Mag-log inI stood, only because sitting made the room feel too honest. I walked to the kitchen window and looked out at the backyard. Rain clung to the edges of the leaves, dripping onto the stone. In the reflection of the glass, I could see Sebastian still sitting there, quiet, watching my back.“When I left,” I said, more softly than I had meant to, “did you look for me?”I almost turned around.I didn’t.“Yes,” he said at last.My hand tightened around the mug. “For how long?”“The first few months were the hardest. After that...” He stopped. “After that, still. But it got more difficult.”I turned around. “More difficult?”“Your family shut down every route.”I gave one dry laugh. “Of course they did.”“Your phone number couldn’t be traced. Your old apartment was empty. The accounts I knew about didn’t move. Hazel returned every letter from my lawyers unopened.”I could picture it.“Javier?” I asked.“Javier told my people to stop calling before he started considering it international haras
Poppy went down at nine-thirty.The child fell asleep after refusing the blanket three times, asking twice for Bunny to be “positioned with more respect,” accusing her medicine once of having an aftertaste like “sad apple,” and finally giving up mid-sentence during a speech about why patients should have legal rights to extra cartoons.She slept on her side in my room, not on the sofa bed. Her weight was warm and solid in my arms, her cheek pressed to my shoulder, her long hair tickling my neck. Every few steps, she mumbled something unclear. Something about honey. Something about Daddy Shark. Something about Bunny being “emotionally exhausted.”Salma helped pull back the blanket, set up the humidifier, place warm water on the little table, then retreated with the expression of a woman who knew this house was storing too many bombs, but had chosen to save herself through tea and kitchen work.Now Poppy was asleep.Finally.I stood beside the bed a few seconds longer than necessary. Br
“Morning,” I said.Poppy looked at me from Sebastian’s arms, her forehead wrinkling. “Mommy,” she said suspiciously. “Were you spying?”“I live here.”“But you were standing like a ghost.”“I’m a ghost who needs coffee.”Sebastian looked at me over the top of Poppy’s head. His hair was still messy, his shirt still rumpled, the tired shadows still beneath his eyes, but his face was far too calm for a man who had just been crowned Daddy Shark by the secret child of the past five years.“Did you sleep badly?” he asked.I stared at him.“Mommy slept like a dead princess,” Poppy answered immediately, before I could assemble a suitably cruel sentence.“Poppy.”“It’s true. I saw. Mommy’s mouth was a little open.”I closed my eyes. “How observant of you.”Poppy gave me a wide smile, full of yogurt and victory. “You’re beautiful even when you sleep.”“Thank you. That might be the most Belsky compliment you’ve ever given.”“I’m Belsky.” She patted her own chest. Then she patted Sebastian’s. “An
I froze.My spine seemed to decide it was interior decor, standing there beautifully and uselessly in the kitchen doorway.But I love you more tho.The sentence left my daughter’s mouth like a breadcrumb falling to the floor. Small. Accidental. Ordinary. Except what hit my chest felt like a chandelier crashing down from a ballroom ceiling and landing directly on the most expensive part of my sanity.Sebastian went still too.Not for long. Just long enough to make the air in the kitchen feel heavier.Then Sebastian chuckled. The sound was low, coming from his chest, short, like a tiny crack in dark glass.“What?” Poppy lifted her head from his chest, her bangs falling into one eye. “Are you laughing because I’m cute?”“Because you’re so sure.”“I am sure.” She patted Sebastian’s cheek with one small hand still slightly sticky with yogurt. “I have opinion.”“You have many opinions.”“That’s because I’m smart.”“Clearly.”“And beautiful.”“Impossible to argue.”“And sick.”“Getting bette
Morning arrived without asking permission.Rude, honestly. After a night that left the inside of my head feeling like a filing cabinet had fallen down a flight of stairs, the world should have had the basic decency to stay dark a little longer. But no. The Monte Carlo sun still showed up, bounced off the tall living room windows, slipped in through the gaps in the curtains, then landed right on my face like an interrogation lamp bought with old money.I needed coffee.And... why did my back feel like it had just made peace with the marble floor?I blinked a few times.Apparently, I had not slept in my bedroom.Of course not. Because why would a grown woman with a large house, a comfortable bed, and linens that could make angels weep sleep on a chaise like some stupid aristocrat who had lost a war?I was lying on my side on the long chaise by the window, my black silk robe having slipped indecently off one shoulder, my hair tangled across a small pillow, one hand dangling over the edge
Sebastian didn’t speak right away.That should have relieved me. Normal people needed a few seconds to process the fact that my life had just been turned into free content. But Sebastian Romano’s silence wasn’t the silence of a normal man in shock.His eyes moved over the screen. Once. Twice. Reading the headline, the photo, the caption. Then his thumb slid over the screenshot, enlarging the part with the gate.“The account?” he asked.I folded my arms across my chest. “You don’t want to try starting with, ‘Jasmine, I’m sorry your house has been turned into digital chew toy material by people with the moral fiber of a pistachio’?”His gaze lifted to my face. No smile. No comeback. Just that dark stare that somehow still managed to look calm and deeply unsafe for public health.I sighed. “MonacoMurmurs.”One small nod. As if I had just given him a restaurant address, not the name of a gossip account that was probably preparing my life as a degustation menu.Sebastian picked up his phon







