LOGINPOV: NinaRebecca’s finger slides under my chin, turning my face toward hers. I’ve seen that look before.“I want to help my princess feel better,” she murmurs, her voice low and velvet-smooth, wrapping around the words like a promise.Something inside me cracks open at the endearment. “Princess.” It’s been so long since she called me that. My shoulders sag. The fight I carried through the door, the guilt over Evelyn, the failed phone call. I melt. There’s no other word for it. My body leans into her without permission, seeking the warmth I’ve tried so hard to forget.Rebecca smiles in satisfaction, as if she’s been waiting for exactly this moment. She doesn’t ask. She never does when she knows what I need. Her hand slips from my chin to the back of my neck, fingers threading into my hair, and she pulls me in.Our lips meet, soft at first, then deeper. I taste the faint trace of whiskey on her tongue from the untouched glass she’d set aside. My hands come up instinctively, fisting in
POV: NinaI shouldn’t be here.That’s the first thing that sits in my head as I stand outside her door, staring at it like it’s going to give me a different answer if I wait long enough. It won’t. It never does with her. Rebecca doesn’t do hesitation. She doesn’t do second chances handed out easily.And I still came anyway.I let out a slow breath and push the door open before I can change my mind. If I stand here any longer, I’ll walk away and pretend I didn’t almost do this, and I don’t have that option anymore. Not after everything that’s already gone wrong.The door shuts behind me with a soft click.She’s already there.Of course she is. Rebecca is sitting on the couch like she’s been expecting me, one arm stretched along the back, a glass sitting untouched in her hand. She doesn’t look surprised. She doesn’t even look curious.She just looks at me.“You took your time,” she says.Her voice is calm, like this is nothing, like I didn’t just walk into something I’ve been trying to
POV: MalachiI don’t like when things move without warning. Money is moving through accounts that didn’t exist two weeks ago with clean entries and records. That means Samantha didn’t build this network herself. No one builds something this smooth overnight unless they’ve done it before or they had help setting it up.I scroll back, cross-checking timestamps with what I already pulled earlier. It lines up too neatly and that’s the problem. There’s no mistakes and nothing sloppy for me to grab onto or slow her down.Which means someone else is doing part of the work for her.I sit back slightly, exhaling through my nose as I close one file and open another. The names attached to the newer accounts are cleaner than hers were. Less noise. Less history. That doesn’t make them invisible, it just makes them harder to trace fast enough.“She’s not alone,” I mutter under my breath.And that changes everything.Because if Samantha has someone else helping her move this fast, then whatever time
POV: EvelynI had spent hours at Malachi’s and by the time I get home, I don’t switch on the main lights when I step inside, just the small ones and I drop my bag by the table and stand there for a moment. The project is still open on my laptop from earlier, sitting there like I had instructed some of the staff to keep it before I got home. I sit down and pull it closer, letting the chair take my weight while I go back into the files. It’s easier to think when I’m working. Samantha’s trail is clearer now, but every time I fix one layer, I find another one sitting underneath it. Money moving through accounts that don’t belong to her, names swapped out just enough times to delay attention, and timing that feels too intentional to be random. It isn’t messy work. It’s careful work. Which means she didn’t do it in panic. She did it with time.I lean back slightly, exhaling through my nose as I scroll through another set of transfers. It all connects to the same point, just like I though
POV: MalachiI know something is wrong before they even reach the car. Toby is talking but it’s not the same kind of talking as before. It’s slower, uncertain, like he’s trying to figure out if he’s allowed to ask questions or not. And Evelyn… she’s not saying anything.That’s the problem.She’s too quiet. I open the back door for them and Toby slides in first, still looking over his shoulder like he’s expecting something to follow. Evelyn gets in after him without a word, her movements rigid in that way that tells me she’s holding something down hard.I shut the door and walk around to the driver’s side.By the time I get in, Toby is already looking at her again.“Mom… what was that?” he asks carefully.Evelyn doesn’t answer immediately. She leans back slightly, one arm resting against the door, her gaze fixed ahead like she’s watching something that isn’t there.“Nothing you need to worry about,” she says finally.“That man said—” Toby starts.“I said it’s enough, Toby,” she cuts in
POV: EvelynBy the time evening settles in, I’m already done with the office.Not because there isn’t work to do. There’s too much of it, actually. Too many files and that project sitting right at the center of everything like a loaded gun no one else realizes is about to go off.But I don’t stay because staying there means sitting in the same space Arthur walked into earlier and that fucking creeped the hell out of me.So I leave.I go to the school to pick Toby up myself for the first time in a while. He runs up to me the second he sees me, backpack half falling off his shoulder, talking before he even reaches me.“Mom, we had this thing today and I almost won but then Daniel cheated—”“He didn’t cheat,” I say automatically, crouching slightly to fix his bag properly. “You just didn’t win baby. That's a serious accusation and you should learn to accept loosing baby.”“That’s the same thing,” he insists.“It’s not.”He huffs like I’ve personally offended him, and I almost smile.Almo







