ANMELDENARIA'S POVI parked the car and stepped out, the cool night air hitting my bare legs. I adjusted my coat over my shoulder and walked toward the entrance of the club, the glitter on my black mini dress catching the neon lights and scattering them like tiny stars. The bass thrummed through the pavement beneath my heels, vibrating up through my body.It had taken a lot of searching through my phone to find a place like this. Hours of scrolling, of typing in keywords I never thought I'd use, of reading reviews and checking locations. But my curiosity wouldn't let me take my mind off it. It had been gnawing at me for days, a persistent itch I couldn't scratch.I pushed open the door and stepped inside.The club was a sensory overload. The air was thick with the scent of perfume and sweat, the music pulsating through the dimly lit space like a heartbeat. Bodies moved together in the centre of the floor, swaying and grinding to the rhythm. Women clung to each other, their lips locked, their
XAVIER'S POV He's probably talking about their blood. The blood that had soaked through his clothes, dripped from his hands, and stained the floors of the hospital that night. I knew it well. I had seen it. I had watched him walk through the doors of our home, drenched in crimson, his eyes hollow, his smile serene.It's been seven years. Seven years since Ian reached the point of no return. Seven years since New York witnessed a bloodshed that would forever be remembered for years to come.I remembered the night it all began. The night that had shattered everything we thought we knew about our family, about ourselves. Our mother had been admitted to the hospital, complications from the pregnancy. She had been carrying our youngest sibling… a child we had never gotten to meet, a life that had been extinguished before it had a chance to begin.Our mother passed away during labour. The doctors said it was a rare complication, that sometimes women lose their lives during childbirth despi
XAVIER'S POVThe car had become my prison for the past hour. I had driven through every street, every alley, every corner of the city that Ian might have vanished into. He wasn't at the lounge. The club had no sign of him. The sex club… the one we both knew existed but never spoke about, had also been searched. The organization house he had in New York was locked up tight, no sign of life, no indication that anyone had been there in hours.He was nowhere to be found.I grabbed my phone from the passenger seat and dialed his number again. It rang once, twice, three times, then went to voicemail. The robotic voice instructed me to leave a message, but I didn't. I couldn't. What was there to say that I hadn't already said in the countless calls I had made over the past hour?"Come on, Ian," I muttered, throwing the phone onto the seat beside me. "Where the hell are you?"Suddenly, after minutes of thinking long and hard… It hit me.I pressed my foot harder on the accelerator, the engine
XAVIER'S POV I felt the words hang in the air, heavy and ridiculous. It took everything in me, every ounce of self-control I possessed, not to let out a loud, derisive laugh.The silence that followed was so absolute, so profound, that you could have heard a pin drop on the thick Persian carpet.Then Aria burst out laughing beside me.The sound was sharp and unexpected, cutting through the silence like a knife. All heads turned to her, staring as if she had suddenly lost her mind. But I knew exactly what was going through her head. I could practically feel the amusement radiating off her."What's so funny?" Isabella demanded, her face flushing with indignation. "I'm finally giving this family what you couldn't do for years, and you have the guts to laugh? Aren't you ashamed of yourself?"I felt my amusement curdle into something colder. My gaze locked on Isabella, and I let my voice drop low. "I guess those fingers are all healed by now. Because if they weren't, you wouldn't dare tal
XAVIER'S POVThe moment I stepped into my father's study, the weight of the room settled on my shoulders like a familiar burden. The scent of old leather and aged whiskey hung in the air, mingling with the tension that seemed to permeate every corner of this house. I had been here a thousand times, but it never felt like home. Not anymore.Victor, Dean, Sebastian, Allison, and Isabella were already seated around the massive oak table, their postures varying degrees of rigid and uncomfortable. Victor's glare met me the instant I walked through the door, his eyes burning with a hatred that had only intensified over the past month. He turned his face away as if the very sight of me was offensive.It had been this way since Ian's attack. Every time Victor looked at me, his eyes filled with so much venom that I could practically feel it radiating off him. But each time I glanced down at Allison's mutilated fingers, the jagged edges where bone and sinew had been exposed before the doctors h
DEAN'S POVThe house was quiet as I made my way toward the kitchen. The familiar creak of the floorboards beneath my feet was the only sound breaking the silence. I had been in my study for hours, going over old reports and planning the next phase of my operation, and my throat was dry, my body craving the cool relief of water.But the moment I stepped through the kitchen doorway, I stopped dead in my tracks.Isabella stood at the stove, her back to me, with a spatula in her hand as she stirred something in a large pot. The smell of garlic and tomatoes filled the air, and for a moment, I simply watched her, a warmth spreading through my chest that I refused to acknowledge.Then my brain caught up with my eyes, and I rushed forward."What are you doing?" I demanded, gently taking the spatula from her hand. "You shouldn't be doing things like this in your condition."Isabella groaned, rolling her eyes. "Dean, I'm pregnant, not sick. I can cook a simple meal without collapsing."I turned
XAVIER’S POV“Siri, call my wife.”My phone lit up instantly, the familiar tone cutting through the quiet office as it dialled her number.My wife.The word still felt new… but not wrong in the way it used to when she still belonged to that asshole I call my brother.It had been two weeks since Ari
ARIA’S POV“I want a divorce.”Those were the first words that fell from my husband’s lips the moment I showed him the video… a proof of his balls deep in another woman's cunt.There was no apology, no remorse, not even an attempt to lie or give an excuse. Just those four words that are cold enough
XAVIER’S POV“Pick up. Ian, please… pick up.”I paced across my office, my phone pressed tightly to my ear as the call rang endlessly.He had to know.He had to know that child wasn’t Dean’s before he did something reckless. Before he turned this entire situation into something bloody and irreversi
ARIA’S POV The loud crash from outside my door woke me from a deep sleep, making my heart leap into my throat.I groaned, blinking against the early morning light filtering through the curtains.“Isn’t it too early to piss people off?” I muttered under my breath.Dragging myself out of bed, I shuf







