Masuk*Elena's POV**There was a bright first.Then pain came almost immediately.I became aware of them in that order... the pale, clinical brightness pressing against my closed eyelids, and then the dull, insistent ache that was coming from everywhere at once and had clearly been waiting for me to wake up before announcing itself properly.I opened my eyes.Squinted immediately.The ceiling was white. The room smelled of antiseptic and something faintly floral, and there was a steady, quiet beeping somewhere to my left that told me exactly where I was before the rest of my brain had finished loading.Hospital.I was in a hospital."She's waking up." A voice ....sounded familiar and close. "Doctor, she's waking up."I turned my head slowly. The movement sent a low throb through my temples that I chose to ignore.A face came into focus.It was Andrea.She was standing right beside my bed, her hand already reaching for mine, her eyes ... and this was the part that surprised me, the part I wa
*Eliza's POV*---"Do you perhaps remember anything at all from last night?"I asked the question slowly. Carefully. With every muscle in my face arranged into something that I hoped looked like casual morning curiosity rather than the desperate, white-knuckled prayer it actually was.Alexander looked up at me from across the kitchen table.He was still holding his head in both hands...his elbows on the surface, while his fingers were pressed against his temples, the posture of a man whose skull was staging a very loud protest against the previous evening. He looked terrible, honestly. Pale. Heavy-eyed. The kind of tired that sleep doesn't fix.He shook his head slowly."I don't know what happened," he said. His voice was rough at the edges. "I remember coming home. I had a drink and then—" He pressed his fingers harder against his temples. "Nothing. I don't know. I must have had too much to drink.""Too much," I repeated."I don't even remember going to bed." He looked up at me, squi
*Andrea's POV*The house was quiet in the mornings.I liked it that way. Just me, my coffee, and the particular satisfaction of walking through a space like I owned it ... which, technically, I did not. But technicalities had never particularly interested me.I moved down the upstairs hallway in my silk robe and my fluffy socks, my mug was warm between both palms, taking my time the way I always did when Liam wasn't home to make pointed comments about my schedule.He had left for work an hour ago.Which meant the house belonged to me and my coffee and my thoughts.And apparently Elena.I heard her voice before I reached her door ...muffled through the wood, bright and quick, the particular tone of someone wrapping up a phone call."Yes, I'll be down in ten minutes. Just give me a second to grab my things..."I stopped walking.And stared at her door.I rolled my eyes so thoroughly I felt it in the back of my skull. She was going out. Somewhere. With someone. Liam's wife, carrying Lia
*Elena's POV*It started with a YouTube video.That should have been my first warning.I came downstairs to find Liam sitting at the kitchen counter with his laptop open, he had his reading glasses on which I was not going to comment on , while he was watching a video titled "How To Talk To Your Unborn Baby: A Complete Guide For First Time Dads."I stood in the doorway and stared at him for a full ten seconds."What," I said, "are you doing?"He looked up. Completely unbothered. "Research.""Research.""Did I stutter?""Liam, you are watching a YouTube video about talking to a baby.""An unborn baby." He pointed at the screen. "There is a difference apparently. The acoustics are different in the womb. You have to adjust your tone." He said this with the seriousness of a man who had just discovered a scientific breakthrough and was generously sharing it with the world.I pressed my lips together very hard."Adjust your tone," I repeated."Lower register. More soothing. Less ... apparen
*Eliza's POV*---He kissed me like he had been waiting for me for ages.Like I was the only thing in the world.His hands moved slowly .... deliberately — like he was relearning something he had been trying to forget. Down my shoulders, across my collarbone, and then lower, and I stopped breathing entirely because Alexander Steele's hands had always been my undoing and nothing about tonight was going to be different.He pulled back just enough to look at me.His eyes were dark. Unguarded in a way I had not seen in months ....the walls he fully let down, the distance he always put between us was gone, just him looking at me like I was something he needed at that moment."Alexander..." His name came out soft and broken at the edges."Shh." He pressed his lips to my jaw. My neck. The curve of my shoulder. "Don't think."I wasn't thinking. I couldn't think. Every coherent thought I had dissolved the moment his hands found me and his mouth moved against my skin like he had all night and i
*Eliza's POV*10:58 PM.I stared at the ceiling of my room and counted my own heartbeats and told myself to wait.I had waited this long. I could wait another thirty two minutes.I couldn't wait.I sat up. Looked down at myself.... the silk robe I was putting on had nothing beneath it, the knot at the waist tied loosely, deliberately. My hands were steady again. They were always steady when I had already made up my mind.I stood up.And I walked down the hall.His door was slightly open, which I took as the universe's way of telling me I was making the right decision. I pushed it gently and stepped inside.The room was dim. Just the silver light of the moon coming through the curtains, painting everything in soft grey and white.Alexander was on the bed.Lying on his back, one arm across his chest, his eyes closed. He was still dressed. He had clearly intended to rest for a moment and been pulled under faster than he planned.I stood in the doorway and looked at him and felt the famil







