LOGIN(Natasha)At Lily’s appointment on Tuesday, James suggests she needs more outdoor time to bolster her health.I’m in the car park of St. Jude's with her on my hip three minutes later, working out where to take her.The obvious choices file themselves in my head in a neat list.Santa Monica.Malibu.Manhattan Beach.The little patch of sand near my parents' favourite seafood place. Any of them would work.I don’t pick any of them.I’m halfway home before I realize I’ve been thinking about Shell Cove the whole time.The place we spent every family holiday when I still had a family.The place that became my refuge when my mother and brother disappeared overnight.The place where I could go for long walks on the beach and stay out all day while my father drank and cried in the house.I miss that beach house so much.Not all the memories are good, but the ones that are hold so much sweetness that it erases the rest.Lily will love it.The rocks at the south end, and the tide pools, and the
(Natasha)It’s been four days since I received Chase’s message.I still haven’t answered and he hasn’t sent another one.It shouldn’t matter this much but it keeps scraping my nerves.I’m on the living room rug, stacking wooden blocks for Lily to immediately knock over, when the doorbell rings.I open the door without checking the peephole.Chase is standing on the porch.He’s wearing dark jeans and a navy henley with the sleeves pushed up to his forearms.I have to drag my gaze away from his arms and violently suppress the urge to reach out and squeeze them."I know I should have called," he says.His voice is rough."I know you told me to leave you alone.""Chase.""I miss her, Natasha."He doesn't look angry."I don’t want to keep doing this. I can't sit in an empty house and pretend this is a sustainable way to live."My grip tightens on the edge of the door.I have a dozen perfectly valid reasons to slam the door in his face.But the exhaustion in his eyes mirrors my own, and the
(Gloria)I have twenty-four minutes.That is the exact window I carved out of my morning to sit at this corner table at Urth Caffé, drink a latte in peace, and read the quarterly projections for Stein M&A without anyone asking me a question.Twenty-four minutes of absolute, unbothered silence.Then Julian Morton slides into the booth opposite me.I drop my tablet onto the table.It hits the wood with a loud smack.I look at the ceiling, close my eyes, and groan out loud."Go away, Julian.""Good morning to you too, Gloria," he says smoothly.He presses a hand to his chest."I’m genuinely wounded. I see you sitting here all alone, looking like a woman carrying the weight of the corporate world, and I thought, Julian, go and brighten her day.""You are a plague," I tell him. "A well-dressed, sexually transmitted plague. Please vacate my booth."A waiter materializes before Julian can respond.Julian flashes him a brilliant, entirely fake smile."I’ll be joining my friend," Julian tells
(Mason)The Stein M&A offices are quiet.Everyone else has gone home for the day.I stand in the center of my office and look at the single cardboard box on my desk.I’m not moving out.I’m just moving across town for a few months.But walking away from the firm I built, even temporarily, feels strange.I run my hand along the back of my leather chair.It’s the right play.Stepping in to stabilize Warren Global puts my name in a different stratosphere.When I come back here, I’ll be the man who bailed out Elias Warren. The firm will print money.I leave my office and stroll down the corridor slowly.It’s ridiculous to be feeling this sentimental about a place I’ll be coming back to soon enough.There’s nobody here to see me being ridiculous though, so I indulge myself.Gloria has the reigns. Nathanial Morton is arriving tomorrow to help her hold them.It’s a solid structure.I don’t need to worry about my house burning down while I’m putting out fires in someone else’s.My real proble
(Julian)I find my sister in the business center of her hotel.She has three monitors going and a wilted salad that’s clearly been sitting there for some time."Congratulations are in order," I say, dropping into one of the absurdly uncomfortable guest chairs.Piper doesn’t look up. "For what?""Your sudden promotion. With Nathanial playing administrative assistant over at Stein M&A, the Morton empire is finally yours to run."That gets her attention. She stops typing to glare at me."What are you talking about?""Oh, you didn't know?"I cross my legs."Nathanial jumped ship. He’s taking over the day-to-day for Mason Stein, who’s taking over running Warren Global while Chase is in the naughty corner. Well. He’s taking over some of the day-to-day. Gloria will be working with him closely.”I smile at Piper blandly.“You are now the undisputed heir apparent. You can finally run the company the way you've always complained you should."Piper does not look ecstatic. She looks like she just
(Natasha)I’ve watched the clip of my husband shouting at Mason’s new girlfriend exactly four times today.It’s twenty-four seconds long.Chloe looks stunning and entirely unbothered.Chase looks like a man who wants to set fire to the room.He calls her vapid, manufactured, and parasitic in a voice that carries over the string quartet.He isn’t wrong. Chloe is all of those things.I spent ten minutes talking to her at a reception the other day and wanted to claw my own ears off.But Chase doesn’t lose his temper in public.He’s too tightly wound for that.Chloe had to have pushed him, hard, and conveniently cropped that part out of the video.The internet thinks he's a rude asshole.I know he's just a man who finally hit the end of his rope.I drop my phone onto the sofa cushion.I’m feeling mostly human again.Four days of enforced rest, actual meals, and sleeping in my own bed will do that.Lily is asleep upstairs. My parents are out. The house is quiet.I should call Chase.I owe
(Chase)I close the nursery door quietly after making sure the baby is still sleeping peacefully.The nurse promised to call me when she wakes and needs to be fed.Walking down the long hallway toward my study, I realize that the house feels entirely different with my daughter here.The quiet empti
(Chase)Lily will not sleep.She was fine during the show, fine through the chaos of the evening, perfectly content while Mason was here and the room was full of noise and movement.The moment things quieted down she decided she had opinions about it.I walk her through the townhouse in slow loops,
(Nathanial)Walking up the wide stone steps of the Warren estate, I keep a close eye on my sister.Sonia walks stiffly beside me, keeping her hands carefully folded over her perfectly flat stomach.She shivers, blaming the cold wind, but I know she’s anxious about seeing Chase and Natasha’s child.
(Nathanial)Holding my phone to my ear, I stare out the large window of my office."Mother, you need to come to Los Angeles," I tell her firmly."Sonia is pregnant. She is very upset and needs you right now."A long, heavy silence fills the line."You know I can’t go to Los Angeles, Nathanial," my







