Mag-log inPatricia’s office door slammed shut behind her with a loud thud. She didn’t stop at her desk. She walked straight past it and kept going, pacing back and forth from the window to the door repeatedly. Her bag was still on her shoulder. She hadn’t even put it down yet and she had been in the room for two full minutes.“How could she know?” She asked no one in particular.Elena’s voice came back to her, she had dropped a bombshell on her. It felt as though Elena was threatening her. “I will make sure your daughter rots in jail for drugging me. You think I wouldn’t find out? Relax. I will send you right along with her. A mother and daughter should always be together. Don’t you think so?”Patricia pressed her lips together.“Who told her,” she said. “Who could have possibly told her.”She moving and stood in the middle of the floor and stared at the wall, a flashback flooded her mind. *FLASHBACK*The front door opened. Elena came through it without looking at anyone, her head down, her
Damien's grip on her hand tightened as they moved away from the house. Then the pressure became too much and she couldn't pretend any longer."Damien." He didn't slow down. "Damien."Nothing.She pulled her hand back with force, stopping them both in the middle of the path."You are hurting me."He stopped. He turned to look at her and the face she saw was not the one she was used to. He looked at her differently."What gave you the right to come here without telling me?" His voice came out loud.Elena flinched before she could stop herself. She had never heard him raise his voice. Not once.He didn't wait for her to answer. "Get in the car."She considered saying something. She looked at his face and decided against it. She got in the car.Damien got in after her. He reached up and pulled his tie loose, then pushed his fingers through his hair and exhaled loudly through his nose. He stared straight ahead. The muscle in his jaw moved.Elena sat beside him and said nothing. She folded
Elena locked her bedroom door and leaned against it.Her hand went straight to her chest. Her heart was beating so fast it was almost embarrassing. She pressed her palm flat against it like she could slow it down by force.She walked to the mirror and looked at herself.Her cheeks were still red. She touched her lips slowly and the whole kiss came rushing back. The way he had moved between her upper lip and her lower lip without rushing, like he had decided to take his time and nothing was going to change that. His hand on her waist. The other one wrapped against the side of her neck. The way her knees had simply stopped working.She pressed her fingers against her mouth.It didn't help.She stood there for a full minute letting her heart do whatever it wanted. Then the smile on her face began to fade on its own.Reality dawned on her. She had a purpose, she had a list of people who had taken things from her that she intended to get back. A kiss, however much her body had responded to
The house was still lit up when Elena walked in.She had barely closed the door behind her when the sound of small fast feet came from down the hall and then Ethan appeared around the corner running at full speed with his arms already open before he reached her.She crouched down and caught him.He pressed his face into her neck and held on with both arms and both legs like he was making sure she couldn't go anywhere. She held him back just as tightly, closing her eyes for a second.The nanny appeared a moment later, slightly out of breath. She stopped when she saw Elena."I'm so sorry ma'am. He refused to sleep. He kept saying he wanted to wait for you and I couldn't …..""It's fine." Elena looked up at her over Ethan's shoulder. "I will take it from here. You can rest."The nanny nodded with visible relief and disappeared down the hall.Elena straightened up with Ethan still attached to her, his legs wrapped around her waist. She carried him toward the stairs and that was when he pu
Fifteen minutes later the heat came.It started at the back of her neck and spread quickly. She felt dizzy.She found Victoria in the crowd and touched her arm."Victoria." Her voice came out hoarse and disoriented. "I don't feel good."Victoria looked at her. "Already? You didn't even drink that much." She took Elena's arm gently. "Come on. I booked rooms for the night. I will take you to lie down."She guided Elena away from the bar, away from the pool, toward the doors that led back inside the hotel. Elena leaned into her slightly, grateful, trusting.They moved through the doors and into the hallway that was filled with a series of rooms. The music faded behind them.Victoria stopped."Oh no." She pressed her hand to her forehead. "I forgot to tell the girls something important. I have to go back for just a second."Elena turned to look at her. The hallway was tilting slightly. "Vic, don't leave me alone. I feel really strange.""Room 801," Victoria said, already stepping back tow
*FLASHBACK*The changing room was quiet compared to the rooftop. It had white walls and long mirrors and the faint sound of music still blasting from above.Elena stood in front of one of the mirrors and unclipped the earrings slowly. She set them on the counter and looked at them for a moment without saying anything.Victoria came and stood beside her. She put her hand on Elena's shoulder."Sis, I'm sorry for what my friends said. They can be like that sometimes. I should have stopped them sooner."Elena moved her shoulder gently so that Victoria's hand slid off. "You gave me the earrings to wear Vic. Why didn't you say something when they started making fun of them?"Victoria's face shifted. Something soft and wounded moved across it. "I didn't know they were fake either. I swear. I bought them from a vendor who told me they were real. I just wanted us to match." Her voice dropped. "I can't believe you think I would do something like that to you on purpose. Is that really how you se
Back at E Atelier, the conference room buzzed with low conversations. The space was designed to intimidate—floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city, a massive glass table surrounded by leather chairs, walls adorned with her mother's original fashion sketches. Everything in this room was meant
Elena gently extracted herself from Ethan’s embrace, careful not to wake him again. She pressed a soft kiss to his forehead before slipping out of the race car bed.As she walked down the hallway toward her own room, she spotted Bernard's familiar figure at the end of the corridor, supervising a ma
Across the city, in the elegant Carrington family estate where Damien had grown up, chaos was already brewing.Amira Carrington sat on the couch, her phone glued to her hand as her long fingers scrolled endlessly.She was halfway through her morning coffee when a video started playing on her social
Victoria's hands shook as she gripped the steering wheel, barely seeing the road through her tears. The lights of the city blurred into streaks of color as she drove on, her mind spinning with rage and humiliation.Elena. Always Elena. Their father's favorite, even though he had remarried. The gold







