LOGINCiara’s POV Cain left just after seven, dressed in the dark shirt and jacket he only pulled out for real meetings. He kissed Rose’s head, then mine, lingering a second longer than usual.“You’ve got this,” he said. “Text if you need anything. I’ll be back by six and we’ll go to dinner.”I nodded, already bouncing Rose lightly against my shoulder. “Go. Impress whoever needs impressing.”The door closed. The house settled into a different kind of quiet. Just me and her.The morning stretched in the usual rhythms, only without the background hum of Cain’s voice on calls or the sound of him moving through the rooms. I handled the feeds. The diaper changes. The stretch of tummy time where Rose practiced rolling and made frustrated little sounds when she couldn’t quite get there. I talked to her the whole time like she understood every word. About the light coming through the window. About how her dad was going to be proud of us when he got home.By midday I realized I hadn’t once reached
Ciara’s POV Alice arrived with an overnight bag that looked like she was moving in for a week. Seraphine followed carrying the portable crib and a smug expression.“Hand over the goods,” Seraphine said, already reaching for Rose. “Auntie shift starts now. We have bottles, the emergency list, three backup outfits, and zero intention of calling you unless the building is actually on fire.”I held Rose a little longer than necessary. The anxiety sat sharp under my ribs. A full night. No monitor within reach. No soft sounds through the wall.Cain’s hand settled on the back of my neck. “She’s safe with them. We can go get her at any hour if you need to. No pride involved.”Alice kissed Rose’s cheek and transferred her smoothly into the carrier. “We’ve got her. Go be people who sleep past sunrise for once.”I nodded, kissed my daughter’s head one last time, and let them leave. The door clicked shut. The house felt enormous and too quiet all at once.Cain locked it, then turned to me. “Come
Ciara’s POV The session ended at eleven. I sat in the spare room for a long time after the screen went dark, notebook still open on my lap, the therapist’s last question echoing in the quiet.What would it mean to stop waiting for permission to feel safe?I didn’t have a clean answer. Only the heavy, unfamiliar feeling that something inside me had shifted a few degrees and refused to shift back.Cain found me there when Rose went down for her mid-morning nap. He leaned in the doorway, arms crossed loosely, reading my face the way he always did.“Bad session or big one?” he asked.“Big.” My voice came out thinner than I expected. “I talked about things I usually skip.”He came in, closed the door most of the way so we could still hear the monitor, and sat on the edge of the daybed across from me. He didn’t reach for me right away. Just waited.I stared at my hands. “I told her about the nights I used to lie awake calculating how much of myself I could give away before there was nothin
Ciara’s POV Rose went down easier than usual. One last feed, a slow rock in the dark nursery, the soft click of the monitor settling into its steady green glow. When I stepped back into the hallway Cain was already waiting, shoulder against the wall, watching me like he had been thinking about this for hours.“She’s out,” I said.He nodded once. “Good. Come here.”I walked to him. He hooked a finger in the neckline of my shirt and tugged lightly.“Entire evening. Nothing on. Not a single piece of clothing once we close this door behind us.” His voice was low, rough around the edges. “You game?”My pulse kicked. The old instinct to cover, to hide the softer stomach and the stretch marks and the places that still felt unfamiliar, rose fast. I breathed through it.“Yeah,” I said. “I’m game.”He smiled, slow and dark. “Good girl.”I stripped in the bedroom while he watched. Shirt first. Then the soft shorts. Bra. Panties last. The air touched every inch of me. I fought the urge to cross
Ciara’s POV The park was quieter than usual for a weekday afternoon. Tall trees filtered the light into soft patches on the grass. A few joggers passed at a distance. A couple of parents sat on benches further down the path. Nothing loud. Nothing demanding.I pushed the stroller while Cain walked beside me, one hand resting lightly on the handle. Rose was awake, kicking her feet and staring up at the moving leaves like they were putting on a show just for her.My eyes kept drifting to the edges of the path. Old habit. Checking faces. Measuring exits. Waiting for the feeling that something was about to go wrong. I caught myself doing it for the third time and forced my attention back to the stroller. To the way Rose’s hand opened and closed around nothing. To the sound of Cain’s steady footsteps.Present. Not scanning. Just here.Cain noticed. He always did.“You’re doing it again,” he said quietly.“Working on it.” I exhaled. “It’s getting easier. Some days.”He didn’t push. Just kep
Ciara’s POV Rose had been awake for almost forty minutes past her usual nap window. She wasn’t crying. Just alert, kicking her legs, staring at the light moving across the ceiling like it had personally offended her. I sat on the floor beside the play mat and let her.Cain stood in the doorway with his arms crossed.“She’s off schedule,” he said.“She’s fine. She’s not tired yet.”“That’s not how this works. If we keep shifting things, the nights get harder. We’ve been through this.”I looked up at him. “We’ve been through a lot of things. One of them is me following someone else’s rules until I forgot I had any of my own. I’m not doing that with her.”His jaw tightened. “This isn’t about control. It’s about giving her consistency.”“And I’m saying consistency doesn’t have to mean rigid.” I kept my voice low so it wouldn’t startle Rose. “She’s a baby, not a project. If she’s happy and awake, I’m not forcing her down because the clock says so.”Cain dragged a hand over his face. “I’m
CAIN POV From the distance where I'm sitting, I watch Ciara tug a stray red lock behind her ears— the same nervous habit she had seven years ago. Some things about her never changed, not even after marrying my brother. She forces a fake smile as she bends to greet the guests, offering me an e
CIARA'S POV Just when I'm still looking around the dark room and regretting my stupid impulse, he undoes his tie, tossing it aside together with his suit jacket. He strides towards me. He surprises me by sliding one rough palm up my bare thigh fingers trailing until his fingers reach the drench
Ciara's POV I gulp. My legs are trembling. I'm breathing too fast. I can't look at him and not remember last night how I shamelessly came alive and gosh... My panties are sticky to my inner thighs. He puts his hands around my waist to settle me as he lowers his face to my chin, trailing his
CIARA'S POV I could tell it was my husband from the way he tilted his head and sharp blue eyes peeked out through the mask and stared intensely at me from across the crowded hall like he wanted to drag me into the nearest dark corner and fuck me against the wall until I forgot my own name. I







