เข้าสู่ระบบTheo POV “Does any of that make sense to you?” She folded her arms. “You’re embarrassing me.” “No. You embarrassed yourself.” Her face hardened. “You’ve become so protective of Lydia.” “This has nothing to do with Lydia.” “Really?” “Yes.” “You didn’t even used to defend people like that.” “Because I didn’t have a reason to.” She scoffed. Then she went somewhere I never expected her to go. “You know what? Maybe I should remind you that there was a time when I was the one who had to deal with your issues.” My stomach dropped. “What does that have to do with this?” “You know exactly what I’m talking about.” I stared at her. She had brought up the accusations she’d once made during our custody battle. The old ones. The ones about my lifestyle. The ones she’d used to question my fitness as a father. The ones we’d spent months fighting over in court. “Don’t.” She looked away. “I’m just saying—” “Don’t.” My voice was colder this time.
Theo POVThe next afternoon, I drove to Miranda’s house to pick them up. The moment I stepped inside, I knew she’d decided to come. She appeared from the hallway dressed like she was attending a business luncheon instead of a children’s gathering. Miriam came running toward me. “Daddy!” I crouched immediately and caught her as she threw her arms around my neck. “Hey, princess.” She kissed my cheek. “I’ve been waiting.” “I know.” Miranda appeared behind her. “She’s been talking about it all morning.” I smiled politely. “Good.” The drive was mostly quiet. Miriam filled the silence with a detailed explanation of what she wanted to do when we arrived, while Miranda occasionally interrupted to remind her not to get too excited. I kept my eyes on the road. I already knew bringing Miranda was going to be complicated. I just hadn’t realized how complicated. The moment we arrived at Anna’s house, the atmosphere changed. Music played softly in the background. There were col
Theo POV My phone vibrated against the conference table just as I was signing the final page of the acquisition agreement. I glanced at the screen. Anna. Of course. I stared at her name for a second before answering because if my sister was calling me in the middle of a meeting, there were only two possibilities. Either something had gone terribly wrong, or she had suddenly decided that whatever she wanted to tell me was more important than the fact that I was currently closing a multimillion-dollar deal. With Anna, unfortunately, both possibilities were equally likely. I excused myself from the room, stepped into the corridor, and answered. “What’s wrong?” “Why does something have to be wrong?” she asked immediately. “Because you’re calling me while I’m in a meeting.” “Oh, please. You were going to finish that meeting anyway.” I closed my eyes briefly. She wasn’t wrong. “I have ten minutes.” “Perfect. Tomorrow, we’re having a hangout.” “A hangout.” “With the kids.”
Lydia povAva immediately took over.“There’s this new café that just opened downtown, and it has a bookstore inside, but not just a normal bookstore. They have this immersive section where the ceiling has pink petals falling like rain.”“Pink petals?You told me about this earlier today” I repeated.She nodded enthusiastically. “Yes! They make it look like it’s raining flowers. And there are these lights everywhere, so the whole place changes color depending on where you stand.”Eli leaned forward. “And they have these huge glass bookshelves that go all the way up to the ceiling. There’s a reading area underneath them, and apparently there’s a room where the floor looks like it’s covered in clouds.”Ava shot him a look. “That’s not the important part.”“It is important.”“It isn’t.”“It absolutely is.”I bit back a laugh.Apparently, I was now being given a full architectural tour of a café I had never heard of by two six-year-olds who had somehow researched it more thoroughly than m
Lydia povI answered.“Hello?”“Lydia.”His voice sounded amused.“How do I remove blush from a child’s face?”I blinked.“What?”“Miriam.”I glanced at my kids in the back seat.“She told me she doesn’t want to wash her face because she likes your lipstick.”I laughed.“It’s blush, Theo.”“Whatever it is, it’s apparently precious.”“It is.”“I figured that out.”I could hear the smile in his voice.“She says she doesn’t want it to come off.”“Use a wet wipe.”“A wet wipe?”“Yes. A normal baby wipe. Just gently clean her face.”“Where do I find one?”I laughed.“Are you serious?”“I’ve been informed that I’m apparently useless in this department.”“You can find baby wipes in literally every supermarket.”“Excellent.”There was a brief pause.Then I heard Miriam’s voice in the background.“Daddy!”“What?”“Can I live with Lydia?”I froze.Theo went completely silent.Then Miriam continued, apparently unaware that she had just detonated a bomb.“I want her to be my mom.”I covered my mo
Lydia POVI woke up to the smell of cinnamon.Not the faint, polite kind that disappeared the moment you opened your eyes, but the kind that seemed to have taken over the entire house and was personally offended that I was still upstairs. It drifted beneath my bedroom door, curled around the hallway, and somehow managed to pull me out of the deepest sleep I had had in weeks. I lay there for a few seconds, staring at the ceiling while my brain slowly remembered where I was, what day it was, and, more importantly, why there were children laughing somewhere downstairs before eight in the morning.Then I heard Anna’s voice.“Don’t touch that yet!”Eli shouted something back.Ava immediately corrected him.Miriam laughed.I closed my eyes again.Right.The children.The sleepover.The camping trip.And apparently, the beginning of my morning had already been taken hostage.I dragged myself out of bed, slipped into something comfortable, ran a brush through my hair, and went downstairs expe
Lydia I turned.He was standing a few feet away now, hands in his pockets, his expression unreadable.There was no softness in his face.Just cool detachment.The kind that made the evening breeze feel warmer by comparison.For the first time since he arrived, he looked directly at me and held the
Lydia POVAfter what seems like forever, a black Rolls-Royce pulled into the court compound, I had already imagined three different ways to murder my husband.Future husband.Potential husband.Missing husband.Whatever.At that point, I wasn’t being picky.The sleek black car glided through the ga
Lydia POV“You’re getting married to Dave Ashton tomorrow by eight a.m.”Those were the words that ended my life as I knew it.One sentence.One Tuesday evening.One announcement delivered with the same emotional weight my father would have used to ask someone to pass the salt.For a moment, I hone
Lydia POVOh.That was… unfortunate.Because he was beautiful.In a sharp, expensive, dangerous kind of way.Dark suit.Sharper jaw.Dark eyes that looked almost black under certain lighting.Everything about him looked controlled.I clicked another picture.Still no smile.Another.Same expression







