LOGINDrake’s POV The restaurant was quieter than the first place I had taken her. That had been intentional. The plan was to ensure there were no people trying to interrupt every five minutes because they wanted something from me. Just good food and enough privacy to hold a conversation without feeling like the entire world was listening. The moment we sat down, I knew I had made the right choice. Lora looked more relaxed than she had all week. The tension that usually lingered around her shoulders seemed absent tonight. She wasn't watching the room or anticipating problems. She was simply here, talking, laughing and living. "You stole food?" she asked. The disbelief on her face almost made me smile. "I was eight." "You stole food." "I borrowed food." Her laugh burst out immediately. God. That sound was becoming a problem. "From who?" she asked. "My father's guests." Her eyes widened. "That's worse." "They had plenty." "You were a tiny criminal." "I was hungry." She sho
Drake’s POVThe last email of the day remained open on my laptop long after I had finished reading it.At least, I assumed I had finished reading it. The truth was that I had been staring at the same paragraph for several minutes without absorbing a single word.Outside the office windows, late afternoon sunlight spilled across the estate grounds. The gardens stretched beneath the fading gold light while staff moved quietly between the different wings of the mansion.My attention drifted toward the gardens again. And found her. Lora sat beneath one of the large trees near the western path, a book resting open in her lap.She wasn't reading. Every few minutes she turned a page, but her gaze remained fixed somewhere beyond the fountain ahead of her.She was thinking. She did that often.She disappeared into her own thoughts so completely that the rest of the world seemed to fade around her.The strange thing was that I had started recognizing the difference between when she was genuin
Lora's POVThe smell of coffee reached me before I reached the dining room.Normally, that would have been enough to improve my mood. Unfortunately, the baby had developed opinions. And this morning, coffee was apparently offensive.I slowed halfway down the staircase and pressed a hand briefly against my stomach."You're making my life difficult already." The baby remained unapologetically silent.By the time I reached the dining room, everyone was already seated. William occupied his usual chair at the head of the table. His recovery had restored some of the strength illness had stolen, though Dr. Mark still insisted he avoid unnecessary stress.Vivian sat beside him. Chloe scrolled through her phone while pretending to listen to a conversation she clearly had no interest in.And Drake. My gaze found him before I could stop it. He looked up at the exact same moment and something warm settled unexpectedly inside my chest. The kind of feeling that had become increasingly difficult to
Lora's POVA week passed but it wasn’t the kind that arrived quietly and disappeared without leaving a mark.This one settled into my life slowly, rearranging things in ways I did not notice immediately.William was recovering well enough. Dr. Mark had thrown himself back into work. My mother had spent the better part of the last seven days pretending she was not thinking about him while somehow managing to bring him up in every other conversation.And me? I had spent an embarrassing amount of time replaying a single sentence.Now the mansion feels strange whenever you're not there.The worst part was that Drake had said it so casually. As if he had simply been commenting on the weather. As if those words had not followed me around for days afterward.I stood in front of the bathroom mirror adjusting my earrings when my phone vibrated on the counter.A message. Have you eaten?A laugh escaped me before I could stop it. Three simple words. Yet somehow I already knew who the sender was
Lora's POVThe tea had gone cold long before either of us noticed.It sat forgotten on the coffee table between us while the evening sunlight stretched slowly across the apartment floor. For the first time in what felt like forever, there was no emergency waiting around the corner. No doctor rushing into a room. No surgery. No terrifying phone calls.There was just silence, the comfortable kind of silence. The kind I had missed without realizing it.My mother sat beside me on the couch, occasionally wiping her eyes whenever she thought I wasn't looking.The emotional storm from earlier had passed, but traces of it still lingered around us but neither of us seemed ready to leave the conversation completely.I pulled my legs beneath me and rested my head against the back of the couch.Then Marianna suddenly asked, "Tell me about Drake."I turned toward her. "What?"She smiled faintly. "Your husband."The word still sounded strange coming from her.My husband. Not a contract husband, or
Lora's POVMy heart stopped for a few seconds not because I didn't know the answer but because I had spent months avoiding it.Of all the conversations I thought I would have with my mother today, this was somehow the one that frightened me most.Marianna watched me quietly from across the couch waiting patiently. The same way she had waited through every difficult conversation we had ever shared."Who is Drake?"The question lingered between us. The question sounded simple and direct but it wasn’t easy to answer still. I looked away first and that alone was enough to make her suspicious."Lora."I rubbed my palms together slowly trying to figure out where to begin. The truth felt too complicated now.Eventually, I exhaled. Then said the only answer that mattered."He's my husband."Complete silence filled the room. My mother blinked once. Then twice, before she stared at me. "I beg your pardon?"A nervous laugh escaped me. Not because anything was funny, there was no version of thi
Lora’s POVI was still half asleep when my phone vibrated against the bedside table.The room remained dim beneath the drawn curtains while faint morning light slipped through the narrow opening near the windows. My body still ached faintly from another late night at the hospital, and for several s
Drake’s POVI spotted Lora before she noticed me, when I returned upstairs. She stood beside my father’s hospital bed adjusting his blanket carefully while my father remained asleep. Somewhere farther down the floor, machines beeped steadily behind closed doors while rainless darkness pressed qui
Drake’s POVI walked into the dining room for breakfast already halfway through answering an email on my phone before realizing the seat beside mine remained empty. My eyes moved there instinctively, then paused.Vivian sat near the far end of the table discussing some new house schedule with one o
Lora’s POVAfter dinner, I stood near the wardrobe staring at three different dresses spread across the bed while trying to decide which one looked least suspicious. Or maybe least noticeable.Eventually, I picked up a dark navy dress with softer material around the waist before holding it against







