LOGINMaya de Cruz thought the worst thing that could happen before her wedding was catching her fiancé cheating on her. She was wrong. One reckless night with Rhysand Bernadi, her fiancé’s dangerous older brother, changed the course of her entire life. By morning, Maya disappeared without a word, carrying a secret powerful enough to destroy two old-money families. Five years later, Maya has rebuilt herself in Los Angeles as the owner of De Cruz Atelier, a luxury event company trusted by celebrities, billionaires, and people rich enough to turn scandals into PR strategy. Her life is controlled, successful, and carefully protected around the one thing that matters most: her son, Aiden. Then Maya is hired for the biggest project of her career. Designing Rhysand Bernadi’s wedding. Rhysand is no longer the reckless heir she left behind in Hawaii. He’s colder now. More powerful. More dangerous. And the moment he sees Maya again, it becomes painfully clear that neither of them ever truly moved on. As old attraction resurfaces, family tensions explode, and anonymous threats begin appearing around Maya’s life, the past she buried starts clawing its way back to the surface. Because someone knows what happened five years ago. And someone has been watching Maya for much longer than she realizes. The problem is no longer just the wedding. It’s the little boy with Rhysand’s eyes.
View MoreI picked up the avocado and cut it in half.Upstairs, the sound of the water changed. Aiden wasn’t crying anymore. Now he was rambling, softer, broken up, the kind of tired-kid commentary that meant he had surrendered but still wanted the world to know he had opinions.“Don’t get it in my eyes.”“I won’t.”“If it gets in my eyes, I’ll be sad.”“I know.”“And Mami will be mad.”“I know that too.”“And Elmo says bad words.”“Elma.”“Yeah, Elmo.”I smiled at the avocado.Damn it.This was dangerous.Not because Rhysand flirted with me. I could handle that. The man could stand too close, smile too slowly, speak in a voice that made normal women forget their email passwords, and I could still save myself with sarcasm and a pair of expensive heels.This was the dangerous part.The sound of running water in my son’s bathroom.Aiden letting that man wash his hair.Rhysand not sounding awkward, not sounding annoyed, not sounding like he was performing the role of a good man because he wanted s
I looked at Aiden.Aiden looked back at me from Rhysand’s shoulder with wet eyes, flushed cheeks, and a little face that looked far too much like the man holding him.Rhysand didn’t say anything. Because if he offered right away, I might grab one of the orange cones and turn it into a legal instrument.“Elma can give you a bath,” I said.Aiden shook his head. His lower lip pushed out again. “Uncle Car.”“Uncle Car does not work at a spa.”“I don’t want water.”“Water isn’t asking for your opinion.”“I want Uncle Car.”Rhysand finally looked at me.Not with an obvious request. Not with some tiny victory. Not like a man who knew my son had just handed him an invitation to step farther into a space I hadn’t opened yet.He just looked at me.Waiting.Again.Damn him and this character development I never asked for.I closed my eyes for a second. In the kitchen, the little timer went off. My chicken was probably fine. I wasn’t. But clearly the chicken had priorities.“Five minutes,” I said
I opened the fridge and pulled out chicken, cilantro, limes, tomatoes, avocado, cheese, and the leftover arepa dough. Then baby potatoes, sweet corn, and the glass bowl of hogao I’d managed to save from Saba last night before he claimed it as an academic right.“DON’T TOUCH THE LAVA!” Aiden yelled outside.I sliced a tomato. “Don’t touch the lavender, pequeño tyrant,” I muttered.The knife moved quickly over the cutting board. Tomatoes, onions, cilantro. The kitchen slowly went from an arena for bad thoughts to a place I could control. Oil heated in a pan. Garlic went in. The smell rose, soft and sharp, soothing in the way only Colombian food and threats from Mama over the phone could be.I seasoned the chicken with salt, lime, garlic, a little cumin, then laid it in the pan until the hiss filled the kitchen. Through the window, I saw Rhysand holding one of the cones now.Aiden gave a tiny clap.I immediately looked back at the chicken.No.I was not going to stand in my kitchen weari
We turned onto the street toward my house.A few seconds later, we heard it.BEEP.A tiny horn.I immediately sat up straighter.“No.”BEEP BEEP.Rhysand slowed the car.In front of my house, the driveway had turned into something between Formula One, an expensive daycare, and an unfinished coup.Aiden was in the middle of it all with his red Swiss car.My son had changed out of his preschool uniform into a little white T-shirt, gray shorts, sneakers, and blue sunglasses sitting crooked on his face because one of his ears had apparently decided not to cooperate with fashion. His black fringe fell over his forehead, his cheeks were round and red, and he was standing half inside the red car with one hand raised.Behind him was a small gang he had apparently managed to recruit in less than an hour.A neighbor girl sat on a pink scooter wearing a unicorn helmet, looking extremely serious for someone whose vehicle had glitter on it. A little boy on a balance bike was holding an orange cone
Morning arrived far too politely for something that should have come in carrying a fire extinguisher.I woke before the sun was fully up, with pale light slipping through the gap in Rhysand’s suite curtains and falling over my skin like an accusation.For a few seconds, I didn’t move.There were ge
He picked up his whiskey and took a small sip. It’s too easy. Too controlled. I wanted to disturb him. I wanted to make him lose his flat fucking face. I wanted something tonight to be messy, unmanaged, not wrapped in family and money and shame.“I’m not a good man, Maya,” he said quietly.“I know.
Late night, I’m at a beachside club with a glass of tequila in front of my face and a bartender looking at me like I’m an expensive potted plant that had suddenly started smoking.His name was probably Kai. Or Koa. Or something very Hawaiian and very undeserving of being dragged into the Bernadi fa
After spending the entire day making sure my wedding did not turn into a disaster with expensive flowers, I finally collapsed onto the bed in my suite, one foot still in a heel and the other already surrendered to humanity.Tomorrow, I’m going to become Mrs. Bernadi.That should have made me blush,






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