Mag-log inMarrying Sebastian Romano had felt like a wish granted too perfectly to be real… until reality crushed it. For two years, Jasmine lived in a blur of champagne, penthouse lights, and a husband who looked at her like she was his entire future. In the third year, the silence arrived. The kisses turned into calendar appointments. The marriage shrank into handshakes and small talk. Then Jasmine found the truth. Sweet messages that were not for her. Hotel bookings that did not include her name. A blonde secretary who did not know shame. Jasmine walked out without looking back. She left her ring, the signed divorce papers, and her ruined heart on their ridiculous king-size bed. What she did not know was that another life had already started inside her. Five years later, Jasmine lived small on purpose. Quiet. Safe. Her child grew up without drama, without the weight of the Romano name. Jasmine promised herself it would stay that way. Until Adrian. Adrian was nothing like the men who used to own her world. Calm where they were cruel, clever without being cruel, steady in a way that felt dangerous only because she wanted to trust it. With him, Jasmine finally stopped feeling like a problem to fix and started feeling like a person to keep. When Adrian dropped to one knee at a glittering Monte Carlo...Jasmine did something she had sworn never to do again. She thought about forever. Then she saw him. Sebastian Romano. The man she had loved, left, and learned to hate in the exact same lifetime. Those cold eyes. That unreadable face. The past she thought she had buried standing three steps away from her fresh start. “Interesting,” Sebastian said. “Your fiancé… happens to be my brother.”
view moreThere was no celebration.No champagne popping because the villain had been caught, not a single Romano standing in the foyer looking satisfied like they’d just won a hostile takeover, and thankfully no speech about the family finally coming together because I probably would’ve thrown a vase.The house just started breathing again.Slowly.Strangely.Poppy didn’t ask about Adrian.That was what worried me at first.She just went back to being Poppy.That afternoon, she ran from the living room to the garden three times because she forgot Bunny, then ran back again because Bunny was apparently already in her hand. She crashed into Papa Sebastian’s legs twice, once hard enough that the man who had once silenced an entire Romano Empire boardroom with a single look nearly lost his balance.“Piccola.”“Sorry, Grandpa.”Two minutes later, she ran into him again.Papa Sebastian looked up at the ceiling.“I’m beginning to think this is intentional.”Poppy hugged his knee. “I love you.”Papa S
Luca hadn’t even had time to give a second order when Adrian laughed.Not a laugh I had ever heard from him before.Not warm. Not amused because Poppy said broccoli had a bad personality. Not exasperated because Salma was complaining about his weight. The sound was short and empty, and then he rubbed one hand over his mouth while looking at Sebastian like something that had been waiting for years had finally been given permission to come out.“Of course.”Sebastian stood between us, his shoulders still relaxed.“What?”“Even now.” Adrian pointed at the security behind Luca, then the vault wall, the house above our heads, all of it. “You say one name and everybody moves.”Sebastian didn’t answer.Adrian shook his head and laughed again. “You don’t even know what that feels like.”“Adrian,” Papa Sebastian said from behind us.Only then did I realize their parents had come downstairs with Rhea. Mama Sebastian stopped near the corridor entrance, her face pale when she saw Poppy in my arms
Adrian recovered too quickly.That was exactly what made me even more certain something had cracked.His face went calm again, his shoulders lowered slightly, and then he let out a breath like a man who had just realized he’d chosen the wrong word, not a man who had accidentally revealed details about a biometric system I had never told him about.“Dad talked about it once.”I didn’t move. “What?”“The biometric succession system. When I was a kid.”His voice was gentle again.Reasonable again.Always reasonable.I watched him for a few seconds before asking, “How old were you?”Adrian frowned slightly. “I don’t know. Eight? Nine?”“And Papa Sebastian sat down with an eight-year-old and discussed thumbprint verification?”“Not like that.”“Of course.”“Jasmine.”I smiled a little. “I’m just trying to understand.”He looked at me.I made my voice even lighter.“So you heard it from your fathers?”“Yes.”“Where?”“At home.”“Which home?”A pause.“New York.”“Interesting.”Adrian swallo
We didn’t actually sit down until almost an hour later.The library was too soft for a conversation like this, and the security room had too many monitors, so Luca eventually took over a small conference room on the east side of the mansion.Papa Sebastian sat at the head of the table with an expression cold enough to cancel several acquisitions without opening his mouth, while Mama Sebastian sat beside him, still wearing a cashmere robe thrown over her sleep clothes.Rhea sat across from me with both hands wrapped around a mug of coffee she was no longer drinking.Sebastian stood.Of course.Apparently the man was physically incapable of discussing family betrayal while sitting like a civilian.On the large screen, Luca laid out the timeline.Five years ago.Kelsey was given broader access to the executive office.Hazel received a credential through a Romano legacy channel via Adrian.Sebastian’s location data was pulled.Kelsey planted the photos, bracelet, messages, hotel evidence.






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