تسجيل الدخولNadia's POV. Diego pulled up the driveway just as the sun properly broke over the trees, and I barely managed to thank him before climbing out, my legs unsteady beneath me, exhaustion pressing down harder now that the adrenaline of the night had finally worn off.I made it as far as the front steps before Eli appeared in the doorway, a grin already forming."There she is," he said. "So? How'd the big dinner go last night?"The grin died the second he actually looked at me."Nadia." He crossed the porch in a few quick strides, his hands finding my shoulders. "What happened?""Not here," I said, my voice cracking on the second word, and he didn't ask again, just guided me inside and up the stairs, one arm wrapped firmly around my shoulders the entire way.I sat on the edge of my bed once we reached my room, and the whole story came pouring out of me in a rush I couldn't have stopped even if I'd wanted to. The missed dinner, the frantic hours waiting, Bing, the trace, the hotel, the pho
Simone's POV.I pulled into the driveway and killed the engine, staring at the dark windows of the mansion for a moment before I found the energy to actually get out. My phone buzzed against the passenger seat before I'd even reached for the door handle.A text from my goon leader I'd had keeping tabs on things.'She just left his place with her bodyguard. Looked like she'd been crying and left in a hurry.'I read it twice, a slow, satisfied smile spreading across my face despite the exhaustion sitting heavy in my bones. Nadia Holt, finally getting a taste of exactly what it felt like to have her perfect little life quietly unravel underneath her.It had taken careful work to get here.I'd reached out to Jolene again about a week earlier, casual, easy, the kind of invitation an old friend extends without any particular agenda attached. But I had my agenda. We met for lunch downtown, and I let the conversation drift naturally through old memories, mutual friends, the shape our lives h
Chapter 132. Nadia's POV. "How convenient.." I said, the words coming out sharper than I intended, though I didn't take them back."Nadia, please.""Who is she?" I demanded. "Who is the woman in those photos, Ronan?"He hesitated, just long enough that my stomach twisted even harder."Jolene," he said finally, quietly.The name landed like a physical blow. "Your ex-wife?""Nothing happened," he said quickly, desperately. "I woke up this morning and I had no memory of anything, no idea how I even got there. She said she was just as confused as I was.""I really don't know if those photos are true," I said, my voice breaking now, tears streaming freely down my face. "But if they are, oh my god, Ronan, I am so hurt. So betrayed. I know I hurt you in the past. I know I betrayed your trust. I left you, I kissed someone else, I know all of that. But I never once did anything this extreme. Even when I was seeing Damian, I swear to you, I never slept with him. I was so conflicted about my
Nadia's POV. The house had gone completely quiet by midnight, Lily long since asleep in her room, the television I'd tried watching earlier now dark and forgotten across the room. I sat curled on the couch, wrapped in a blanket I'd taken from the hall closet, my phone resting in my lap, hoping it would just light up with his name already.It didn't.I kept turning the whole evening over in my head, trying to make sense of it. This wasn't like him at all. Ronan missed things sometimes, got pulled into meetings that ran long, but he always called, always texted something, even a single line letting me know he was still breathing if possible. And this wasn't just about me. Lily was upstairs asleep, completely unaware her father hadn't come home from work, and if I hadn't been here, she would have been the one calling around confused, wondering why her dad had simply vanished on an ordinary Tuesday.Already around midnight, something about the whole situation had started sitting wrong in
Damian's POV. The office had become a place I actively avoided lately, the quiet hallways emptier each week as more of my staff quietly handed in resignations, unwilling to stay attached to a name still bleeding out in every tabloid across the city. I hadn't gone in three days. There was nothing left there for me to fix for now at this point, not today, and staying home alone with my own thoughts had started feeling worse than useless.I decided to pick the kids up myself instead of leaving it to the driver.Lucas raised an eyebrow when he spotted me waiting outside the school gates. "You're picking us up?""I have time today," I said, which wasn't entirely a lie.We drove to a small ice cream shop a few blocks from the house, one they used to beg to visit constantly a few months back, and settled into a booth by the window, both kids ordering something absurdly large with three different toppings while I stuck to a plain cone, watching them dig in with the kind of enthusiasm I hadn'
Ronan's POV.The first thing I became aware of was the pounding behind my eyes, a slow, deep throb that seemed to pulse in time with my own heartbeat. I lay there for a long moment before I even tried opening my eyes, my mouth dry, my limbs heavy in a way that felt wrong, disconnected from the rest of me.When I finally forced my eyes open, nothing about the ceiling above me looked familiar. Cream colored, a light fixture I didn't recognize, the faint hum of an air conditioning unit somewhere off to the side.I sat up too fast, and the room tilted sharply, my stomach lurching with it. I pressed a hand flat against my chest to steady myself, and that was when I registered it, my bare skin under my palm. No shirt.I looked down at myself, confusion sharpening into something colder. My chest was bare, my trousers still on, a heavy duvet pooled around my waist. I patted at my own arms, my shoulders, some instinctive need to confirm I was actually still myself, still intact, still whole if
NadiaI couldn’t believe the words had come out of my mouth. My heart pounded so loudly in my ears, that I thought it might burst out of my chest. My temples throbbed with the pressure, while my fingertips were numb with the tremors that wouldn’t stop. I stared at Damian’s back, still waiting fo
Nadia’s POVSimone had left them. Simone had walked out six years ago and never once looked back. And still, when Lucas fell, when Isabella was scared, the school called her. Damian called her. And I was told not to trouble myself.I walked away from Margaret without speaking. I walked into my bed
Nadia It was my 30th birthday that day when I hoped my husband and my step children would at least remember that this day was a little bit out of the ordinary.But I could only dream… I am not certain of when I became invisible in my own home. It happened slowly, until one morning I woke up and
Nadia Pain was the first thing that returned to me, and not the darkness I had expected to remain in forever.My breathing was uneven, shallow at first, then deeper as if my body was reminding me of how to stay alive. I laid still, with my eyes closed, trying to understand why I could feel anythin







