Mag-log inI knew this was not going to be a simple conversation. I froze. “What do you mean, the children?” Adrian looked at me for a moment before answering. “I found out something today. Something I think you should know.” My mind immediately went back to the entrance. “You mean what happened at Laurent Group?” “Not really, I had that settled properly.” His answer came quickly. “Then what?” “The school.” I stared at him. “The school? What happened at their school?” Adrian moved his wheelchair closer. His assistant stopped a few steps behind him. “Lila told me some students have been bullying Elias.” My mouth fell slightly open. “Bullying?” “Yes.” I felt my chest tighten. “Since when?” “Several weeks.” Several weeks. The words hit me harder than I expected. “How did I not know?” Adrian watched me carefully. “They said they wanted to tell you, but you have been busy. They didn’t want to disturb you.” I shook my head. “Still they should have told me.” “They did try to tell teache
The last meeting at Laurent Group finally ended just before evening. I closed the file in front of me and let out a slow breath. My head was heavy after hours of dealing with numbers, calls, and problems that seemed to appear every time I solved one. But the moment I looked at the time, another thought hit me. The children. I had been away from them for much longer than I planned. I immediately picked up my phone and called Clara. She answered after two rings. “Hello, Serena.” “Where are the children?” There was a small pause. “They’re fine.” “That wasn’t what I asked. Where are they?” “They were with Adrian but they are home right now with me.” I sat straighter. “They were with Adrian?” “Yes. He took them out for a while.” I could not hide my surprise. “He took them out?” “Yes. They went shopping earlier.” A small smile touched my lips. I had not expected Adrian to take the children out without me, especially with his condition. “Are they okay?” “They’re more than
After the hand shake, their hands separated, but neither Nathan nor Lia moved away from the table.The decision had been made. Now they had to figure out how to make it happen.Nathan leaned back in his chair. “We need to be careful.”Lia frowned. “Careful?”“Yes. Serena is already suspicious of you.”Lia looked away. “She has every reason to be.”“And Adrian is still recovering his memories,” Nathan continued. “That makes everything even more complicated.”Lia nodded slowly. “If we make one mistake, Serena will know something is wrong.”“Exactly.”Nathan picked up his glass but did not drink from it. “We cannot rush this.”Lia looked at him. “Then what do you suggest?”“We create opportunities that look natural.”“Natural?”“Yes. Nothing that makes either of them immediately suspicious.”Lia thought about Adrian.“He barely remembers his past. If I suddenly start appearing around him, Serena will notice I have a plan.”“And Adrian may question it too.”“So how do I get close to him?”
“We both want something we currently cannot have.”Lia stared at Nathan. For a moment, she did not speak. Then she leaned forward. “What exactly are you talking about?”Nathan remained calm. “You want Adrian.”Lia’s expression changed. “And you want Serena?”“Yes.”“And you think that means we should work together?”“I think it gives us a reason to.”Lia crossed her arms. “You still haven’t told me what you have in mind.”Nathan glanced toward the closed door before looking back at her. “Serena has kept me at a distance for too long. No matter what I do for her, she keeps treating me like a business partner.”“You knew that before you called me.”“I did.”“Then what changed?”“Before, I thought I had time. Adrian was unconscious, and Serena had no reason to keep running back to him. Now everything has changed. Even without his memories, she is still worried about him.”Lia looked away. “I know.”“And if he remembers everything?”Lia’s fingers tightened. “That is what I’m afraid of.”N
He was no longer thinking about business.He was planning. He did not stay in his office for long.The moment he decided to find Lia, he opened his phone and searched through his contacts.He found her number. His thumb paused over it for barely a second before he pressed call.The phone rang twice. Then a woman’s voice answered. “Hello, who is this?”“Hello Lia , this is Nathan."There was silence.Then Lia’s voice became colder. “Nathan?”“Yes.”“Why are you calling me? What do you want?”Nathan leaned against his desk. “Can we meet up?”Lia gave a short laugh. “Since when do you need to see me?”“Since now.”“That doesn’t answer my question.”Nathan looked toward the window. “I have something to discuss with you, maybe a deal you might like.”“About Serena?”Her question caught him off guard.Lia continued before he could answer. “You’ve been around her for a long time. If this is about her, whatever you want to say, say it over the phone and I'm not interested.”Nathan smiled faint
Several cities away. Nathan sat alone in his office at Hale’s Corporation, staring through the glass wall without really seeing the city below.The office was quiet. Too quiet.His laptop was open in front of him, but he had not read a single line on the screen for the past twenty minutes. His phone lay beside his hand, untouched.After the crisis on the market has reduced his mind was somewhere else.Serena.Everything kept coming back to her.The way she looked at him. The way she spoke to him. The way she always kept a small distance between them, no matter how hard he tried to close it.Nathan leaned back and rubbed his face. “How did I let this happen?” he muttered.From the beginning, he had tried.He had been there for Serena when she needed someone. He had helped her with business, stood beside her when things became difficult, and made it clear that his feelings were not a secret.But Serena had never given him what he wanted.She trusted him. She respected him. She worked wi
The days before the wedding passed like a blur I couldn’t escape. People moved in and out of the house carrying fabrics, jewelry, flowers, and invitations while I stood in the middle of it all feeling completely detached. Measurements were taken and dresses were fitted. Every room was filled with
I spent the morning trying to make myself useful. Anything to feel less like a shadow in this house. One of the younger maids was struggling with heavy flower vases in the main hall, so I stepped in to help carry one. Her eyes widened in surprise, but she gave me a small, grateful smile.We were ha
“There’s a family willing to help us,” my mother explained quickly. “Very powerful. Very wealthy. But they have conditions.”My stomach tightened. “What kind of conditions?” I asked.My sister let out a soft, shaky breath. “They want their son to be married so that they can get a grandchild out of
That night, I sat alone in the vast bedroom that wasn’t mine, wearing a white light robe they had given me after the wedding with no panties under. My hands were clenched so tightly in my lap that my nails left little crescent marks on my palms. I felt nervous.The door opened.He stepped in, jacke







