whole building was holding its breath.Maybe I was too.“Give me ten minutes,” the man said, already hunched over the main console. “If there’s anything the system didn’t overwrite, I’ll find it.”I nodded and folded my arms, more to keep myself together than to keep warmIt had already been a brutal day, trying to keep up a calm, normal face for Bonnie while my insides twisted like vines, but this was the part of the night that made everything feel heavier.Because if the footage proved what we suspected, then we were about to break Grace’s heart in a way she didn’t deserve.Ryan stood a little behind me, arms crossed, jaw tight, watching the tech guy work like he wanted to personally throttle the computer into confessing.He always carried his anger with discipl







