MasukShe had expected the call.What she hadn't expected was how it would feel to hear Isabella's voice crack at the edges — that thin, barely-there fracture in a woman who had spent years perfecting the art of having no edges at all. Isabella had always been smooth. Composed in the particular way of people who had learned early that showing weakness was an invitation. Hearing her sound like something held together with the last of its strength was not something Natalie had factored into the plan.She filed the feeling away and told her she'd be there.---Lorenzo was against it.He said it the way he said most things he was against — not loudly, not with the blunt force of a man accustomed to having his objections treated as commands, but with a particular quiet that carried its own kind of weight. He set down the document he was reading and looked at her across the desk and said, simply, that it was a risk they didn't need to take right now.Natalie listened to all of it.Then she told h
Fear had a smell.Isabella had learned that young. It smelled like her mother's perfume at three in the morning — that particular blend of jasmine and something sharper underneath, something chemical and anxious that no expensive bottle could entirely mask. It smelled like hushed phone calls and locked doors and the specific silence that fell over a house when the person inside it was planning something they couldn't say out loud.She had grown up inside that smell.She had simply never expected to become it.---The new house was quiet in a way that felt accusatory.Not peaceful quiet — not the kind that invited rest or reflection. The kind that pressed against the ears and made the ordinary sounds of living feel too loud by contrast. The drip of a tap. The settle of a floorboard. The sound of her own breathing in a room that had no history, no warmth, no accumulated texture of a life properly lived.Her mother had redecorated aggressively within the first week. Throw pillows in colo
There were women who carried secrets the way other women carried perfume. Quietly. Close to the skin. In a way that you only noticed if you leaned in too near — and by then, it was already too late. Anita was one of those women. Natalie had known her long enough to recognize the signs. The way she chose her words like a woman selecting fruit at a market — pressing each one lightly before deciding if it was worth offering. The way her eyes moved just slightly ahead of her face, arriving at conclusions before the rest of her caught up. The way she could sit across a table and tell you something devastating in a voice so level it took a full minute for the devastation to land. She had called Natalie at seven in the morning. Not a text. Not a message forwarded through the usual channels. A call. Direct and deliberate, the kind that meant whatever was coming couldn't wait and couldn't be written down. Natalie had been awake already. She usually was these days. Sleep had becom
Fiona was good at pretending.Natalie had to give her that much.She watched her from across the office floor — the way she walked, unhurried, with that easy confidence of someone who believed they were untouchable. The way she laughed at something one of the junior staff said, head thrown back, hand on the girl's arm like she was everyone's favorite person in the room. The way she sat at her desk and answered calls and shuffled papers and performed the role of loyal employee so convincingly that if Natalie hadn't known, she would have believed it herself.But she did know.And knowing changed the shape of everything.She turned away from the glass partition and went back to her own desk. Anita was seated across from her, going through a stack of supplier contracts with the focused intensity of someone who treated paperwork like a personal enemy. She didn't look up when Natalie sat down."She arrived early this morning," Anita said without preamble."I noticed.""Forty minutes before
Two days later, Lorenzo came back and she showed him the video, Anita had sent to her. The footage was grainy in the way that cheap cameras always were, but it was clear enough. Clear enough to see her aunt lift her glass. Clear enough to see the wide, unguarded smile that spread across her face — the kind Natalie hadn't seen directed at her in years. Clear enough to hear her say, *to victory*, like she hadn't spent the better part of two decades pretending to love the girl she was toasting against. Natalie watched it three times. The first time, her chest hurt. The second time, her jaw tightened. The third time, she felt nothing at all. Just a cold, quiet settling — like the last piece of a puzzle clicking into place in the dark. She closed the laptop. Lorenzo was across the room, standing at the window with his back to her, hands in his pockets, watching the city below the way he always did when he was thinking. She had learned to read him in the silences. This one was shar
Natalie Met Lucian in the hallways. She was heading to her work place about to set the motions for her plan into action. Meeting Lucian here and now was the last thing on her schedule . They stopped for one awkward moment looking at each other then she step-sided him and made to pass without saying a word. She knew it was obvious that she was avoiding him but being alone with Lucian affected her in more ways than one. And she wasn’t ready to deal with that yet. Not now. It was easier to hide the feelings. Even though she couldn’t categorize them into feelings just yet.“Really? You’re just going to pass me . Just like that?” Lucian scoffed turning to face her. She stopped but didn’t turn just yet. She took in a deep breath, then turned to face him. “You should know the reason why already, And you know it’s a measure I have to take.” She replied with no hint of friendliness. It was harsh, but it was better the boundaries were set on time. Things were already going well with Lorenzo s
Natalie resumed work the following week. Her security detail had already been improved and Lorenzo had her enrolled in an academy so she could learn self-defense. "You need to be able to protect yourself Cara, I'll not be by your side everytime. " Lorenzo had said that morning when he put the trai
Natalie didn't want to believe what she just heard. "Did Esmeralda tell you that? She finally got to you right? " she didn't wait for him to answer before continuing. "where do you expect me to go? To my uncle? Or out on the streets, so your psycho of a fiancee can kill me again? You succeeded in
Esmeralda was seated majestically on a table. She gave Natalie a derisive look. "you were a dead body waiting to show up love, ever since you came into my household and stole my man." Natalie scoffed beside herself. "last I checked, your 'man' married me against my will, seduced me and slept
Natalie stood by the tall windows of the study, arms folded across her chest, watching the golden streaks of morning light filter through the glass. Sleep had evaded her the night before. Lucian’s unexpected confession had caused her thoughts to be in chaos.The things he said and the way he said it.







