LOGINThe alert came in at 2:13 a.m.Sebastian was still awake.He usually was.Sleep had become something he did in fragments — a few hours when things were quiet enough, which lately meant almost never.The screen on his desk lit up.UNAUTHORIZED DEVICE CONNECTED.For a second, he ignored it.Then he saw the location.Ivy's room.He was already moving before the second notification appeared.By the time he reached the hallway, two guards were already outside her door.Neither looked comfortable."Status?""Nothing unusual, sir.""Then why was there an access attempt?"The guard hesitated."Because it wasn't a normal breach."Sebastian stopped."What does that mean?"The guard looked down at the tablet."The device connected using an approved signal."Silence.Someone didn't break in.Someone had permission.Inside the room, Ivy was awake.She had been since the message.Since the photo.Since the moment Richard's words started replaying in her head.They knew about you before you knew abo
A shift appeared when the letters shifted up top. That moment remade it all.Just not for solving any real questions.Now there’s something else to wonder about.Richard Harper.His access.His connection.His involvement.The glow of the monitor held her eyes long after meaning faded. Shapes blurred into patterns without sense.Her father.He was the one person they'd all told her to avoid.That man again, Sebastian would not talk about him.He was the one voice that kept her steady when everything else seemed to spin. That single presence, quiet yet certain, reminding her she could still trust what she knew.Nobody spoke.Not even Sebastian.That bothered her.More than anything.He’d have spoken up had the details been off.Maybe he’d have spoken against it.Of course he’d say it wasn’t true.He just stayed put, quiet. Stillness held him where he was.Stillness sat heavy, as if agreeing without words."You knew."The words came quietly.Her eyes met Sebastian's gaze. He stood there
Nobody spoke.A stillness held the letters glowing up front.Emily Harper.A name showing up where it had no reason to be.A Name That Made No Sense.Her eyes stayed fixed on the page, words smudging into shapes. Then nothing made sense anymore."No."Out of nowhere, the word slipped into the air. Quietly it showed up, barely noticed.Then louder."No."Jaxon looked uncomfortable."Ivy....I""No."Her head moved from side to side, slow at first, then faster."That's not possible."After a pause, Sebastian stayed quiet.That bothered her.Not a single person seemed to understand it. That silence said everything.Sebastian appeared deep in thought.Calculating.It gnawed at her, not knowing what it truly meant now."Explain."her eyes stayed on jaxon."How did her name appear?"A window flickered into view under Jaxon’s fingers."Someone accessed the system using Emily's credentials.""But she doesn't have access.""Exactly."A chill settled when he spoke. The air tightened without a so
Only quiet filled the security room once the message was gone.No alarms.No footsteps.No explanation.Stuck there, those three words wouldn’t let go of Ivy’s thoughts.Why Sebastian kept you alive.It worked - she loathed every second of it.Becoming clear only when silence broke. The moment stretched longer than expected.She didn’t think that way simply because she trusted he hadn’t done it.Yet a piece of her mind sensed things were tangled. Still.Finding clear replies felt more doable back then.Five times Jaxon hit play on the clip again.Same result.The figure appeared.Eye on the lens.Just like that, the stream stopped. The signal vanished without warning."Can you identify them?"Ivy asked.Jaxon stayed quiet for a moment before saying anything.That worried her."Jaxon.""No.""You're lying."His eyes met hers."I don't know who it is."A pause."But?"He exhaled."But they knew exactly which camera to access."That mattered.This happened on purpose.A person had done m
Ivy didn't sleep.She did it without fear holding her back.Each reply she uncovered just led to a new puzzle instead.Until dawn broke, the document remained visible on her screen.The photograph.The note.The date.Everything about it bothered her.A shadow lingered close, long before she stepped into Sebastian’s life. The eyes were already there, fixed, waiting in silence. Not a chance encounter - something older moved behind the scene. Her path was mapped by quiet observation. Moments before meeting him, she’d already been seen.Before the penthouse.Before the accident.Before everything.Here it gets worse.A voice spoke her name before she turned. That moment hung too long in the air. Not a guess. A recognition sharp as glass. Whoever stood there saw more than just her face.Morning light touched the pages when Sebastian saw her among the books.His feet froze mid-step upon spotting the glow of the laptop display.He didn’t open it knowing what waited inside.He understood her
Inside her coat, the folded sheet never left Ivy’s reach once.Her mind kept circling back, though she claimed otherwise.She was lying.Everything shifted once the name was different.Once, there were things she did not know.Her path came clear. Suddenly everything pointed one way.A person.Begin here.Somehow, danger grew stronger in silence.Questions might get overlooked.Answers couldn't.Fog lifted just as silence grew heavy upstairs. The air inside seemed tighter than before.Just because nothing went wrong.For once, each person stood still, hoping whatever came next would finally arrive.The change hit Ivy right away.Jaxon kept more to himself that day. Quiet sat on his shoulders like a coat.Lucien kept checking his phone.That day, Rafael wasn’t there,odd, since he rarely missed anything.And Sebastian...Sebastian was pretending not to watch her.That told her he kept his eyes on her, no doubt about it."You know staring is considered rude."His eyes lifted away from th
The city never slept, but inside the penthouse the silence felt deliberate — chosen, controlled, suffocating.Ivy stood near the glass wall, arms folded tight across her stomach as if holding herself together. Below, headlights crawled through the streets like veins of white fire. She had counted t
The penthouse felt different.Not quieter in a peaceful way — quieter like something fragile had cracked and everyone was pretending not to see it. The city stretched endlessly beyond the glass walls, lights flickering like distant stars, but inside the room the air carried a tension that refused t
The room was dark.Not the comforting kind—no shadows to hide in, no corners untouched. Just controlled dimness, calibrated to blur edges and sharpen sensation.Sebastian stood near the bed.Ivy stood frozen at the center of the room.No one spoke.Rafael closed the door.The sound echoed louder th
The morning light crept through the thin blinds, casting narrow stripes across the polished floor. Ivy Harper sat on the edge of the bed, arms wrapped tightly around herself, as though the motion alone could hold her together. The night had been long, unrelenting, and each memory pressed against he







