로그인Evelyn POVGhost employees. I felt sick. Victoria had been manufacturing fake staff members and collecting their salaries. For years. Right under my nose, right under the company's nose, facilitated by the very man whose job was supposed to be managing our people.I knew she'd been stealing, but this... was far beyond my expectations. "There's more," Morales said, and his tone shifted into something heavier. He pulled out another set of documents and placed them on the table with the reverence of a man handling evidence he knew would change the course of a case. "The packet also contained records of communications between Mrs Bennett and several individuals linked to narcotics distribution networks operating in the Crescent Harbour port area."Belle's hand found my knee under the table and gripped it."Narcotics?" I heard myself say."It appears that Mrs. Bennett may have been using Bennett Holdings' commercial property portfolio as a front for facilitating the storage and distributi
Evelyn POVMorales looked like he wanted to say something about procedure, then apparently decided it wasn't worth the fight. "Follow me."He led us through a series of corridors that got progressively less public-facing and more functional. The walls shifted from painted drywall to bare cinder block. The ceiling tiles gave way to exposed pipes. We passed a row of interview rooms with heavy doors and narrow windows, and I caught a glimpse through one of them of a woman sitting at a metal table.Victoria.I only saw her for a second as we walked past, but it was enough. She was sitting with her back straight and her hands folded on the table in front of her, dressed in what I recognised as her "travelling outfit," a tailored cream blazer over a navy blouse, pearl earrings, her blonde hair pulled back in a low chignon. She looked composed. Polished. Like a woman waiting for a business lunch, not a woman who'd been pulled off an international flight and escorted to a police station in ha
Evelyn POVThe sound cut through the warmth of the moment like a knife. I glanced at the screen, expecting Grace or maybe the event coordinator.The caller ID showed an unfamiliar number with a local area code.I picked up. "Hello?""Is this Miss Evelyn Bennett?" The voice on the other end was male and professional."Yes, this is she.""Miss Bennett, this is Detective Morales with the Crescent Harbour Police Department. I'm calling to inform you that approximately forty-five minutes ago, officers apprehended Victoria Bennett at Crescent Harbour International Airport."The room tilted.I sat up straight, my heart slamming against my ribs. Beside me, Belle noticed the change in my posture immediately and leaned in, her brow furrowed."She's back?" I repeated. "When did she arrive?""I'm not able to discuss the full details over the phone, Miss Bennett. But Mrs Bennett was flagged during a routine security check while attempting to leave Crescent Harbour in a disguise. Since she was alre
Evelyn POVBelle studied me for a long moment. The humour had drained from her face, replaced by the quiet, fierce protectiveness that had made her my best friend in the first place."Can I give you my honest opinion?""Please.""You have two options. Option one: You choose none of them. You step back from all three, focus on yourself, on Bennett Holdings, on Green Valley, and on the launch and on building the empire you fought for. You tell all three of them that you need space, and you take it. No guilt, no obligations, no tangled sheets.""And option two?"Belle shrugged. "Option two: you keep all three. No commitment. No exclusivity. No promises you're not ready to keep. You're a grown woman, Evelyn. You're allowed to explore what you feel without signing a contract. As long as you're honest about what you're doing, there's nothing wrong with taking your time to figure out who you actually want." She paused. "Or if you want any of them at all."I sat with that for a moment, turnin
Evelyn POVI pressed my palms against my eyes. "It was... intense. It was the most intense experience of my entire life, and I'm including nearly dying on that list. But afterwards, he pulled away completely. When he learned it was my first time, he got cold, distant, started talking about how we were a mistake, how he needed to focus on his business, how he couldn't afford to have vulnerabilities. He basically told me that sleeping with me was an error in judgment.""He said that to you? After sleeping with you?""Not in those exact words, but yes. That was the message. And I was devastated, Belle. I was completely shattered. I'd opened myself up to someone for the first time since I left Adrian, actually let myself feel something real, and he just... shut the door in my face. I left his apartment in tears, and a few minutes later, I discovered I'd been kidnapped.Belle's expression had shifted from gossip mode to something softer. She reached over and squeezed my knee."I'm sorry,"
Evelyn POVThe four words hung in the air between us.Of all people, Adrian?My mouth opened and closed twice before anything resembling coherent language came out."Vincent, it's not what you think."Even as I said it, I knew how it sounded. It was the most clichéd sentence in English. The words every guilty person reaches for when they've been caught doing exactly what they look like they've been doing.I could have written it on a greeting card: Sorry, I was making out with my ex-fiancé on a boardroom table. It's not what you think.Vincent looked at me, but not with anger; that would have been easier. Anger I could have worked with, argued against, met with my own fire. But Vincent didn't get angry. He did something far worse.He was quiet."You don't need to explain anything to me, Evelyn.""I want to explain. Just listen to me for a second. Adrian showed me something, some evidence about Isabella and the kidnapping, and it was overwhelming, and we were talking, and things just.
Evelyn POVIt’s been three weeks since Vincent brought me home, since I'd discovered the full extent of Victoria's betrayal, since I'd begun the slow process of reclaiming my life.But today, I wasn't sure any of that mattered.I'd spent the past week listening to Isabella sob in the witness stand,
Vincent POVI'd been pacing the length of the police department's hallway for what felt like hours, my shoes marking a worn path on the linoleum floor. It had been two days since Evelyn had been officially filed as a missing person, and the police had accomplished absolutely nothing except shufflin
Evelyn POVThe first thing I felt was cold.A splash of water hit my face so suddenly that I gasped, sputtering and choking as the shock of it jolted me from whatever fragmented sleep I'd managed to find on the concrete floor.My eyes flew open, blinking against the harsh fluorescent light overhead
Vincent POVI stood up abruptly, my chair scraping loudly against the floor. Several people in the cafe glanced in our direction.My heart was thumping loudly in my chest, and it had nothing to do with whether I was afraid. I was worried for Evelyn. Situations like this require an expert and an ent







