LOGINIVY’S POVThe days leading up to the investor event had been a blur of preparation and anxiety, and now that the day had finally arrived, I stood in front of the mirror in my apartment, smoothing down the elegant backk dress I had chosen for the occasion, trying to steady my nerves and concince myself that I was ready for what was to come.Zara was beside me, going through her checklist, her voice sounding professional and efficient. “I have confirmed your attendance with the organizers, and I have all the documents you will need for the presentations. We are all set:”Tara sat in the edge of the bed, watching me with a worried expression on her face. “Are you sure you are ready for this, Ivy? This is a lot to handle, especially after everything that has happened.”I turned to face her and replied inna steady voice. “I have to be ready. I can not let my company down. I have worked too hard to let this opportunity slip away.”Tara stood up and walked closer to me. “I know you are stron
IVY’S POVI sat on the couch at Pedro’s house, with my eyes swollen and my throat raw from crying, and I felt nothing but a deep, hollow emptiness that seemed to have stayed fully in my chest, like a void that I did not know if I would ever been able to fill.Pedro sat across from me, hia fade filled with concern, and he tried again to reach me, saying in a gentle voice, but inna persistent manner. “Ivy, Kael is devastated. He loves you more than anything. He did not mean for any of this to happen and he is just as lost as you are right now. Please, do not shut him out completely.”I shook my head slowly and said in a cold and flat voice that sounded so emotionless. “I do not care, Pedro. I am done. I can not do this anymore. I can not keep giving pieces of my self to someone who will only break them. I can not keep hoping for something that will never work out.”Tara sat beside me and placed a careful hand on my arm, with so much worry in her eyes. “Ivy, maybe you should go home and
KAEL’S POVThe drive away from Pedro’s house felt like a blur, and I gripped the steering wheel so tightly that my knuckles turned white, but I did not feel the pain because the only thing I could feel was the crushing weight of everything I had lost, everything I had just destroyed, everything that had just been ripped away from me in a single, devastating moment that I could not undo.I replayed the argument in my head over and over again, each word cutting deeper than the last, each accusation landing like a blow to my chest that left me gasping for air. Ivy’s voice echoed in my ears, sharp and broken, filled with pain and betrayal, and I could still see the tears steaming down her face as she told me she was done. I am breaking up with you. I cannot do this anymore. I can not be with you knowing that you are going to have a child with Miranda. I will not be the other woman in my own relationship.I felt like I had lost everything. I felt like the groumd had been ripped out from un
IVY’S POVI stared at Kael after he said he would not let me walk away, and for a long moment, I could not find the right words to respond because I had expected him to let me go, I had expected him to understand that this was the very choice left for the both of us, I had expected him to accept that this was the end.But he did not. He stood there, staring at me with determination burning in his eyes and he refused to let me go.“You do not have a choice,” I said finally, in a cold and steady voice despite the storm raging inside me. “I am done, Kael, I cannot do this anymore. I cannot pretend that everything is fine when it is not. I can not pretend that I am okay with any of this. I can not pretend that I am not shattered into a million pieces right now.”Kael stepped closer to me and stared at me with determination, his voice breaking as he spoke. “I will fight for you Ivy. I will not let Miranda win, I do not care what she says or does, and I do not care what anyone says because
KAEL’S POVI sat alone in my dark office, behind my desk, with a glass of whiskey in my hand, staring at the wall without really seeing it because my mind was still trapped in the nightmare that had become my life.Miranda’s words echoed in my head over and over again like a nightmare that I could not wake up from. I am carrying your child. I am six months pregnant, and I could not escape them. I could not escape the ultrasound image, the doctor’s confirmation, and the DNA test result that had sealed my fate. I was going to be a father, and the mother was Miranda. The woman I had tried to so hard to get away from. The woman who had been pretending to be sorry while she was carrying my child all along.I had not move from this chair in hours. The glass of whiskey in my hand had gone warm, but I did not care. I just sat there, staring into the darkness and wondering how my life had come to this. Everything had been so perfect, so right, and so full of hope. And now, it was all crumbling
IVY’S POVThe restaurant felt like it was closing in on me, the walls pressing in from every side, and I could barely breathe as Miranda’s words echoed in my head over and and over again like a broken record that refused to stop. She was carrying Kael’s pup and she was six months pregnant. He was going to be a father and he had not told me. He had not called me. Instead, he had let me find out from her. From Miranda, the woman who had been pretending to be sorry while carrying his child all along.Liam reached out to touch my arm and said in a gentle voice filled with concern. “Ivy, I know this is a lot to process. But Kael might have a reason for not telling you yet. He might be trying to figure out how to tell you and he might be scared of your reaction. Give him a chance to explain before you make any decision.I pulled my arm away and said coldly, in a sharp voice. “I do not want to hear it, because he should have told me. He should have called me the moment he found out. Instead
IVY POVI sat on my bed and stared at my shaking hands with my heart thundering in my chest.Tara’s words kept repeating in my head.“They are coming, Ivy. They are coming to get you.”I did not know how long I sat there. Minutes. Hours.Then I heard a knock on the door.“Come in.” I said.The door
IVY POVI did not sleep.I lay still in the guest room all night, staring at the ceiling with my eyes burning and my throat sore. The sheets smelled wrong. Everything smelled wrong.When the gray morning rats if sunlight filtered their way through the curtains, I felt so empty and hollow, lile some
IVY’S POVI came home early because I forgot my necklace.The charity gala I had organized was still going on, but I could not stand there without my mother’s necklace, so I drove back to the pack house to get it.The house was strangely quiet when I entered. Too quiet.Then I started walking up th
IVY POVI sat on the guest room bed with my shoulders slumped, eyes swollen and my throat was dry.Then my phone rang.Tara.I picked up.“Ivy?” Tara’s voice came through. “Is that you?”“It is me.” I said weakly.“What is wrong with your voice?” Tara’s voice sounded worried over the phone. “Why do







