LOGINLENA“Stay for breakfast at least.”Dominic’s voice was rough with sleep when I tried to slip out of his bed at dawn. His arm tightened around my waist, pulling me back against that solid, warm chest. The city was just starting to lighten beyond the windows. My body still hummed from the way he’d touched me—slow, thorough, like I was worth the time.I turned in his arms and met his eyes. “I have something I need to do first.”He brushed a strand of hair from my face. “Tyler?”“Yeah. He still has a key to my place. I want it back. And I want him gone.”Dominic nodded once, no drama, no possessiveness. “Want me to come with you?”The offer settled somewhere deep in my chest. “Yes. But I need to be the one who says it.”We showered together—quiet, easy, his hands washing my back like it was the most natural thing in the world. He lent me a soft black T-shirt and a pair of drawstring shorts that hung low on my hips. I looked nothing like the woman who had walked into a club last night try
LENA“You can still change your mind.”Dominic’s voice was quiet as the elevator climbed toward the top floor. His hand stayed in mine, warm and steady, thumb brushing over my knuckles like he was giving me an exit ramp at every second.I looked up at him. The club lights were gone. Up close he was even more solid—broad chest, the kind of arms that looked like they could hold someone together or pin them down, whichever was needed. But his eyes were careful.“I don’t want to change my mind,” I said. “I just… don’t know how to do this without feeling like I’m still that girl standing in the doorway watching her boyfriend finish inside someone else.”He nodded once, like he understood exactly what I meant. “Then we go slow. You say stop, we stop. You say slower, I slow down. Tonight is about you feeling good. Nothing else.”The elevator doors opened directly into his penthouse. Floor-to-ceiling windows, city lights spilling across dark furniture, the faint scent of clean cedar and somet
LENA.“No one’s looking at me, Mia. This was a mistake.”I had to raise my voice over the bass. The club was packed, bodies moving under red and purple lights, but I felt invisible in the worst way. The short black dress clung to every curve I’d spent years hating. Men glanced past me like I was furniture. My best friend, of course, already had two guys competing for her attention at the bar.Mia leaned in, lipstick perfect, eyes sharp. “They’re looking. You’re just still seeing yourself through Tyler’s bullshit. Give it time.”I didn’t believe her. My skin still felt raw from the way Brittany had looked at me earlier—like I was something she could scrape off her shoe. Every time someone brushed past without a second glance, the words fat and ugly replayed in my head on a loop.I ordered a vodka soda I didn’t really want and tried to shrink into the corner of the high-top table. That was when I heard the familiar laugh.Brittany.She was three feet away, wrapped around Tyler like she
LENA.“Happy birthday, baby. Keep your eyes closed.”I stood outside Tyler’s apartment door in the black lace set I’d bought three weeks ago, the one that pushed my tits up and made my ass look like an invitation. A bottle of his favorite whiskey in one hand. The key he’d given me six months ago in the other. I’d spent the entire day edging myself—porn, fingers, the vibe I only used when I was desperate—saving every ache for him. I wanted to walk in, drop the coat, and ride him until he forgot his own name.I unlocked the door quietly, smiling like an idiot.The living room was dark except for the lamp in the bedroom hallway. Soft, wet sounds drifted out. Moans. A woman’s voice that wasn’t mine.My stomach dropped.I walked toward the open bedroom door on legs that suddenly felt disconnected from my body. The coat slipped off one shoulder and I didn’t bother fixing it.Tyler was on his back. Some blonde I’d never seen before was riding him, tits bouncing, head thrown back. His hands w
BROOKE.I went back one more time.Thirty-six hours before the ceremony I stood in front of the mirror in the apartment I shared with Daniel and watched myself become a stranger. The woman in the reflection still wore his ring. She still had a white dress waiting in a garment bag. She still had vows memorized and a future mapped out in seating charts and shared bank accounts.She also still had Nolan’s bruises fading on her hips and the memory of his cock so deep inside her she had forgotten her own name.I told Daniel I needed one last night alone to clear my head. He kissed my forehead, told me he loved me, and said he would see me at the altar. The gentleness of it almost broke me. Almost.At 10:03 I walked into Room 1408 for the last time.Nolan was waiting. He didn’t speak. He simply locked the door, backed me against it, and kissed me like he already knew I had made my choice. The kiss was slow and deep and slightly cruel—teeth, tongue, the taste of whiskey and inevitability. Wh
BROOKE.Jess’s voice cut through the prosecco haze like a blade.“Brooke. Who’s Nolan?”The private dining room suddenly felt too small. Too bright. The other bridesmaids were still laughing about something on the opposite end of the table, oblivious, but Jess’s eyes were locked on my phone and the message still glowing on the screen.I snatched it facedown so hard the edge scraped my palm.“No one,” I said. Too fast. “Old friend. It’s nothing.”Jess didn’t smile. She leaned in, voice low enough that only I could hear. “That didn’t look like nothing. That looked like someone calling you little sister and talking about your vows. Brooke… what the hell is going on?”My pulse slammed in my throat. I could still feel Nolan between my legs from the night before—the stretch, the ache, the slow leak of him I had carefully cleaned away only hours ago. The secret felt like it was written on my skin in bruises no one else could see.“It’s complicated,” I whispered.“Then uncomplicate it. You’re







