LOGINAnnabelle’s POV The ballroom of the Meridian Grand Hotel looked impossibly perfect, as if it belonged to someone else’s life. Crystal chandeliers shimmered overhead, sending fractured reflections across the polished marble floors. Everything was controlled, elegant, calm. Everything except what this really was. A war, dressed in velvet and gold. I stood behind the heavy curtains, staring at my reflection. Sharp charcoal suit. Hair pulled into a low bun. Posture deliberate. Eyes forced steady. The woman in the mirror looked capable. Like she could handle the storm I was about to walk into. But inside… I felt like a girl holding her breath in the eye of a hurricane. “You don’t have to do this today.” Ronan’s voice came from behind me, quiet and firm. I caught his reflection in the mirror. Hands tucked in his pockets, shoulders tense despite the calm façade. Every inch of him screamed watchfulness, and something else I didn’t allow myself to acknowledge. “Yes,” I said softly. “I do
Annabelle’s POVThe scandal broke at 6:12 a.m.I didn’t wake up gently. I woke up to chaos.My phone vibrated violently against the glass table beside the bed, over and over again, sharp enough to cut through sleep like something urgent—something wrong. I reached for it blindly, still half-asleep, until the screen lit up in my hand.Then my heart stopped.BLACKTHORNE HEIRESS LINKED TO ILLEGAL TRUST DIVERSIONEXCLUSIVE: SECRET PAYMENTS TRACE BACK TO ANNABELLE LAURENTIS THE INHERITANCE ALREADY BEING DRAINED?“No…” I whispered, sitting up instantly.I scrolled, faster and faster, my pulse climbing with every headline. Charts. Documents. Anonymous sources. Everything looked real—too real.And then I saw it.Sofia Martinez’s gallery linked to suspicious financial activity.My stomach dropped.Beside me, Ronan shifted. “Annabelle?” he murmured, his voice rough with sleep.I couldn’t speak. I just handed him the phone.The change in him was immediate. Sleep vanished. His expression hardened
Sofia’s POVArt had always been the one place I trusted completely.Paint didn’t lie to you. Canvas didn’t pretend to be something it wasn’t. And color… color had a way of telling the truth, even when you tried to hide from it. That was why I built this gallery, why I poured years of my life into something that felt real in a world that rarely was.But as I stood in the middle of my studio watching my phone light up over and over again, I realized something I had never prepared for.Even truth could be weaponized.“What do you mean they’re pulling out?”My voice came out sharper than I intended as I pressed the phone harder against my ear, pacing between canvases that suddenly felt unfinished in a way that had nothing to do with art. Sculptures cast long shadows across the floor, and for the first time, the space felt too big… too exposed.“I’m sorry, Sofia,” Lila said softly. “Three major investors withdrew funding this morning. They’re citing reputational risk.”I stopped moving.“R
Marcus’s POVDaniel was already losing the moment he stepped into the room, even if he didn’t know it yet. I watched the way he carried himself—too careful, too controlled, like a man rehearsing innocence instead of living in it. People like him always forget that control is loud when you’re trained to see it. Ronan stood behind him near the window, silent but suffocating, while Adam leaned against the wall, arms crossed, watching with that unsettling patience that made people unravel faster than any interrogation ever could.I didn’t greet Daniel or offer him comfort, because men in his position don’t deserve either. I simply slid the authorization log across the table and let it speak before I did. His fingers brushed the paper, and in that single second, his eyes betrayed him. It was quick, almost impressive, but not enough. Fear flickered, sharp and undeniable, before he buried it under whatever lie he had prepared.“Explain this.”He tried to sound calm, tried to sound like he be
MARCUSI was halfway through my second cup of black coffee when my phone began vibrating nonstop across my glass desk. The steady buzz carried that tone that I had learned to recognize over years of crisis management.Urgent.I picked it up, already knowing it wouldn’t be good news.“Yes.”“Mr. Chen, this is Compliance Operations,” a tight female voice said on the other end. “We’ve received a federal audit authorization notice from the International Trade Regulatory Commission.”I froze immediately, this can’t be happening. What in hell is Victoria getting at because this would definitely affect stocks. “That’s not possible,” I replied flatly.“It’s already been submitted to executive review,” she replied. “They’re requesting full access to Blackthorne Industries’ international shipping contracts, offshore holdings, and political consultancy transactions for the last eight fiscal years.”I slowly set my coffee down, my jaw tightening already. I don’t know why this woman can’t just be
ANNABELLE POV The rain began just as I stepped out of Alec’s car. It wasn’t a violent storm nor was there thundering or lightning. Just a steady, gray curtain. The kind of rain that blurred everything into uncertainty. Fitting, I thought deeply as my emotions have remained all over the place since yesterday. If what Victor said is true then Victoria is far more dangerous than I ever thought. No wonder Alec would not agree with the subtle methods Marcus and Ronan were coming up with. Alec stepped out right beside me, scanning the nearly empty hangar of the airstrip right in the outskirts of Prague. His expression was sharp, alert and his shoulders carried tension that I’ve come to recognize over the past few weeks. “Are you sure this is safe?” I asked quietly, pulling my coat tighter around me. “No,” he replied honestly. “But it’s necessary.” I just nodded slowly, because the honesty did nothing to comfort me but it grounded me and knowing Alec, he rarely sugarcoated danger
ANNABELLE POVFear has a sound.I never knew that before today.It’s not a scream. Not footsteps in the dark. Not even the slam of a door.It’s silence—the kind that presses against your skin and makes every nerve stand on edge.I’m sitting on the edge of my bed, fully dressed even though it’s past
VICTORIA POVThe first thing I feel is not anger.It is disbelief.The kind that settles heavy in the chest, tightening slowly, as though the world has tilted and I am the only one still standing upright while everything else slides out of place.“Say it again.”My voice is calm. Perfectly even. Co
VICTORIA POVThe world had begun whispering against me again.Not loud enough to shatter my composure, not yet. But loud enough that I could feel it crawling under my skin, irritating every carefully curated layer of my power. The headlines, the social media chatter, the thinly veiled comments from
ANNABELLE POVFear doesn’t arrive loudly.It doesn’t kick down the door or scream warnings in your ear.It settles.Quiet. Persistent. Crawling into the cracks of your mind until even silence feels dangerous.By morning, I haven’t slept.Every sound during the night, the hum of the refrigerator, th







