MasukCIARA'S POVThe car turned off the main road onto a narrower one lined with trees. Cain’s hand stayed on my thigh the whole drive. Not possessive. Just there. Steady. Like he needed the contact as much as I did. Alice had fallen asleep in the back seat again. Seraphine had stayed behind to handle the last loose ends. It was just us. Finally just us.“We’re almost there,” Cain said. His thumb stroked my leg. Slow circles. “It’s not what you’re expecting.”I looked at him. His profile in the late afternoon light. Jaw relaxed. Eyes soft. “I stopped expecting things weeks ago.”He smiled a little. The car slowed. Turned onto a private drive. The house appeared at the end. Not a mansion. Not a penthouse. A real house. Two stories. White with dark shutters. Big porch. Yard that stretched back toward the trees. Simple. Lived in.Cain parked. Turned off the engine. “This is it. My real home. Not the place I stayed when I was trying to forget you. Not the place I used when I was trying to be s
CIARA'S POVThe private terminal felt too bright. Too open. I kept waiting for someone to recognize us. For a camera to flash. For Simon’s voice to cut through the quiet and drag us back into the mess we’d finally left behind. But nothing happened. The staff smiled politely. The security nodded us through. No questions. No stares. Just us.Cain walked beside me. His hand brushed mine once. Then again. This time he laced our fingers together. Open. Public. No hiding. No sneaking. No pretending we were anything but what we were.“You okay?” he asked. His thumb stroked the back of my hand. Slow. Steady.I nodded. Too quick. “Yeah. Just… waiting for something to go wrong.”He squeezed my hand. “Nothing’s going wrong today. We’re just going home.”Alice skipped ahead a little. Her small backpack bounced on her shoulders. Seraphine walked beside her, pointing out the planes through the windows. Alice’s laugh carried back to us. Light. Real. The kind of laugh I hadn’t heard from her in month
**Chapter 26 — A New Life**The boxes were everywhere. Half taped. Half open. Ciara knelt in the middle of the living room sorting through a pile of Alice’s drawings. Her hair was up in a messy knot. My shirt hung loose on her frame. She looked peaceful. Tired. But peaceful.I set another box down by the door. “You sure you don’t want to ship more of this? We can fit it on the jet.”She looked up. Smiled a little. “Alice wants to start fresh. She said the old stuff reminds her of the bad days. We’re keeping the important things. The rest… we can buy new when we get there.”I nodded. Walked over and knelt beside her. My hand found her lower back. Stayed there. “She’s doing okay?”Ciara leaned into me. Her head rested on my shoulder for a second. “Better. The nightmares are less. She asked about the new house yesterday. Wanted to know if there would be a yard for the baby to play in.”The baby. Our baby. The words still hit me in the chest every time. I slid my hand around to rest on he
**Chapter 25 — Choose Me**The new apartment smelled like fresh paint and the faint salt of the ocean outside the windows. No reporters. No flashing lights. No Simon waiting around the corner. Just us. For the first time in what felt like forever, just us.I stood at the balcony door watching the waves break against the shore. Cain came up behind me. His arms slid around my waist. His chin rested on my shoulder. Warm. Solid. Real.“You’re quiet,” he said. His voice was low. Close to my ear.I leaned back into him. My hands covered his where they rested on my stomach. The small bump was barely noticeable yet. But it was there. Growing. Ours.“I’m thinking,” I said. “About everything. About how we got here. About what comes next.”Cain turned me in his arms. His hands stayed on my waist. His eyes searched mine. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”I hesitated. My fingers traced the collar of his shirt. “I’m scared. Not of the baby. Not of us. But of how fast everything changed. One day I was
**Chapter 163 — The Divorce**The courtroom smelled like polished wood and old paper. I sat at the long table with my lawyer on one side and Seraphine on the other. My hands stayed folded in my lap. Tight. The ring on my finger felt heavier than it ever had. Soon it wouldn’t be there anymore.Simon sat across from us. His lawyer whispered something in his ear. He nodded once. His eyes found mine. Calm. Too calm. Like he still thought he could fix this.The judge cleared her throat. “Mrs. Hyde, you’ve reviewed the final documents?”I nodded. “Yes, Your Honor.”My lawyer slid the stack across the table. Signatures already in place. Mine. The judge’s. Just waiting for Simon’s. He picked up the pen. Hesitated. Looked at me again.“You don’t have to do this,” he said. Quiet. Just loud enough for the table. “We can still make it work. Publicly. Privately. Whatever you need. I can protect you from everything that’s coming.”I met his eyes. Steady. “I don’t need your protection anymore.”Simo
**Chapter 161 — The Brothers**The study door closed behind me with a soft click. Simon stood by the window, back to me, glass in his hand. The same room where Father used to lecture us. The same heavy desk. The same smell of old books and old grudges.“You wanted to talk,” I said. I stayed near the door. Arms loose at my sides. “So talk.”Simon turned. Slow. His eyes were bloodshot. The glass in his hand was almost empty. “You think you won.”I didn’t answer right away. Just watched him. The way his fingers tightened around the glass. The way his shoulders sat too high. Years of this. Years of him smiling in public while he bled the family dry. Years of him using Ciara like a shield.“I didn’t come here to fight,” I said. My voice stayed even. “I came here to end it.”Simon laughed. Short. Ugly. “End it? You fucked my wife. You took my company. You took my place. And now you want to end it?”He set the glass down hard. The sound cracked through the room. He stepped closer. “You’ve al
Ciara's POV I should pull away. I should remember whose bed I’m supposed to be in tonight. Instead, I swallow hard as Cain's grip tightens in my hair, pushing my face down between his widespread thighs. "Suck it," he orders, buckling his hips forward, the hard tip of him already brushing my
Cain's pOV “You always take what your brother has, don’t you?” That's the last thing I remember Patrick saying before I turn, descend the stairs and crossing the room full of people to meet Ciara. “Brother.” An unfortunate hand grabs mine and yanks me sideways. Simon. "Simon? I'm not here fo
Cain's pOV I adjust my cuff as I sit in the chair against the railings. I stretch my leg out and take a sip of the wine. The hall is filling with high school faces I haven’t seen in years. Everyone is dressed in suits and flowing dinner gowns, laughing and hugging like time never passed. I d
Ciara's POV Simon pulls me upstairs, his fingers tightening around my wrist like he already knew I’d done something unforgivable. I whimper, struggling to free myself, but he doesn't let go until we are finally in the room with the door shut. He gently places me on a stool and kneels before me.







