เข้าสู่ระบบSEBASTIAN'S POV"What if she did??"The words just sat there ugly and heavy in the dark. Eli stared at the ceiling forever. I watched the side of his face, my stomach in knots, waiting for anything that would make the panic stop. He didn’t give me shit."Then she did," he said finally, voice low and flat. "And that’s a truth you’re gonna have to sit with." He turned and looked me right in the eyes. "But not tonight. Tonight you don’t know shit for sure. You can’t sit here at midnight building some case against your own mom. It won’t change what the cops find tomorrow."I looked up at the ceiling. My eyes were stinging bad."Eli.""Hmm.""What if it wasn’t her?" My voice cracked like a fucking kid. "What if it was somebody else and I waste the whole night—""Then it wasn’t her," he cut in. "Tomorrow you’ll know.""And if it was?""Then tomorrow you’ll fucking know that too." He stared hard at me. "Either way, you find out tomorrow. Tonight you don’t know anything. So stop."I kept star
SEBASTIAN'S POV"She is actually here."I stared at the ceiling in the dark with Eli beside me and tried to process the fact that Maya was two doors down with Bianca right now and the world had shifted in a way nobody had planned for."Yes." Eli replied flatly."She flew here in three hours." I said."Sebastian." Eli said."I am just saying." I said. "Three hours. No warning. Third door on the left.""Go to sleep." Eli said."I cannot sleep." I said."Try." Eli said.I stared at the ceiling."Eli." I said."Hmm." He replied."Do you think they are okay in there?" I said."Yes." He replied."Like actually okay." I said."Sebastian." He said."I am just—""They are fine." He said. "Bianca is fine. Maya is fine. The second door on the left is fine. Everything is fine." He paused. "Go to sleep."I stared at the ceiling for another moment."I am happy for her." I disclosed quietly. "Bianca. I am genuinely happy for her."Eli was quiet for a moment."Me too." He replied. Quieter this time.
BIANCA'S POV"Can I kiss you?"Maya was three inches away and looking at me with those eyes of hers and I had been waiting four months to hear those four words and now that they were sitting in the air between us in this kitchen I genuinely could not move."Bianca." She said quietly."Yes." I said."Yes you can hear me or yes I can—""Yes you can kiss me Maya." I said.She kissed me.Soft and certain and nothing like the careful managed version of myself I had been performing for four months in this house. Just her mouth on mine and her hand still against my jaw and the kitchen light and the specific smell of her perfume and everything I had been keeping carefully warm for four months breaking completely open.I kissed her back.She pulled back slightly and looked at me from very close."Hi." She said again. Quietly."Hi." I said back. My voice completely different from thirty seconds ago."Four months." She said."Four months." I confirmed."Bianca." She said."I know." I said."Do n
BIANCA'S POV"You walked in on WHAT?"Maya's voice came out so loud in the kitchen that I grabbed her arm immediately."Maya." I warned."Bianca." She stared at me. "A collar. A leash. The man was on the FLOOR.""Keep your voice down." I urged."I am keeping my voice down." She insisted. Her voice still absolutely not down. "I walked into a room and there was a man on the floor with a leather collar around his neck and your—" She stopped. "Who even was that? With the leash?""That is Eli." I disclosed."Eli." She repeated."Sebastian's fiancé." I disclosed.She stared at me."His fiancé." She repeated slowly."Yes." I confirmed."The man on the floor." She said. "Is engaged.""To Eli." I confirmed. "Yes."She pulled out a chair and sat down very deliberately at the kitchen table.I sat across from her.We looked at each other across the table in the kitchen light and I felt the specific extraordinary surreal feeling of having two completely separate chapters of my life sitting in the
ELI'S POV"Kneel down."Sebastian stared at me like I had suggested something completely unreasonable.I stared back."We talked about this for two evenings." I said flatly."I know that." He replied."You said yes to everything." I said."I know I said yes." He replied."So." I said.He looked at the floor for a second.Then he knelt.No drama after that. Just him on his knees in his own room and me standing in front of him and the lamplight warm and low and the house quiet around us.I crouched in front of him."Word." I said."Red." He replied."Good." I said. "Breathe."He breathed.I picked up the collar from the nightstand. Soft leather. Dark brown. Small silver ring. Nothing heavy. Just present.He stared at it."Still good?" I asked."Yeah." He replied. "Yeah I'm good."I fastened it around his neck carefully. Two fingers between the leather and his skin. The silver ring caught the lamplight.I stepped back and looked at him.And I was damn sure I was not prepared for what hap
SEBASTIAN'S POV"She is withdrawing the filing."Lucas put his coffee cup down and said it like he was reporting the weather.I stared at him. "When?""Her new lawyer filed the withdrawal this morning." He picked his cup back up. "It is done."Eli looked up from his plate.Bianca reached for the juice without looking at either of us.The kitchen was completely ordinary. Toast. Eggs. Lucas's newspaper. Morning light through the window. Tuesday deciding to be Tuesday regardless of everything happening inside it."You knew last night." I said slowly."You needed to sleep." He replied simply. He picked up his newspaper. "You have not slept properly in three weeks."I looked at Eli.He looked back at me with the corner of his mouth doing the thing it did when he was trying not to smile."The board investigation continues regardless." Lucas confirmed from behind his newspaper. "Separate proceedings. She understands that." Another page turn. "She is cooperating fully."The kitchen was quiet.
ELI'S POVAN HOUR BEFORE SEBASTAIN CAME INThe familar ringing tone of my phone buzzed for the umpteenth time, it was the same caller and the same number. I stared at my phone's screen unsure of what to do to make it stop.If I ended the call, she was going to call again. If I picked up the call th
Eli's POV “You poured the wrong drink Seb, are you planning on poisoning me?” I muttered softly, as I dropped the drink back on the table. He stared at me keenly like he was waiting for me to tell him it was just a joke but I was silent. I had no idea he heard me in the first place, I thought I
ELI'S POVHe had walked in with a brown envelope in his hands and a frown on his face. I stared at the strangely familiar envelope as I waited for him to explain what it was all about.“You changed the mail address already?” He asked, and I frowned. Change my mail address? I wasn't expecting any m
ELI'S POV I could not even process what was going on before he had picked me off the ground in one swift move. My mind immediately went blank as my eyes widened in shock. Did he just fucking pick me off in a bridal style like I was a ‘bride?’ what the heck was going on? I couldn't even speak,







