MasukRowan just stares at me. He blinks once. Then twice. His face goes completely blank, like his brain is trying to process information in a language it doesn't understand."What?" he finally manages to say. "What did you just say, Nova?""James Sterling," I repeat, and my voice is shaking but I press forward anyway because I've started this and I have to see it through, I have to make him understand. "Her ex-fiancé from LA. She's been seeing him. Today, right now, she's with him at the Grandview Hotel. I followed her there. I saw them together—""You followed her?" Rowan's voice shifts, going hard in a way I've rarely heard directed at me. "Nova, what the hell are you talking about?""I had to. I found evidence, Rowan. A robe in her things with his initials embroidered on it. J.S. James Sterling. And then I found out he's been staying at the Grandview for days, and today when Jane said she was going to see her sick mother she actually went straight to him. She lied to your face about wh
The door swings shut across the hall.That's when it hits me, I'm not alone in this room. I'm here with Sebastian Oberon, having just spectacularly failed at the one thing we came here to do.I stumble back from the peephole, my legs suddenly weak. One hand reaches out blindly for the wall to steady myself while the other still clutches my phone. The screen is dark now, silent and innocent-looking, as if it didn't just detonate our entire operation like a bomb.When I finally manage to turn around, I find Sebastian already watching me.He looks calm, his expression sitting somewhere between disappointed and grimly amused."Well," he says slowly, and I can hear the dry amusement threading through his voice, "that was impressively terrible timing.""I know," I mumble, still gripping my phone like somehow if I hold it tight enough, I can rewind time. Undo Rowan's call. Get the photo I was supposed to get. Make this disaster un-happen. "I didn't... I didn't know he would call right then.
We watch the car keep moving toward the place we already suspect. Or maybe know for sure it's heading to. And with every second that passes, my heart trembles even more. My fists are balled tight on my laps."Stop fidgeting," Sebastian says without taking his eyes off Jane's car, three vehicles ahead of us. "You're making me nervous.""I'm making you nervous?" I raise a brow. "You're the one who apparently does this for fun.""I prefer to think of it as a hobby." He says, sliding through another lane, always keeping the right distance. "Besides, I don't do it for fun. I do it because I'm good at it.""That's not the reassurance you think it is, Sebastian.""Wasn't trying to reassure you, sweetheart." He glances at me briefly, one eyebrow raised. "I was stating a fact."Sweetheart? My cheeks flush at the endearment, heat creeping up my neck. The way he says it sends me hot. It's just a word. Just a casual endearment people throw around all the time. But the way Sebastian says it sends
The three days between Wednesday and Saturday crawl by.Thursday morning, I show up to work at the café already exhausted. My shift starts at six, and I immediately start messing up orders. I give a customer oat milk instead of almond. I forget to add the extra shot of espresso someone specifically requested. I nearly burn myself twice on the steam wand because I'm not paying attention.Because my mind keeps circling back to Sebastian and our Saturday 'mission.' Every time I try to focus on something else, my brain yanks me right back to it. Friday, I have the day off. I should be grateful for the rest, should use it to catch up on sleep or do literally anything productive. But instead, I spend the entire day pacing my room like a caged animal, nervous.At dinner, Jane makes this incredible chicken parmesan. I sit across from her, watching her twirl pasta onto her fork. I really, really look at her. How can someone look so innocent while harboring such a foul secret?I take a breath.
Sebastian's eyes are fixed on me. He's waiting for me to speak, to explain why I dragged him away from his friends and made him sit here with me in this smoke-filled carI need to tell him what Rita said. I need to make him understand that this is real, that Jane really is doing what we suspected. But now that I'm actually sitting here, now that the moment has arrived, my throat feels tight. The words are stuck, refusing to come out in any coherent order.So, I just blurt it out."Jane is cheating on Rowan."Sebastian's eyebrows rise slowly. He doesn't look shocked, exactly. More like... interested. Like I've finally said something worth his full attention."What?" His voice is calm. Too calm for what I just told him."My boss, Rita," I continue. "She told me something today at the café. She saw Jane a few days ago coming out of a hotel with a man.""What hotel?" He asks calmly."The Grand Regency." I watch his face for a reaction. "The same hotel where James Sterling is staying. And
I can't just waltz out of the apartment. I explicitly told them I was exhausted, that I was going straight to bed to rest. If I suddenly say I'm leaving, they'll definitely ask questions. I pace around my room, thinking hard, running through possibilities and discarding them just as quickly.I could say I'm meeting a friend. But which friend? Rowan knows I don't have many friends in the city. He'll ask who. He'll ask where we're going, and I'm not good enough at lying under pressure to come up with convincing details on the spot.I need something concrete. Something believable. Something that gives me a good reason to leave right now and be gone for at least an hour, probably longer.I pace faster, biting my thumbnail.And then it hits me.My wallet.I could say I left my wallet at work. That I just realized it's still in my locker at the café and I need to go get it.It's perfect. It's the kind of thing I would actually do. I'm always forgetting things, always leaving my jacket some







