Se connecterALISTAIR POV:I held a private party for Vesper that day.It was not public. The reporters were still crazily following her around, camping outside hotels and restaurants, printing lies about the two of us. So I kept it small. A rented penthouse overlooking the city, a few close friends, good champagne with soft music to go with.But once things calmed down, once the world moved on to the next scandal, I planned to throw her an even grander party. The type of party that people talked about for years. Something worthy of her.Vesper arrived in a silver dress that caught the light like water. Her hair was pinned up, her neck bare except for a thin gold chain. She looked like something out of a dream."You did all of this for me?" she asked, her voice soft and warm."All of this and more," I said.She smiled, and I felt that warmth spread through my chest.The evening passed in a blur of laughter and champagne. I watched her move through the room, watched her charm my friends, watched he
ALISTAIR POV:The morning light came through the big and huge windows of the hotel suite, soft and golden, and I stood there with a cup of coffee in my hand and a feeling in my chest that I had almost forgotten existed.Happiness.Real happiness. Vesper was back.I turned away from the window and looked at the bed. She was still asleep, her dark hair spread across the pillow, her lips slightly parted, one bare shoulder exposed above the white sheet. She looked the same as she had all those years ago, younger, somehow, even though we both knew time had passed. The same delicate curve of her jaw. The same soft rise and fall of her breathing. The same way of taking up space in a room without seeming to try.I had loved her for so long that I couldn't remember what my life felt like before her.Not that we had ever been together. Not really. Back then, I was no one. A college kid with ambition and nothing else. No money, no connections, no way to give her the life she deserved. I watched
MARY'S POV:I stared at the screen, my finger frozen over the notification. His profile picture was the same one he had used for years, a professional headshot, his smile controlled, his eyes unreadable. And next to it, in small gray letters, the word that changed everything:Liked.He had seen the posts. He had read them, or at least glanced at them, and he had liked one of them. Maybe accidentally. Maybe on purpose. Maybe because he agreed with what it said.It didn't matter.The like had been removed by the time I found it, quickly, probably as soon as someone told him it was there. But not quickly enough. The damage was done. Thousands of people had already seen it. Screenshots had already been taken. The internet never forgot, and neither would I.I set my phone down and walked to the window.The street outside was quiet. Normal. Cars drove past. A neighbor walked their dog. A child rode a bicycle in wobbly circles on the sidewalk. Nothing had changed, and yet everything had chan
MARY'S POV:The elevator touched the ground floor, and the doors slid open into a lobby that suddenly felt like a stage.I walked across the marble floor with my head high, my heels clicking in rhythm with my heartbeat. The security guard at the front desk glanced up at me, then looked away. A group of employees huddled near the coffee kiosk, laughing about something I couldn't hear. None of them knew. None of them had any idea that the woman walking past them had just delivered divorce papers to the CEO of the company they worked for.That was fine. They would know soon enough.The drive home was quiet. Too quiet. The radio played something soft and forgettable, and I let the sound wash over me without really hearing it. My hands gripped the steering wheel tighter than necessary. My mind kept circling back to the folder on the receptionist's desk, to the way her smile had crumbled, to the words I had finally said out loud after one years of swallowing them.I'm his wife.Such a small
Mary's POV:"I'm sorry, but Mr. Vane is in meetings all morning. If you'd like to leave your name and number, I can have someone—""Mary," I said. "My name is Mary."She typed something into her computer. Scrolled. Typed again. Her smile never changed."I'm not seeing a Mary on his schedule. Are you with a vendor? A client?"I looked past her, down the hallway lined with glass-walled offices. I could see people moving, talking, working. None of them looked up. None of them noticed me.None of them knew who I was.And why would they? Alistair had never told them. He had never mentioned me at company parties, never brought me to holiday events, never once acknowledged that he had a wife and a daughter waiting for him at home.His friends—the ones he played poker with, the ones he went to bachelor parties with, the ones who had known about Vesper for years—had never heard my name.My friends, the ones I had convinced to invest in his company, had become his friends over time. I saw them
Mary's POV:Elowen's kindergarten was a fifteen-minute drive from the house.I held her hand the whole way there. She didn't pull away, didn't squirm, didn't complain that I was holding too tight. She just walked beside me with her purple backpack slung over her shoulder, her hair finally brushed, her dress replaced with jeans and a t-shirt that said I Heart Unicorns in glittery letters.At the classroom door, she stopped and turned to look at me."Mommy?""Yes, baby?""Are you going to talk to Dad today?"I crouched down so we were eye to eye. "Yes. I am.""Are you going to be sad again after?"The question was so simple, and so complicated, and so perfectly her that I almost started crying right there in the hallway."No," I said. "I'm not going to be sad. I promise."She studied my face for a long moment. Then she nodded, as if satisfied, and threw her arms around my neck."I love you, Mommy.""I love you too, baby. Have a good day."She disappeared into the classroom, and I stood
HANNAH’S POV:A WEEK LATER:Today was a beautiful day and I felt it was going to be a just beautiful as the sunrise. I joined the kids and Elijah for breakfast where we drank orange juice, with pancakes and syrup and we shared the grace today. Although my driver was around and well, Elijah offered
HANNAH’S POV:Amelia gasped dramatically. “PANCAKES?!”“Pancakes, fruit, and everything you like.” I announced as I recalled there was a private chef who we could snap our fingers and everything we desired would be served in a blink of an eyexAmelia cheered and jumped up, accidentally dipping her
HANNAH’S POV:I took a few minutes to send some follow-up emails, sign digital approvals, and rewrite a budget line that didn’t sit right with me. By the time I looked up, the sun outside had begun its lazy descent.The office floors were mostly quiet. Except for the hum of air conditioning and fai
HANNAH’S POV:He parked outside one of my favorite restaurants. It was called Lovelies and it was a cozy little place that made the best homemade takeouts. It was one of the notable identifications for me at how the city had developed over the past years of my absence. I remember there used to be a







