LOGINDave POVTwo weeks after Cyn walked out of that restaurant and ended things, she came back.She stood in my office doorway like she had not disappeared for fourteen days and ignored every call I made after.“Let’s start over,” she said.And because I was bored, because routine is often mistaken for attachment, because I had not yet examined myself honestly enough—I said yes.That lasted four weeks.Then she came to my office again.No warning.No apology.Just my assistant’s voice over the intercom.“Miss Cyn is here.”Then the door opening before I could respond.She walked in carrying a gift bag and wearing a cream trench coat that told me immediately she was wearing something expensive and inappropriate underneath.Calculated.As always.She placed the bag on my desk.“I got you something.”I did not look up.Her heels clicked closer.“A peace offering.”I finally raised my eyes.She pulled out a signed first edition.My favorite book.Rare.Expensive.Thoughtful, technically.A m
Lydia POVThree months into the job, I had learned three things.First: the office coffee was terrible.Second: pregnancy and public transport should never coexist.Third: Clara was the kind of woman who treated competence like a personal attack.She had made that clear on my second day.“Lydia, can you print the client briefs for me?”I printed them.Five minutes later“Actually no, staple them by region.”I stapled them.Ten minutes later“Why would you staple them? I needed them sorted by account size.”I stared at her.She stared back.Smiling.That kind of smiling women do when they want you angry enough to react first.I swallowed it.For the baby.Always for the baby.So I redid everything.Again.And again.And again.By the end of second month, I had learned Clara’s real hobby was manufacturing inconvenience.StillI kept my head down.Did my work.Ignored her.Because I needed this job more than I needed pride.And pride, unfortunately, does not pay rent.Thursday morning br
Lydia POVThe apartment was terrible.Not in a dramatic, rats-in-the-walls kind of way.Just… aggressively disappointing.Small enough that if I stretched my arms in the kitchen, I could probably touch both walls.The paint was peeling near the windows.The fridge made a noise every seventeen minutes like it was reconsidering life.And the bathroom looked like it had personally survived several economic recessions.I stood in the middle of it with my suitcase in one hand and my plant cutting in the other and thought:Well.This is humbling.StillIt was mine.Just me.And silence.I set my plant by the window.Unwrapped the photograph I had carried with me for years and taped it carefully to the wardrobe door where it had always belonged.Then I sat on the bare mattress I had bought that afternoon and stared at the wall.My hand drifted to my stomach.It was still flat.Still easy to pretend nothing had changed.But everything had.I lay down that night in a room too quiet for sleep a
Cyn POVI was never interested in Dave Ashton.Not really.The first time I saw him in person, I was standing in a room full of fake laughter and expensive perfume, holding a glass of champagne I didn’t want and pretending to enjoy a business mixer I had only attended because Richard asked me to.Richard never liked being called my sugar daddy.He preferred investor.Mentor.Sometimes partner, when he was feeling particularly delusional.I preferred not to label old men who funded my lifestyle and expected loyalty in return.“Relax,” he had told me over the phone that evening. “You’re not seducing a prince. You’re getting close to a businessman.”Easy for him to say.He wasn’t the one in six-inch heels pretending any of this was normal.“Just get him comfortable,” Richard had said. “That’s all I need.”That was how it started.Just a job.And then Dave walked in.The room shifted in that irritating way rooms always do when a certain kind of man enters.He had that cold, expensive stil
Dave POV I woke up with a headache sitting directly behind my eyes. The kind that made everything feel one degree more irritating than necessary. My phone was already buzzing on the bedside table before I fully opened my eyes. Europe branch. Again. Of course. For the last forty eight hours, one of my overseas branches had been dealing with an internal compliance issue that should never have escalated this far. Legal was involved. Finance was involved. Three different people had suddenly become incompetent at the same time. So no, I had not been home. And no, I had not had the patience to think about anything outside work. At least, that was what I had been telling myself. I got out of bed, answered the Europe call, and spent the next hour trying not to fire three people before breakfast. By the time I got into the car later that afternoon, my head was still pounding. I loosened my tie and leaned back against the leather seat as the city blurred past the window. And, agains
Lydia POVI woke up at 4:03 a.m. after Dave called my child an inconvenience with a necktie.And for the first time in a very long time, my chest did not feel confused.The kind of clear that only comes after your heart has been broken so thoroughly it finally stops negotiating.I sat up slowly and looked around the room.The lavender diffuser still plugged into the wall. The curtains still half drawn. My water glass exactly where I had left it.Everything looked normal.And that was the strange part.How a life can be ending quietly while the room still looks untouched.I pushed the duvet back and placed one hand over my stomach.Still flat."Good morning," I whispered.That greeting was not for me.I stood up and switched on the bedside lamp. The room filled with soft gold. Then I walked to the wardrobe and opened it.One bag.That was all I had decided to take.I don't want to take anything I didn't come with.Just one bag. One life. One beginning.For three days I had been frighte
Lydia POVSilence.It lasted four seconds.I counted.In those four seconds, his face changed exactly once.Not shock.Not joy.Not even confusion.Something colder.Something harder.Something that made my entire body go still.When he finally spoke, his voice was dangerously calm.“Excuse me?”My
Lydia POVI stared at my reflection again, and for the first time in my life, I looked like someone I did not know how to help.I changed in under two minutes.A loose boubou gown.Slides.Face cap.No earrings.No dignity.I didn’t even tell Bernard where I was going.I just rushed downstairs, boo
Lydia POVAfter what happened between us, he didn’t come home again.Not the next day.Not the day after that.Not even once.If it weren’t for the dull soreness between my thighs that stayed for days and the memory of his mouth on mine that kept ambushing me at stupid hours, I would have convinced
Lydia POVHis hand lifted. Slowly. Like he was giving me time to stop him.And when his fingers touched my jaw, every thought in my head vanished on impact.I should have stepped back. I know that. I should have remembered every annoying thing about him. Every dismissive thing. Every cold t







