Se connecterBella pov The room was silent. "The jury will note," Ms. Osei said quietly, "that the defendant has not said she is sorry for what happened to the child." Jade looked at me. I looked back at her, I didn't feel happy that I won. I didn't feel sad. I just felt incredibly tired—the kind of tired you feel when you finally put down a heavy box you have been carrying for years. The courtroom was completely silent when it was time to announce the judgement. The court clerk stood up. "On the count of kidnapping, how do you find the defendant?" "Guilty," the foreperson said. "On the count of child endangerment?" "Guilty." "On the count of conspiracy?" "Guilty." "On the count of directing criminal conduct?" "Guilty." "On the count of attempting to flee when about to be arrested?" "Guilty." Jade did not move, instead she looked eerily calm. The judge looked down at her over his glasses. His voice was flat and cold. "Jade Hart, for these crimes, you have shown no remorse. This c
Bella POVThe courtroom was smaller than I expected.I don't know what I had imagined. Something grander, maybe. But Court Three was just a room with wood walls, bright lights, and the smell of old paper. Benches filled up with lawyers, reporters, and strangers who just liked to watch other people's disasters.I had been in courtrooms before for Richard and Victoria. I had always been calm and left without looking back. I told myself this would be the same.It was not.Jade was already there, she sat at the defense table. Her hair was shorter, she had lost weight, and her face looked completely blank and cold.I had thought about this moment in the car, in the hallway, and right before the courtroom door opened. I told myself it wouldn't bother me.It did.But it wasn't sadness or the old bond of being sisters. It was harder than that. It was a cold, sharp anger. I looked at the person who had put Tom on a concrete floor and saw she had the same blood as me.She looked at me like she
Caleb pov "He's very capable," she said. "But yes, he's five. This is a lot to carry.""He's working very hard not to show it," I said. "He catches the feeling and hides it before anyone can see. But i recognize that because i did the exact same thing at his age."Dr. Abara looked at me steadily. "What did it take from you?"I was quiet for a moment. "Years of not knowing what I actually felt," I said. "And a marriage that got ruined because I didn't know how to let someone in.""Is that what you want for Tom?""No," I said. "That's why we're all here every Friday. My father taught me that showing feelings was a weakness, and I believed him for a long time." I looked down at my hands. "Tom is not going to learn that. He is not going to learn that feelings are something to hide."Dr. Abara was quiet for a moment."You should tell him that," she said. "Not necessarily in a session, but when the moment is right."I thought about Tom on the terrace, figuring out that he could see the win
Caleb POVI cleared my calendar on a Wednesday morning and told James I needed three weeks.James, my assistant of years, had never heard me ask for even one full week off. He was quiet for a long moment before saying, "I'll reschedule everything possible and delegate the rest. Is there anything else I can do?""Tom has therapy on Tuesdays and Thursdays," I said. "Make sure nothing ever lands on those days.""Done," James said.There was a brief pause before James spoke again."Sir," he said, in a careful tone. "I want to say—I think this is the right call."James never offered opinions on my personal life. In years of working together, he had always just done the job. It was why I trusted him completely."Thank you, James," I said."Tom is a remarkable boy," he said. "The whole office has been—we've all been thinking about him."Looking at all the new white space on my calendar, I felt a wave of complete, physical relief."Tell them thank you," I said. "From both of us.""I will," J
Bella pov "Diana." I said her name the way she sometimes said mine"You got there, you found the Malta connection. You stayed throughout helping out”."I'll be there for dinner," she said finally."I know.""Don't make it a thing.""I'm not making it a thing.""You're smiling," she said. "I can hear it.""Goodbye, Diana.""I'll bring wine," she said, and hung up.I set the phone down, finally letting myself feel the relief—a massive weight leaving my chest.From the living room, Tom called out, "Mummy? Where did you go?""Kitchen," I called back. "I'm here.""Can you come back? I woke up.""Coming," I said.Tom was sitting up on the sofa when I came back in. He looked at me with that same watchful, checking expression he'd had since coming home."You were on the phone," he said. "Was it about the bad person?"I sat beside him, and he immediately leaned into my side. "Yes," I said. "It's all sorted now. You don't need to worry anymore.""Are you sure?" he asked quietly."I'm sure."He
Bella pov "Jade made a choice," he said, his voice quiet and absolute. "Jade, whom we both made an enemy of just by existing and being happy. That is not the same as your fault." He turned to face me. "You didn't put Tom in that room, she did.""My history""Is also the reason he's in the living room right now reading about velociraptors instead of being lost somewhere we couldn't reach him," he said. "Your history is exactly why you knew how to bring him home."I looked at him."He said he decided to be like you," Caleb said. "Alone and scared in that room, he chose you as his model. That is not the legacy of someone who failed him."I didn't answer. But I stopped gripping the counter quite so hard."Mummy." Tom's voice came from the living room, patient and certain. "Can someone come look at this fossil? It's a really interesting one."I looked at Caleb.He looked at me. "Go," he said quietly.I walked to the living room doorway. Tom was on the sofa with his book open across his kn
Bella POVThe morning after my breakdown, I woke up with swollen eyes and a pounding headache. Maya was already in the kitchen making coffee when I emerged, and she took one look at my face before sliding a mug across the counter."You look like hell," she said bluntly."I feel worse." I wrapped my
walked away before she could respond, my composure intact but my heart racing. Victoria Lane and Caleb. Of course. A beautiful socialite with connections and no moral compass, exactly his type. Not that I cared. I absolutely did not care."Bella." Ethan appeared at my elbow, his timing impeccable a
Bella pov I tucked Tom into bed and sat beside him, smoothing his dark hair back from his forehead. "I love you, Tom. More than anything in the whole world.""Love you too, Mommy." His eyes opened slightly, that grey gaze so like his father's that it hurt. "Mommy? Why do I look different from you?
Bella POVI made it back to the penthouse before I fell apart completely. The elevator doors had barely closed before the first sob broke free, raw and ugly and years overdue. I pressed my back against the wall and slid down until I was sitting on the floor, my expensive suit wrinkling, my carefull







