LOGINDave POVAfter the call ended, I remained exactly where I was, the phone still pressed against my ear even though there was no one left on the other side.Nothing moved.Not the clock.Not the air-conditioning.Not even me.The words kept replaying in my head with a cruelty that made them impossible to absorb.Lydia was involved in a serious accident.Emergency surgery.Eighty percent chance of not surviving.Eighty percent.My children.My kids were somewhere in this city, probably wondering why their mother wasn’t answering her phone, while I had been sitting in my office worrying that she’d decided to ignore me.What the fuck was the universe playing at?I finally lowered the phone.My vision felt strangely unfocused, like I’d been dropped into somebody else’s nightmare and hadn’t figured out how to wake up yet.Lydia couldn’t die.The thought arrived so suddenly that my chest tightened.No.She couldn’t.Not Lydia.Not the woman who could look me dead in the eyes and dismantle eve
Dave POVI was halfway through the newest contract our legal team had cooked up for the influencer campaign when I stopped reading for the third time.My eyes remained fixed on the same paragraph.I had read it at least four times already.Honestly, dealing with influencers was not my idea of a good time. I had an entire team whose job was to handle them, negotiate their rates, chase deliverables, review their content and make sure nobody suddenly developed amnesia when it was time to honour a contract. I shouldn’t even have been looking at the damn thing.But I liked knowing there were no loose ends.Especially after Eli once told me about a case Lydia had handled where a company had nearly walked into a legal disaster because of poorly drafted contracts. Ever since then, I’d developed an almost unreasonable suspicion of anything involving clauses, signatures and people promising they had “read everything carefully.”Influencers were particularly dangerous.They could smile into a ca
Anna POV“I’m coming.”Eli sniffed.“Are you going to call Mum?”I paused.“I’m going to fix all of this now.”He wiped his nose with the back of his hand.“Better.”I almost laughed.That cocky little boy.Under any other circumstance, I would have burst out laughing.Instead, I turned toward the staircase.My legs felt heavier with every step.I needed help.Real help.Not the kind where I stood in front of two children and pretended everything was fine.I needed another adult.Someone who belonged in this situation.Someone who could answer the questions I couldn’t.I reached the children’s room and closed the door behind me.My hand hovered over my phone.Dave.I stared at his name.Did I really need to call him?My thumb moved over the screen and stopped.Should I tell him?Should I tell him everything before he came over?Would that be betraying Lydia somehow?I paced across the room.Lydia had spoken about Dave before.Not much.Mostly about the children.About how he was an in
Anna POVThe moment I stepped through the front door, I heard little feet pounding against the floor upstairs.“Auntie Anna!”I barely had time to put my bag down before Eli came running toward me, his hair sticking up on one side and his shirt half-tucked into his shorts. Ava followed close behind, but unlike her brother, she wasn’t smiling.“When is Mum getting back?”The question stopped me.I forced a smile.“Good morning to you too, troublemakers.”“Auntie Anna,” Ava repeated, coming closer. “When is Mum coming back?”“And why weren’t you at home throughout the night?” Eli added.I looked between them.Two little faces.Two pairs of eyes searching mine.Two children who had absolutely no idea that their entire world was currently sitting behind a glass door in an intensive-care unit.I swallowed.“I had somewhere important to be.”“Where?”“A hospital.”Ava’s eyes widened.“Were you sick?”“No.”“Then why were you there?”I opened my mouth, but nothing sensible came out.Before I
Anna POVMy voice collapsed. He pulled me into his chest. I grabbed his shirt with both hands and sobbed. “Poor Lydia.” His arms tightened around me. “I know.” “I don’t know what to tell the kids.” My words came between uneven breaths. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I don’t know what to say to them.” “You don’t have to figure that out tonight.” “She doesn’t deserve this.” “I know.” “She was just—” I shook my head violently. “She was just talking to me yesterday. She was fine.” Theo rubbed a slow hand over my back. “I know.” “What if she—” “Don’t.” I looked up at him. His eyes were red. “She hasn’t lost yet,” he said quietly. “Lydia is a fighter.” I swallowed. “You don’t know that.” “I know her.” He looked toward the emergency theatre. “And I’m not ready to believe otherwise.” We sat there. Minutes turned into hours. The hospital seemed to have its own strange rhythm. Nurses hurried past us. Trolleys squeaked over the tiled floor. Someone cried quietly
Anna POV After my fifth cup of coffee, my phone vibrated against the floor. I nearly jumped. At this point, every vibration had started feeling like a warning. I glanced down, expecting to see one of the twins calling me, or maybe the nanny asking another question about whether they should eat something or go to bed. Instead, a familiar name flashed across my screen. Kiddo. Theo. I stared at the video-call notification. For half a second, my thumb hovered over the answer button. Then I looked down at myself. My hair was a disaster. My boubou was wrinkled from sitting in the same position for hours. My face probably looked like I hadn’t slept in three years, and my eyes were swollen enough to make me look like I’d been crying—which, technically, I had. I couldn’t do Theo right now. I declined the call. Almost immediately, a message appeared. Theo: What’s up? I swallowed. My fingers felt strangely heavy as I typed. Me: I’m busy rn. Call me back later. The typing bubble
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
Bernard stepped in, hands clasped neatly in front of him.“I apologize for disturbing you, ma’am. I came by earlier, but there was no response.”I rubbed my eyes. “I was asleep.”“Yes, ma’am.”He said it so respectfully that I almost felt bad for sounding irritated.Almost.“Would you like dinner?”
Lydia’s POVThe inside of the house was even worse than the outside.Worse, because now I had to physically stand inside it and accept that this was where I was expected to live.The space swallowed me the second I stepped in.The entrance opened into a massive living area with floors so polished I
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







