登入“People who worked on the family system migration. The old legal team. Two trust administrators. Whoever held the master key. Maybe someone who saw a copy of the archive before the migration.”“And Adrian?” The name came out before I could filter it, because Adrian had been the one who checked Device Seven last time.Luca looked at me. “Adrian has enough systems experience to understand the architecture, and he doesn’t have Romano Foundation credentials.” He held my gaze. “We haven’t found any evidence pointing to him.”Sebastian said nothing.I looked at him. “You’re usually quicker to accuse people.”“I usually wait for evidence.”“Is that a new habit?”“Not when it involves Poppy.”“Why me?” Poppy stopped trying to steal the sprinkles when she heard her name.“No,” the three of us said at once.She narrowed her eyes. “Suspicious.”“Go help Salma,” I said.“I helped.”“You ate half the ingredients.”“That was quality.”“Go.”She huffed and went back to Salma, but not before sticking
“Household legal account,” I repeated. “Charming.”“The profile was created as part of the family’s legal structure,” Luca said.“So I’m an administrative ghost.”Poppy lifted her head. “Ghost?”“Not a real ghost,” Salma said.“Can Mommy walk through walls?”“Not yet,” I said. “But give Romano IT a few more years and maybe I’ll be able to file taxes from the afterlife.”I looked at Sebastian.He wasn’t reading anymore. He had already seen the screen, yes, but now his eyes were fixed on one spot on the counter, right beside my hand.Too quiet.Usually, he had an answer. Not always a good one, but there was always something. A short comment. A correction. Some flat statement that made me want to pour a drink over his shoes.Now there was nothing.“Why is my name still alive in the trust system?” I asked.Sebastian looked up. “Some of the old systems weren’t cleaned up.”“Some of the old systems weren’t cleaned up,” I repeated. “Five years, and your empire still can’t remove an ex-wife f
“You’re very brave for a man with one functioning hand and a dependence on medical care.”Sebastian lifted the bowl slightly, moving it farther out of Poppy’s reach. “The medical care belongs to me.”“That doesn’t make you immune to domestic violence.”“Mommy,” Poppy interrupted, “does domestic mean the one with the sofa?”I looked at her. “Yes. Exactly. Don’t ask any more questions.”“I know lots of words.”“That’s what keeps me up at night.”Poppy tried to stick one finger into the egg mixture. Sebastian moved the bowl to the other side without looking.Poppy shifted left.Sebastian moved the bowl right.Poppy circled the island.Sebastian turned slightly, keeping the bowl out of reach.“I just want to look,” she said.“You can look without touching.”“I look with my hands.”“That’s not how looking works.”“That’s how I do it.”I poured in the sugar while watching them perform a ridiculous dance around the island. Sebastian, a man who usually made everyone else adjust their position
I typed one word.[Sorry.]No defense. No long explanation about the gala, the evacuation, the pictures, or the fact that our daughter, my daughter, whoever’s daughter depending on who was filling out the form, had just moved the center of her universe three feet toward a man in a black T-shirt with a bandaged hand.The message went through.Two gray check marks appeared.I waited a few seconds, not because I had anything else to say, but because people had a habit of staring at a wound after touching it, as though pain might eventually produce a receipt.Adrian didn’t respond. The phone stayed silent in my palm.Weird. His silence hurt, but not where it should have. I didn’t feel the urge to call him again, and there was no panic at the thought that he might be pulling away, no part of me running after him with an explanation in hand.There was only guilt, neat and painfully unromantic.I was still his fiancée. There was still a ring somewhere, probably lying on the vanity at the Èze
“Jas,” Adrian said.I carried the phone back toward the windows, far enough from the living room that Poppy wouldn’t immediately wander into the frame again, but close enough that I could still see her bothering Luca.“Hi,” I said.Brilliant, Jasmine.A woman with a reputation for destroying men with one eyebrow, and now I was opening a conversation with hi like a teenager who had forgotten her homework.“I heard what happened at the gala.” Adrian studied my face longer than someone who only wanted to know how I was doing. “Were you hurt?”“No.”“Are you sure?”“I’m drinking coffee and threatening people with croissants. My basic functions are normal.”The corner of his mouth moved slightly. “That’s reassuring.”“You?”“Me?”“You look like you slept inside a washing machine.”“Thank you.”“That was a medical observation.”“I didn’t sleep much.”I knew, and guilt quietly made itself comfortable in my chest, not dramatic enough to demand attention, but persistent enough that I couldn’t
Adrian FaceTime.Because this morning apparently didn’t already have enough coffee going down the wrong pipe, unhinged headlines, and a four-year-old inventing the term security romance before nine.“Daddy Adrian!” Poppy saw the screen first.Her hand immediately reached for my phone, still covered in croissant crumbs and chocolate she claimed was “not dirt, just dessert that moved.”I pulled the phone away. “Hands.”“They’re clean.”“Your fingers look like they just murdered bread.”“That’s an accusation.”“And an accurate one.”Salma handed over a wet napkin without being asked. Poppy wiped her hands carelessly, mostly moving the chocolate from her fingers to her wrist instead of actually cleaning it. I took over, wiping each finger one by one while the phone kept vibrating on the counter.Across the island, Sebastian just set down his coffee mug.I answered the call.Adrian’s face appeared on the screen.The light where he was was dimmer than the Monaco morning. His dark brown hair







