Masuk**Adrian's Pov** "Don't want my men outside to have a reason not to pluck out their eyes for staring at my hot wife tonight." Damn it Adrian! What the f*ck is wrong with you? She stood frozen, staring at me like I had spoken in a foreign language. Her eyes dropped first. Then her fingers tightened around the edge of my garment, pulling it a little closer around herself. The colour beneath her cheeks had deepened, spreading slowly toward her ears. “Bianca… she, uh, wants an answer soon. About standing beside her,” she said, shifting her gaze somewhere else. "I know." "I haven't decided." "You have." I said, the way I said most things I was certain of. "You decided the moment she asked you." Her jaw tightened, the small, familiar defiance she wore whenever I told her something true she hadn't wanted said out loud yet. "And if I have?" "Then we'll talk about what that costs you. Tomorrow. Not tonight." "Why not tonight?" "Because tonight," I held her eyes a mom
**Sam's POV** "Yes, Samantha, it's like a dream come true, and that's why I want you to be my maid of honor." She said it lightly, the way she said most things that should have cost her more to say. "Rachel was supposed to stand beside me. Now she can't." "You'd be perfect. A Dela Cruz woman beside a Salvatore bride. It would mean something to both families. I mean, if you'd like it." They're really getting married?... They are… They. They had shattered my entire life and were already standing in the wreckage, one of theirs discussing floor plans for what came next. "That's a generous offer," I said. She smiled like she'd already decided my answer for me. "Of course. Don't take too long. There's a great deal to arrange." "I'll think about it," I said, the same flat phrase, careful not to give her anything sharper to hold onto. "You always think about things very carefully, Samantha. It's one of the things Adrian must find useful in a wife." The word useful landed w
**Sam's POV** "I was nearby." The lie came smooth. "I saw your car by the road." Diego's hand stayed on Bianca's arm. His thumb moved in a small, absent circle against the fabric of her coat. The motion sent a clean spike of rage through my chest, but I kept my face still. "Well this building did have a lot of memories, both good and unfortunately bad. We're converting it," Bianca said. "The family decided the location still has value. New project. Mixed use. Diego's been overseeing the early stages." "The fire did more damage than the first reports suggested. We're stripping everything that can't be salvaged. The foundation's still good. That's the important part." I looked past them at the workers hauling another blackened section of wall into a waiting truck. Ash drifted in the air like fine gray snow. "How long has the renovation been planned?" Bianca's smile did not change. "Before the fire. The papers were already in motion. Tragic timing, of course. Rachel's death
**Sam's POV** Something moved against my temple, cold and rough, slowly tucking a loose strand of hair back from my face, the touch so light it felt more like something I'd imagined than something that had actually happened. In the half-second before my mind caught up, I let myself stay soft in it, unguarded in a way I never allowed myself to be in this house. Warmth pulled me out of sleep before sound did. My eyes opened on instinct, my whole body already half braced, the old reflex of a woman who'd learned that waking up unguarded could cost her something. Adrian stood in front of me, already a step back, hand withdrawn, like he'd finished the motion before I could catch him in the middle of it. A blanket sat heavy across my shoulders, tucked in at the side where I'd curled into the kitchen bench, the kitchen held its breath around us, the way rooms did in this house whenever he was in them. "This isn't a bed. Sleep somewhere proper." I pulled the blanket tighter aroun
**Sam's POV** His voice found me before I'd finished turning around. "Rosa told the maid to move everything in here. I came to check that nothing got left behind in the transfer." It came out smoother than I expected, and I let myself lean into the ease of the lie rather than second-guess it. He studied me for a moment, not with suspicion exactly, more the way he studied everything, cataloguing, filing details away for later use whether or not they meant anything yet. "You could have asked a maid to check for you, while you get dressed." "I… I didn't think of it." Something almost like amusement crossed his face, there and gone fast enough that I couldn't be sure I'd actually seen it. He stepped closer anyway, toward me, close enough that the towel suddenly felt like the only thing standing between us and a conversation neither of us had agreed to have yet. His cold grey eyes held mine, steady, unreadable in the low light. Heat climbed up my neck, nothing to do with ange
**Sam’s POV** I turned and carried the tray back to the kitchen without seeing much of the corridor in front of me. A guard stepped aside when he saw me. Another opened a door. I barely noticed either. …Mrs. Samantha… The words followed me all the way back to my separate room. By the time I got inside, I had already gone through every face from the council chamber. The men who had started when Adrian refused to formalize the Laurent alliance. Adrian's grandfather, whom I haven't seen in the castle since I arrived… The guards… The servants. My mind kept circling the same question. Why me? Celine Salvatore was dead. Everyone believed that… Sam Dela Cruz was supposed to be nobody. So who had a reason to kill a woman who technically had no past? I stood there with my hand still on the door after I'd closed it, the thoughts still circling. I turned the key twice and crossed to the small dresser in the corner and opened the bottom drawer, the one I kept locked sinc







