LOGINSebastian 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
By eight at night, the house finally surrendered to a lower volume.Poppy fell asleep earlier that day. Maybe because her body was genuinely still recovering, maybe because that afternoon she had been too busy making a family chart like a tiny HR department with an excessive interest in stickers. Whatever the reason, I did not complain.After dinner, medicine, one episode of cartoons that was “medically helpful for recovery,” and fifteen minutes of debate over why the patient was still not allowed to wear glitter lip gloss to bed, she finally crashed on the sofa bed with Bunny tucked under her chin and her long hair spread across the pillow like a shampoo ad directed by a hyperactive child.I let her stay in the living room.Again.I chose not to think too much about too many things.A decision that, so far, had failed spectacularly.I was half-reclined on the long chaise near the window, my bare feet propped on the end of the sofa, a black silk robe covering me only as much as it fel
The private doctor arrived at seven minutes to four.Sebastian had been in the living room since three-twenty, as if those seven minutes of potential lateness could bring civilization to its knees.I was sitting on the long sofa near the window, one leg folded to the side, a champagne silk robe falling lazily over my body, my hair clipped up carelessly with a black claw clip, and an expression that, according to Salma a few minutes ago, made me look like I was ready to murder one man before lunch and still look beautiful at his funeral.I didn’t argue.On the coffee table sat the medical file.Not one ordinary thin folder. Not a folded prescription paper. No. A file. Thick. Organized. With sticky notes. Medication times. Poppy’s temperature every few hours. Meal notes. Cough times. Medication response. There was even a small page that, unless my eyes were failing me, contained a list of questions for the doctor.I stared at it, then at Sebastian, who was standing near the window in a
The morning unfolded in a deeply inappropriate way.Not chaotic. Not romantic. That was exactly the problem. It felt too much like... family. Too much like something I’d once had, then thrown away, only to wake up and find it in my living room again like an expensive package delivered to the wrong address.I didn’t go to the office.That decision was easy. Poppy had just come home from the hospital, still a little pale, and my own body felt like it had been used in a small war against panic, Adrian, Sebastian, and reality. I texted Daniella while standing near the coffee machine.[You’re handling today’s schedule.][If any client complains, tell them I’m dealing with the smaller version of myself who just got out of pediatrics.][If anyone still insists, threaten them with beige.]Daniella replied almost instantly.[Noted.][Beige as weapon. Understood.]What wasn’t easy was the fact that Sebastian didn’t leave either.An hour later, the man was still in my house, still wearing his gr
I slept like someone had pulled the power cord out of my body.Not the pretty kind of sleep, like a woman in a perfume ad who wakes up with perfectly tousled waves and naturally pink lips, that sweet little lie capitalism keeps selling. No. I slept like an aristocratic corpse finally giving up after three generations of family drama.And the dream was warm.So strange.Usually, when I’m stressed, my brain produces absurd dreams. Javier selling Theo to a museum. Poppy running for president of Monaco on an anti-broccoli platform. Sebastian standing at an altar holding a hospital invoice. Normal things, really, for a woman whose life had lost the plot a long time ago.But this time, it was just warm.My body felt heavy, comfortable, wrapped in something that wasn’t too hot and wasn’t too cold. There was the scent of clean soap, skin, a little black tea, and something deeper, older, something that had once clung to the pillows of my younger years like a fragrant sin.“…I’m with my wife.”
One corner of his mouth lifted again.Faint.Dark.Damn it.Then nothing happened.A silence sitting between us like an uninvited guest too stubborn to leave. I looked at my open laptop and read emails that never made it into my brain. Sebastian finished my tea slowly. Sometimes his eyes shifted to the living room, to the sofa bed, to the small shape beneath the blanket. Sometimes they came back to me. Sometimes they went anywhere except somewhere safe.The numbers on the digital oven clock changed. The house stayed half-asleep. The sea outside remained dark and arrogant.I finally stood first, because if I kept sitting across from him like this, I might start remembering too many terrible versions of my own life.“I’m going to get a pillow,” I said.Sebastian lifted his eyes. “What for?”“To sleep, astonishingly. Some people still do that without requiring approval from a board meeting.”“You’re sleeping down here?”I looked toward the living room. “Poppy’s sick. I’m not going upstai







