MasukSara Hayes' POVPeter brought the car to the private entrance on the east side, where a line of security stood shoulder to shoulder in dark coats. Beyond them, I could see the glow of the main entrance and a long ivory carpet, with photographers penned behind velvet ropes. The flashes went off in white bursts. I heard someone call a name, and then another, and then a ripple of them, rising and falling like surf."They're not for us," Damian said quietly. This entrance goes straight to the lift."The car door opened. The air smelled of flowers. Damian stepped out first, turned, and offered his arm, and I took it and came up slowly out of the leather seat with one hand under my belly. A man in a dark suit and an earpiece stood at a respectful distance. The pavement had been cleared. The route to the lift was lined on both sides with discreet armed men.We crossed the marble foyer to a private lift with brass doors. A security guard pressed the button and stood aside. "Breathe," Damian
Sara Hayes' POVHearing him make such a confession to me made my stomach warm and fluttery. My heart was behaving like a girl at a school dance. I press a hand to my chest.“Calm down, I told it.” Throughout the whole breakfast I had barely managed three complete sentences, and he didn't say anything. He had let me chew in silence, with my face buried in my food. He had simply stayed beside me, close and quiet.After eating I walked into the sitting room with my cheeks pink and my chin up, and all three of them looked at me."Well," Julien said, narrowing his eyes behind his spectacles. "Somebody has been very well fed.""Somebody has been very well loved," Delphine murmured."Delphine," said Vivienne."I'm only observing.""Observe quietly.""The dresses," I said loudly. "Shall we?"---They had turned the sitting room into an atelier.The grey sofa had been pushed against the wall and draped with a sheet. A full-length mirror stood in the middle of the carpet, and beside it a low
Sara Hayes' POV**A knock on the door woke me up, I looked at the clock beside my bed. 10am."Come in," I called.I was Thomas but Damian came in instead.He was already dressed for the day, in dark trousers and a crisp white shirt, open at the throat, with his sleeves turned back to the elbow. He had not put on his suit or his tie yet. "Good morning," he said."Good morning."He shut the door behind him and crossed to the bed. He sat on the edge of the mattress. And then he leaned toward me with his eyes half closed and his mouth already curving."Oh, no," I said.I put my palm flat against his chest and shoved.It was a feeble shove. He barely moved. But he stopped, and opened his eyes, and looked at me with genuine bewilderment. "What?" he said."I haven't brushed my teeth.""I don't care.""I care.""Sara."I clapped my hand over my lips for good measure and spoke through my fingers. "It doesn't matter.""It matters to me."He gave a short, defeated sigh, and then he bent an
Sara Hayes' POVThis week was the most peaceful of my entire life.I knew it was a strange thing to be grateful for. I had been on the edge for so long that a week with nothing stressing me out felt like a miracle. Especially his mother.Damian has been busy after the commissioning of the project with Mr Caldwell.I was proud of him. That surprised me more than anything. I had read an article about the Willowmere project in a magazine Thomas had left on my tray a week ago.This evening, I am on the sofa in the sitting room with my swollen feet on a stack of cushions and a book open on the shelf of my stomach, when I heard the front door.I looked at the clock. It was ten past six.Nobody came home at ten past six. Damian came home at nine, or ten, or not at all. I listened to the sound of the latch and a low murmur in the hall, and then footsteps, quick and sure, crossing the marble.I turned my head.He stopped in the doorway.I pressed my hands against the sofa and began to get up
Damian Kade's POVA month after the commissioning, Willowmere had a population I had not expected.I have to agree that this project was the best work I had ever done.But that's by the way. My company’s anniversary was tomorrow. Fifty years since my grandfather had signed the first lease on a warehouse by the river. And since then it has blossomed so well from my grandfather’s leadership to my father's leadership and now to my leadership. I won't pretend it was all luck.There was a knock at the door. "Come in."Lucas entered with his tablet in his hand. "Sir," he said. "I have the final confirmation.""Go on.""The venue has signed off on the stage and rigging. The sound check is at four. The caterers will begin plating tests at noon tomorrow, and I've personally tasted every course." He glanced at the tablet. "The string quartet arrived from Vienna this morning. The ambassadors' security details have all been cleared. The seating chart is final. You and the board are at the head
Sarai Vance's POVThe driver helped my mother out first. She stood on the gravel in her dove-gray coat with her handbag held against her stomach."Come," she said.I followed her into the hall.It was warm and quiet, smelling of old roses. A maid took her coat. "Sarai."Mother had turned. She stood in front of me, small and straight and gray, and her gaze moved over my face once, from forehead to chin, without any pity at all."Go upstairs," she said, in a low, level voice. "Wash your face. Change out of that cloth, and have the maid look at your arm. Don't think too much. You are doing what you always do, which is to pick at a wound until it won't close. I have told you before, and I will say it again. I already have a plan.""What plan?""Never you mind.""Mother—""Do you trust me?"I opened my mouth. I closed it."I want you to trust me," she said. "I nodded."Good girl." She patted my cheek, twice, brisk as a nurse. "Go and rest. I'll have dinner sent up to your room. Eat somet







