Mag-log inAnother chapter. 🥳 How are you liking it so far? Xoxo.💋
Chapter 92Kegan✦༺⚜︎☠︎⚜︎༻✦Six weeks.That’s how long it has been. I stood on the balcony of my bedroom at dawn, watching the sun rise over the vineyards, a glass of whiskey in my hand even though it was barely six AM. Sleep had become a stranger—two, maybe three hours a night if I was lucky. The rest of the time, I worked. Trained. Drank.Anything to keep my mind from wandering back to London.Back to her.“You look like shit,” a voice said from behind me.I didn’t turn. “Good morning to you too, Melissa.”She moved to stand beside me at the railing, already dressed for the day in riding clothes. She’d taken to going out early, riding the horses across the estate before anyone else was awake.“Couldn’t sleep again?” she asked.“Sleep is overrated.”“So is pretending you’re fine when you’re clearly not.” She took the glass from my hand and took a sip, grimacing. “Whiskey before breakfast. That’s a new low, even for you.”“It’s medicinal.”“And very pathetic.” She handed the glass ba
Chapter 91Estelle✦༺⚜︎☠︎⚜︎༻✦“I think I’m going to be sick,” I said, setting down my ice cream.“Estelle—” Vivian started.“No, I’m serious. I just—” I pressed my hands to my stomach. “The thought of him with her. Of him touching her the way he touched me. Of him—”“Hey, hey, breathe,” Millie said, rubbing my back. “We don’t know that anything happened. We’re just speculating.”“We shouldn’t have said anything,” Vivian added, looking genuinely guilty now. “I’m sorry. That was shitty of us.”But the seed was planted. The image was in my head.Kegan, back in Sicily, realizing that Melissa was right there. That she understood him in ways I never could. That she wouldn’t make him choose between love and control because she already knew how to live in his world.“I need to know,” I said suddenly.“Know what?”“If she’s there. If Melissa is in Sicily with him.” I grabbed my phone, hands shaking slightly. “Those fundraiser pictures. From the charity gala. We need to see if she was there.”“
Chapter 90Estelle✦༺⚜︎☠︎⚜︎༻✦Inside my apartment, I immediately called Vivian.“How was it?” she answered on the first ring.“Complicated.” I collapsed onto my couch. “He kissed me.”“And?”“And then Harrods called and wants to place a massive order and now I’m panicking and I don’t know if I can actually do this.”“Wait, back up. Harrods? As in the Harrods?”I explained everything—the dinner, the connections, the impossible deadline, the kiss.“Okay,” Vivian said when I finished. “First of all, congratulations. This is huge. Second, we’re going to help you. You, me, and Millie. We’ll figure this out together.”“But—”“Not another but. This is your dream, Estelle. We’re not going to let you fail because you’re scared.”After we hung up, I sat in the darkness of my apartment and thought about that kiss. A girl always does. Reid was perfect. Almost too perfect.My phone vibrated. Speak of the devil: *You’re amazing. Don’t forget that.*How sweet and thoughtful. I fell asleep on my co
Chapter 89Estelle✦༺⚜︎☠︎⚜︎༻✦Reid picked me up at exactly seven o’clock in a sleek black Aston Martin.“You’re punctual,” I said as he opened the passenger door for me.“My mother raised me with manners,” he replied with that easy smile that had charmed me at the gallery. “Plus, I’ve been looking forward to this all day. Didn’t want to risk you changing your mind.”“Why would I change my mind?”“Because you seem like the type of woman who overthinks everything.” He closed my door and walked around to the driver’s side. “Not a criticism. Just an observation.”Well, he wasn’t wrong.The restaurant was tucked away on a quiet street in Soho—a place that didn’t need a sign because everyone who mattered already knew where it was. Inside was all warm lighting and exposed brick, with tables spaced far enough apart for actual privacy.“This is beautiful,” I said as we were seated in a corner booth.“I’m glad you like it. The owner is a friend from university. Antonio makes the best risotto in
Chapter 88Kegan✦༺⚜︎☠︎⚜︎༻✦The Selena Foundation launch had been a success by every measurable metric.Five hundred attendees. Seven million euros raised. Press coverage in every major Italian publication. Politicians, business leaders, and family members all gathered to celebrate the establishment of a charitable organization dedicated to protecting vulnerable young women from exploitation.It was everything we’d hoped it would be.And I’d felt absolutely nothing the entire time.“You good, baby boy?” Nikolai asked, appearing at my elbow with two glasses of whiskey. We were in my study—my actual study in my actual house in Sicily, not Russel’s house, it was too crowded at this time. “You zoned out.”“First off, I'm not a baby boy. Secondly, I’m reviewing the foundation’s first-year budget,” I said, gesturing to the spreadsheets open on my laptop. “Making sure we allocated resources appropriately.”“It’s three in the morning.”“Your point?”“My point is that you’ve been ‘reviewing bu
Chapter 87Estelle✦༺⚜︎☠︎⚜︎༻✦“Absolutely not,” I said for the third time.“Absolutely yes,” Vivian countered, holding up the yellow dress. “You’re going to this gallery opening whether you like it or not.”“I don’t even like art.”“You don’t have to like art. You just have to stand there, drink expensive champagne, and look beautiful while rich people pretend to understand abstract paintings.” She thrust the dress at me. “Now put this on before I physically wrestle you into it.”Four days had gone by since the encounter with Adrian, and my friends had apparently decided that the solution to my Kegan-shaped depression was to keep me so busy I didn’t have time to wallow.Monday: boutique hunting. We’d looked at seven different spaces before I’d finally signed a lease on a gorgeous corner shop in Notting Hill with floor-to-ceiling windows and exposed brick walls.Tuesday: furniture shopping. Vivian had dragged me through every high-end home store in London, insisting that my boutique ne







