LOGINThe office gossip mill was efficient. By Monday morning, everyone knew Noah West's Aston Martin had been parked outside my crumbling Brooklyn brownstone until noon on Sunday.I walked into NeXus with my head down, clutching my bag like a shield. I could feel the eyes on me. It wasn't paranoia; it was a palpable weight. The usual morning chatter near the elevators died down the moment I swiped my badge, replaced by a silence that screamed louder than any shout.Did you see the photos on Twitter?The CEO and the contractor?I heard he carried her out of the building on Friday.I kept my eyes fixed on the floor numbers as the elevator rose. My stomach was doing gymnastics, and for once, it wasn't just the morning sickness. It was the suffocating pressure of being watched.I made a beeline for the breakroom, desperate for a ginger tea."Spill. Everything. Now."Lily cornered me before I could even reach the kettle. She blocked the exit, her arms crossed, her expression a mix of best-frien
I heard her crying through the phone. Something in me snapped.It wasn't a rational anger. It wasn't the cold, calculating fury I used in boardrooms to dismantle competitors. This was primal. It was a roar of blood in my ears that drowned out the hum of the city below my terrace."I told them," she had choked out.And then she had told me what they said. Embarrassment. Hide in Connecticut. Quit your job.Nobody made Aria cry. Not even her own family. Especially not her own family.Not on my watch.I paced the length of the penthouse living room, checking my watch every thirty seconds. She said she was ten minutes away. It had been twelve.If she didn't walk through that door in sixty seconds, I was going to get in my car, drive to the Stone estate, and burn it to the ground.The elevator chimed.I spun around. The doors slid open, and there she was.She looked shattered. Her eyes were red and swollen, her face blotchy, her shoulders slumped under the weight of a rejection I could only
My mother's summons came via text: My house. Now. We need to talk. There were no emojis. No pleasantries. Just a command from the general to her least favorite soldier. I stared at the screen, my hand resting instinctively over my stomach. I should have known Sienna couldn't keep a secret that useful. She had held onto the ultrasound photo for exactly one week—long enough to feel powerful, short enough to ensure maximum damage before the wedding. The drive to the Stone estate usually filled me with a low-level anxiety. Today, it felt like driving to my own execution. I pulled my beat-up sedan into the circular driveway, parking behind my father’s pristine Bentley. The house loomed above me—a sprawling, manicured testament to my family's obsession with appearances. It was beautiful, cold, and utterly hollow. I took a deep breath. For the baby, I told myself. You’re strong enough for this. I didn't bother knocking. I used my key, the heavy oak door swinging open to reveal the sile
Noah showed up with coffee. Decaf, two sugars, splash of oat milk. He remembered.I sat in the waiting room of Dr. Martinez’s Upper East Side clinic, my hands knotted together in my lap, watching the door like a hawk. I had arrived fifteen minutes early, driven by a nervous energy that had kept me pacing my apartment since dawn.Today was the twelve-week scan. The big one. The one where the grainy blob from four weeks ago supposedly started looking like a human being. The one where we checked for fingers, toes, and genetic anomalies.When the glass door swung open and Noah walked in, the air in the room seemed to shift. He was wearing a navy suit that fit him like armor, his tie loosened slightly as if he’d just come from a battle in the boardroom. He looked tired—there were faint shadows under his eyes—but when he saw me, his expression softened.He walked straight to me, ignoring the receptionist who perked up at the sight of him."Hi," he said, his voice low and rough."Hi," I brea
Marcus deserved better than a best man with secrets. He deserved the truth.The whiskey wasn't working. It was a twenty-five-year-old single malt, smooth as silk and burning like hellfire, but it wasn't doing the one thing I needed it to do. It wasn't drowning out the memory of Aria’s pale face when she collapsed in the boardroom yesterday.It wasn't silencing the voice in my head that screamed traitor every time Marcus smiled at me."To the groom!" James, my younger brother, shouted, raising his glass. "The man who finally convinced a Stone sister to settle down!""To Marcus!" the other groomsmen chorused.I raised my glass. My hand was steady—a lifetime of boardroom poker faces served me well—but my gut was twisting into a knot that no amount of alcohol could loosen."To Marcus," I echoed.We were in the VIP room of The Vault, one of the most exclusive clubs in Manhattan. Leather booths, low lighting, bass that vibrated in your chest, and a price tag that ensured privacy. It was exa
The trash can under my desk was getting a workout. Third time this morning.I sat up, wiping my mouth with a trembling hand, and popped a mint into my mouth. My office—a glass-walled fishbowl in the middle of the development floor—suddenly felt like a cage. The fluorescent lights hummed with a frequency that seemed to vibrate right through my skull, and the smell of someone’s microwaved popcorn from the breakroom was effectively weaponizing the air."I'd become an expert at silent nausea," I whispered to my dual monitors. "A skill nobody asked for."I checked the time. 10:15 AM.I had a presentation with the level design team in forty-five minutes. I had a deadline for the lighting shaders by 5:00 PM. And I had a baby the size of a raspberry who apparently hated the concept of productivity.My reflection in the dark screen of my monitor was frightening. My skin was the color of old parchment, and there was a sheen of sweat on my forehead that had nothing to do with the office temperat







