تسجيل الدخولTyler's POVFor an appointment that was by ten, I had been awake since six.Not from anxiety exactly. Or maybe exactly from anxiety but the quiet kind that didn't announce itself dramatically. Just the kind that made sleep feel like something happening in another room that I wasn't quite invited into. I lay there in the dark beside Quin and listened to his breathing and thinking of how far we've come.Cooper knew something was different. He always knew. He had come and pressed his nose against my hand at around seven and stayed there until I scratched behind his ears, then relocated to the foot of the bed where he watched me get dressed with the solemn attention of someone monitoring a situation. It still amazes me how he understands me even though he hasn't been with me for up to a year.Quin was already up when I came downstairs. Coffee made. His laptop was open on the kitchen island but not being looked at. He was looking at me instead."Morning," I said."Morning."I poured coffee
Tyler's POVDylan is a perfect example of “don't judge a book by its cover”.The hotel he picked alone told me a lot about him that I wouldn't think about if I saw him outside. It wasn't the kind of place that announced itself loudly. No valet line stretching around the block, no lighting designed to make everyone look like they were being photographed. Just a quiet corner restaurant in the west village with good wine and a menu that was ambitious without being ridiculous and tables spaced far enough apart that you could have an actual conversation.Jake would never have chosen this on his own. Jake's idea of a good restaurant was any place where the food arrived quickly and nobody recognized him.Dylan had done his research.We arrived first. Quin and I were shown to the table and had been sitting for about four to five minutes before Quin said, without looking up from his menu, "You already texted Dylan to tell him we arrived.""I did not."He looked at me."I texted to say we were
Quin's POVTyler woke up screaming three nights after Aiden died.It wasn’t the quiet kind of nightmare where you surface slowly and lie there breathing until the images fade. One moment the room was silent and the next he was upright and gasping, staring at the wall like something was still standing there. And it wasn't the first time.I had him before he finished the sound. Arms around him, pulling him back against my chest, speaking into his hair until his breathing slowed. It took a while. Longer than it should have. When he finally stopped shaking he didn’t say anything about what he had seen. He just sat there in the dark with my arms around him and looked at the wall.I looked at it too.In the morning I called an estate agent as fast as I could.Tyler found out two weeks later when I told him to pack what he wanted to keep and leave the rest.He stared at me across the kitchen. “You sold it.”“I sold it.”“The whole mansion.”“Yes. The whole thing.”He looked around the kitche
Tyler's POVThe gunshot was the loudest thing I had ever heard in my life.It wasn’t like the movies. It didn’t echo dramatically or fade into some cinematic silence. It was just sudden and enormous and wrong in a way that made my entire body seize up before my brain could catch up with what had happened. The sound hit the walls and came back at me from every direction at once, and for a few seconds I couldn’t move or breathe or think anything coherent at all.Then Cooper started barking.Loud and frantic and without any of the hesitation he had shown a moment before. His voice filled the hallway and broke through whatever had frozen me in place, and suddenly I was moving.My eyes found Quin first.I crossed the hallway in three steps and grabbed him. Both hands on his face, his arms, his chest, looking and searching. My hands were shaking so badly I could barely feel what I was touching.“Are you hurt?” My voice came out unrecognizable. “Quin. Are you hurt?”He opened his mouth. Then
Quin's POV“Aiden.”His name tasted bitter in my mouth.The smile on his face widened just a little, like hearing it pleased him. For a long moment nobody moved. Even Cooper had gone unnaturally still. The puppy stood a few feet behind me, pressed tight against Tyler’s leg, a low growl vibrating from deep in his chest.Aiden glanced down at him. “ I see you don’t like me too.”“He has good instincts.”His smile disappeared.I wasn’t trying to be brave. I wasn’t trying to provoke him. I was buying time. Because the second I saw the gun, every priority in my head rearranged itself into one single objective.Keep Tyler alive. Nothing else mattered. Just Tyler.Aiden’s attention shifted past me. Toward him. Toward the man standing behind me. My chest tightened immediately.“Hello, Tyler.”Tyler ignored and didn’t answer.Aiden sighed. “Still rude as ever.”“Get out.” My voice came out colder than I expected.His eyes returned to mine. “No.” The answer was immediate and certain. Like he’d
Quin's POV Lucas was dead. I sat with that information for a long time after the call ended. Longer than I expected to. The room was quiet except for the sound of Cooper constantly shifting in Tyler's lap. Tyler hadn't said anything either. We just sat there, holding onto each other's hands. Suicide, Jake had said. I turned the word over in my head. Suicide. The end Lucas had chosen for himself in a small cell somewhere while the rest of the world continued operating without any awareness of him. It felt anticlimactic in a way that was difficult to articulate. Not disappointing exactly. Just small. After everything he had done, the ending had been quiet and private and entirely his own. I had wanted him to suffer. I could admit that. I had wanted him to face something that matched the scale of what he had done. A trial. Consequences that were public and documented and proportionate. Something that acknowledged the specific damage he had caused rather than simply removing him fro
Tyler's POV Quin and I didn't really play any drinking games. It was probably just his way of making me drink with him. I couldn't remember how we got to his room. Fuck. I drank too much. My eyes felt heavy, I could barely stand. I saw a figure moving towards me through my blurry vision. I rubb
Tyler's pov "You ungrateful piece of shit,” my mom yelled through the phone. “After everything I’ve done for you, Tyler. I even decided to keep you instead of flushing you out when I had the opportunity to.” It was nothing new, but the story was always new. “I told you I don’t have that kind
Tyler's POV "Heir to the Makell Empire Allegedly got married to a man in Vegas" Below the headline was a picture of me wearing a mask and Quin standing opposite me putting a ring on my damn finger. Wait, why was I even panicking? It's not like anyone would recognise me. The picture was kinda bl
Tyler's POV It couldn't be. How was Quinn seated behind the huge desk of the office of the CEO.Was I missing something ?" Good morning sir" my voice came out clearly hiding any form of suspicion. Thank goodness I was wearing glasses and I dyed my hair black last night . Although I did it because







