LOGINDonald drove home in silence.He didn’t turn on the radio. He didn’t think about the road or the traffic while his mind stayed back at the cemetery. On his knees, the cold grey stone, Elena’s face.He parked outside and sat in the car for a moment before going in. He took one slow breath. Then he got out.The house looked quiet when he opened the front door. But Patricia was in the living room, sitting upright in the armchair by the window. Her legs were crossed and her hands were folded in her lap. She was dressed like she had somewhere important to be. She looked straight at him the moment he walked in.Her face said everything before her mouth did.Donald closed the door behind him and said nothing.Patricia tilted her head slowly. “Let me guess.” Her voice was calm and cutting at the same time. “You went to see that bitch you call a wife.”Something shifted in Donald’s face. “Don’t you dare call her ….”“Or what?” She cut him off without even blinking. “What are you going to do D
The flower shop was small and warm. The moment Elena walked in, she was hit by the smell of fresh flower stems, damp soil and something faintly sweet. Glass buckets lined the walls, filled with all kinds of colours. The woman behind the counter looked up when she entered.Elena walked slowly along the buckets until she found what she was looking for.“I would like white lilies, forget-me-nots and baby’s breath please,” she said. “Can you arrange them together?”“Of course.” The woman looked at her with kind eyes, the way people do when they can sense that flowers are being bought for something sad. “Any particular style?”“Simple,” Elena said quietly. “She liked simple things.”The woman nodded and got to work without asking anything more.Elena watched her wrap the stems carefully, layer the blooms one by one and tie everything with a thin white ribbon. The bouquet came out soft and quiet. It didn’t try too hard. Her mother would have loved it exactly as it was.She paid, tucked the
George sat on the edge of the bed and stared at his phone.Delivered. That one small word sat beneath his message and did nothing. He had been watching it for several minutes, waiting for it to change to Read. Waiting for the three dots that would mean she was typing back. But nothing changed. The screen just sat there, still and quiet.He had called six times before sending the text. Six times. Each call rang out and died, and each time the silence after felt heavier than the one before.George dragged both hands slowly down his face. He groaned in annoyance. He picked up his phone again, he looked at it. Then he snatched it up and threw it across the room. It hit the wall and dropped to the floor. He didn’t look at where it landed.“How dare she ignore me,” he muttered, his jaw tight. He was breathing harder than he should have been and he knew it.He walked to the window. He pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes.He just needed her to answer. That was al
The plates had been cleared. The meal was over and what was left on the table were folded napkins, empty glasses and the faint smell of coffee in the air.Elena had been staring.She didn’t mean to. It had started as a glance, then another, and then it became something she couldn’t stop because there was something so familiar about Amira’s face that it was beginning to bother her. Like a word you know but cannot quite say.Amira put down her coffee cup and looked straight at Elena.“If you have something to say, just say it.” Her voice was direct and sharp. “You are creeping me out.”“I’m so sorry.” Elena shook her head. “I don’t mean to stare. It’s just that I feel like I have seen you somewhere before. I can’t figure out where.”Adrian looked up from his phone. He could see this was going to take a while and decided to help. “My sister is an actress,” he said.Amira sat up a little straighter. She touched her hair lightly and tilted her chin up. “A B-list actress,” she said, like it
The valet stepped forward the moment they pulled up. Adrian dropped the car keys into the young man’s hand without slowing down, and the car was gone before Elena had time to think about it. She stood on the pavement for a second, adjusted the strap of her bag, and looked up at the building in front of her.She had not been expecting this.The restaurant was tall and quiet, the kind of place that did not need a big sign to tell you it was important. The front was dark stone with warm brass fittings. Two small olive trees stood on either side of the entrance, neatly trimmed. Near the door was a small gold plaque that simply read TARE. A doorman in a dark suit pulled the door open as they approached and nodded as they walked in.Inside, everything changed. The air was cooler and softer. There was a faint scent, something warm and woody, that Elena couldn’t quite name. The lighting was low and golden, coming from beautiful fixtures above that looked like clusters of light floating in t
The morning had only just begun but Olivia was already up and moving through the mansion with determination. She moved with a sharp focus, like someone who already had the entire day planned out in her mind and was simply bringing it to life.“Handle that properly, will you!” she called across the hallway, her voice cutting sharply above the shuffle of feet and the clink of glassware being unpacked from crates.The staff scrambled. A young man in a grey shirt adjusted his grip on a tower of stacked serving dishes, his knuckles whitening. No one wanted to be the person who dropped something on a day like this. Not in this house. Not with Olivia watching, it could mean the end of your job. The supply van was still parked outside, its back doors wide open, and a steady stream of people moved in and out carrying linen, fresh flowers, wine bottles wrapped in tissue, boxes of cutlery that needed polishing before it touched a single table. The Carrington family dinner was two days away, an
“Elena?”Elena’s head snapped up. Standing at the bottom of the escalator, shopping bags from the hospital gift shop in her hands, was Victoria.Her stepsister’s eyes widened with surprise, then immediately narrowed with calculation as she took in Elena, the medical information packet clutched in h
The next morning came with soft golden light filtering through the mansion’s tall windows. Elena was still asleep, exhausted from the emotional turmoil of the previous night, the gala, the nightmare.Bernard had checked on her earlier and found her finally sleeping peacefully. He had quietly pulled
They had reached the board members; Mr. Chen, Mrs. Kim, Mr. Davis, and several others, all holding drinks and engaged in what had probably been an intense discussion before Elena’s entrance had stopped everything.Elena turned to face them with a warm, professional smile that was worlds away from t
Elena had pushed aside most of her work documents, accepting that she wasn’t going to get much done with Adrian around. Not that she minded, his energy was infectious, and after the tension of the past few days, his lighthearted presence felt like a breath of fresh air.“So,” Elena said, settling b







