LOGINEden’s POVThe morning air at the private airfield was crisp, tasting of jet fuel and the sharp, lingering salt spray from the coastline we were leaving behind. The fleet of black SUVs sat idling on the tarmac, their engines a low, collective thrum that signalled the end of our isolation. The vacation was over; the empire was calling us back to the iron and glass of New York.I stood near the edge of the perimeter, watching the men move. I felt a strange, hollow weight in my chest as I watched them coordinate the luggage and the security detail. I knew my place—I was their property, a certified asset to be managed and moved, but the logistics of my own displacement remained a mystery. I stood there, hovering between the vehicles, my eyes darting between Daniel and Silas. I didn't know whose shadow I was supposed to walk in today or which car door would be opened for me. I was a quick learner, but even I didn't know the protocol for a return to the city.Suddenly, a hand reached out an
Daddy’s POVThe evening had settled into the house with a heavy, expectant quiet. We had scrubbed the salt and the sweat of the afternoon from our skin, trading the raw chaos of the bedroom for the sharp, tailored lines of our evening clothes. The study was the heart of this island, a place of cold mahogany, leather-bound secrets, and the faint, permanent scent of expensive tobacco and aged scotch. My sons stood like sentinels—Daniel by the window, Silas in the deepest shadows, Jonas near the medical archives, Felix lounging by the bar, and Luca checking the flight logs on his tablet.I sat in my high-backed leather chair, the weight of the empire resting on my shoulders. I hadn't summoned her, but I knew she was coming.She didn't knock. She entered the room with terrifyingly confident grace. She didn't look like the girl who had been trembling under Silas and Felix hours ago. She looked like a woman who had finally realised the power she held in this house. Without a word, she walke
Eden’s POVThe afternoon sun was a relentless, golden weight, hanging low over the Atlantic and pouring through the glass walls of the suite until the room felt like the inside of a furnace. The storm had passed, leaving behind a humid, heavy stillness that made every breath feel thick. I was still sitting at the edge of the bed, the digital data from the morning’s session with Silas still scrolling behind my eyelids. I was exhausted, but it was a wired, restless kind of fatigue—the kind that only comes when your mind has been pushed to its absolute limit and your body is screaming for a release.I hadn't even heard the door click.Silas was standing by the mahogany sideboard, pouring two fingers of amber liquid into a glass. He had discarded his tie hours ago, and his white shirt was unbuttoned halfway down his chest, revealing the smooth, hard lines of his torso. He looked up, his grey eyes pinning me to the spot with the same analytical precision he used to deconstruct a wire trans
Eden’s POVThe morning light on the island didn’t creep in; it arrived like an intrusion, sharp and unforgiving against the midnight-blue silk of the bed. I woke up alone, the sheets still smelling of the sandalwood oil and the heavy, musky scent of Daniel. My body felt like a map of his territorialism—the faint shadows of finger marks on my thighs and the deep, satisfying ache in my core. He had been a force of nature last night, a blunt instrument of the Schmidt legacy that had left me spent and hollowed out in the best possible way.I sat up, the silk sliding down my bruised ribs, and saw Silas standing by the glass wall.He was already dressed in a crisp white shirt, the sleeves rolled precisely to his elbows, a cup of black coffee in his hand. He wasn't looking at the ocean; he was looking at the digital tablet in his hand, his brow furrowed in that way that meant he was deconstructing a lie. While Daniel was the hammer of this family, Silas was the scalpel. And I could tell by t
Eden’s POVThe storm that had been brewing over the Atlantic finally broke, lashing against the floor-to-ceiling glass of the master suite with a violence that matched the energy inside. The island felt smaller tonight, more intimate, as the rain turned the world outside into a blurred, grey void. I stood in the centre of the room, my skin humming with the residual heat of the day’s work. I had spent twelve hours in the study with Daddy and Silas, untangling the web of the undercover investigation, and the mental exertion had left me with a jagged, restless hunger that only one thing could dull.I wasn't alone.Daniel and Silas stood on opposite sides of the bed, a pair of dark pillars in the dim light of the fire pit. They had shed the professional armour of their suits. Daniel looked raw, his broad chest rising and falling slow and heavy, his sleeves rolled up to reveal the corded power of his forearms. Silas, usually the most composed of the brothers, had a predatory stillness abou
Lilian’s POVI woke up to the sound of a vacuum cleaner humming with indifferent efficiency in the hallway and the relentless glare of the morning sun reflecting off the glass towers of Midtown. For a long, disorienting minute, I didn't know where I was. My mind was a fractured, jagged mosaic of silver clouds, the bone-shaking roar of jet engines, and the brutal weight of Klaus slamming into me over the Atlantic. The ghost of his touch was still etched into my skin, a cold, phantom pressure that made my breath hitch in the quiet of the room.I tried to sit up, but a sharp, biting pain flared in my wrists, pinning me back to the mattress for a second. I looked down, my vision blurring. The heavy, industrial plastic zip-ties had been cut away, probably by one of Klaus’s silent, stone-faced security detail, leaving deep, purple-black welts that circled my pale skin like grotesque jewelry. My entire body felt like it had been put through a meat grinder; every muscle was stiff, my lower ba
Eden’s POV“And where the hell are you coming from?” Lilian’s voice cut through the hallway like shattered glass. I stepped out of Daniel’s study, my heart still racing, my skin still buzzing with leftover adrenaline from being too close to him, from standing on the edge of something dangerous and
I walk into the master bedroom and head straight to the shower. I thought I knew my wife, but it turned out, I knew nothing about Lilian. Her daughter is at the hospital, and she didn’t give a shit about it. I stepped out of the shower and dried myself and then looked for something casual to wear.
Eden’s POVI sat on the edge of the hospital bed, staring at the floor. My hands were clenched in my lap, my shoulders tight, and my mind running in circles. I think it's best I leave.I need to leave.I didn’t say it out loud yet, but I knew it. This city, that house, this entire sick fantasy of a
Eden’s POVI was going to leave. I’d packed my things, mentally, at least, and told myself that this city, this woman, and this whole pathetic attempt at a mother-daughter reconciliation wasn’t worth it. I was going to walk away with my dignity and pretend none of it touched me and also pretend I d







