LOGINEvery face in the room goes pale.A cluster of journalists grabs their cameras and runs. The host is already on her phone. The crew is scrambling, pulling up news feeds, trying to piece together what's happening from fragments and push notifications.Liam's expression hardens into something I haven't seen in weeks. Not anger. Something more focused. The face of a man who has identified a problem and is already moving toward it."I'm going up there," he says."I'm coming too."He doesn't argue. We leave Prism Tower and cross the four blocks to Meridian Tower in under three minutes. Liam drives. I sit beside him and watch his jaw work and say nothing because nothing I could say would change whatever is about to happen.---The rooftop of Meridian Tower is chaos.A crowd has formed along the edge, pressed together in a tight circle that tightens further every time someone new pushes through. Securit
The host's words land in my chest.Others in the room probably heard a husband apologizing to his wife on camera. A sweet moment. Good television. The kind of clip that gets shared a hundred thousand times by morning.But I heard something underneath it.He was explaining the necklace. Without saying it directly, without naming Mia, without going into the surveillance footage or the garden conversation or any of the specifics, he told me why he did what he did. He spent $200 million and kept it secret because he wanted to carry the weight alone. The false accusations, the conspiracy, the damage control, all of it. He took it on himself and left me out of it, and he did it because he thought that was the kind thing to do.I hadn't considered that.For two weeks I'd been angry. For two weeks I'd been building a case against him in my head, collecting evidence of his distrust, cataloging every moment where he chose Mia's word over mine. And the whole time, the man I was accusing was sitt
The support staff waves us over. "Mr. Hart, Miss Brooks, shall we get started?" Liam and I walk to the set together. The interview space has been rearranged since this morning. The two formal chairs are gone, replaced by a sofa. A loveseat, basically, designed to look intimate. The host sits in a separate chair to the side, camera already rolling. This isn't a standard interview. It's the kind of segment where celebrities sit close together and answer questions about their personal lives while a camera crew captures every microexpression. The format is designed to look casual and natural, which means it's neither. The host leans forward with the bright, practiced energy of someone who's been waiting for this segment all day. "Good evening, everyone. We're thrilled to have two special guests tonight: Miss Allie Brooks and Mr. Liam Hart." She pauses for effect. "For those who don't know, Mr. Hart and Miss Brooks are one of the most talked-about couples in the industry right now.
The word "jealous" echoes in my head for a long time after Chloe hangs up.I lie on the guest room bed and stare at the ceiling and turn it over. Jealous. That's what Chloe said. That's the word she chose, and the more I roll it around, the more I realize she picked the right one, even though I don't want her to be right.I had told myself this was about distrust. That Liam didn't believe me. That was the story I built, the one that made sense, the one that justified the coldness and the separate rooms and the silence.But that's not quite it, is it?Liam does trust me. He trusts me the way you trust someone you've assessed. He looked at the situation, evaluated my capabilities, weighed my character against the available evidence, and concluded that I wasn't the type. That's not the same as believing me. That's a risk calculation.When it comes to Mia, it's different.Liam's trust in Mia isn't something he arrived at through logic. It's something that's been there since childhood, bui
I take the takeout box from George."Thank you, George."He finds a spot on the single-seater sofa nearby and sits down, easy, unhurried, the way he does everything. Like there's no rush. Like the world can wait."I don't know what happened between you and Liam," he says, "but I ran into his secretary today. Fang told me the entire company is a mess right now. Department heads are terrified to walk into meetings. Apparently Liam tears into anyone who gives him a reason, and half the time he doesn't even need one."Hearing Liam's name from George's mouth does something strange in my chest. A tightness I can't place. Not anger, exactly. Something adjacent to it.George sighs. "Liam has always been the type to hold everything inside. If he's acting like this at work, it means something at home is eating at him and he has nowhere to put it. What happened between you two?"The honest answer is: I don't know.These past few days I've been waiting. Liam said he'd investigate the necklace. He
Liam doesn't hesitate.Not even a full second. Not even the fraction of a pause that would tell me he considered it, weighed it, held my question up against his history with Mia and made a genuine choice. He just — answers. The way you answer something you've already decided before the question was asked."I know Mia's character," he says. His voice is steady. Certain. "She can be reckless. Impulsive. She says things she shouldn't and does things she regrets. But she would never do something this —" He stops. Searches for the word. "This calculated."I smile.It's not a happy smile. It's the kind that arrives when the thing you already knew is confirmed out loud, and the confirming feels worse than the knowing.He chose her.Without hesitation. Without doubt. Without even the courtesy of pretending to think about it.He believes I didn't steal the necklace — not because he trusts me, but because he decided I'm not capable of it. And he believes Mia didn't plant it — not because he has
“I’ll drive. You handle the camera,” Joe White barked, his voice laced with urgency.Allie Brooks nodded, clutching the telephoto lens tightly as Joe started the car, skillfully trailing the RV through the crowded streets. Allie’s heart pounded wildly in her chest. She wasn’t sure if it was the adr
But Allison Brooks couldn’t focus on the mystery for long. The 20,000 dollars hanging over her head loomed large, casting a shadow on her thoughts.Allie didn’t lack basic living expenses; her stepmother, Lisa Ruyan, deposited a set allowance into her account each month—just enough to cover her nee
Cher Waverly sat on the cold pavement, covering her face as tears streamed uncontrollably. Her sobs cut through the night, raw and unrelenting.Allison Brooks stood still, her gaze fixed on the woman before her. Memories flashed in her mind, unbidden but vivid, of a simpler time—a time before betra
Allison "Allie" Brooks never doubted that she had loved Nicholas "Nick" Lawson.Childhood sweethearts, ten years of shared memories, laughter, and heartache.But as Nick stared at her, his voice trembling with emotion, she felt a hollow ache in her chest. His question hung in the air, unanswered. F







