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Elowen PovI sat alone at that table for exactly four minutes before I stopped pretending I was going to finish my wine and left instead.The valet brought my car around while I stood on the curb replaying the last hour in my head, the question still lodged somewhere behind my ribs like a splinter I couldn't work free. Is he mine. Four words, and Caspian hadn't even waited long enough to hear the answer before his entire world had apparently caved in around him.I drove home with the radio off, my hands too tight on the wheel, replaying every version of how that dinner should have ended. In one version, I told him the truth calmly, on my own terms, before he ever had to ask. In another, I never went to that dinner at all, and Noah stayed exactly what he'd always been to me. Mine. Only mine. Uncomplicated by a man who could unravel our entire life with a single phone call to his lawyers.By the time I picked Noah up from Ava's, I'd convinced myself the whole night had been some strange
Elowen Pov Ava insisted on doing my makeup, which meant I had approximately zero say in the final result."You're glowing," she said, stepping back to admire her work while I sat frozen in front of my bathroom mirror. "You never glow. Not even at Xavier's birthday when the open bar was free.""I'm not glowing. I'm sweating. There's a difference.""Keep telling yourself that." She capped the lipstick and handed it to me like a verdict. "It's just dinner, right? A conversation?""Right.""Then why do you look like you're about to walk into battle?"Because I was. Because somewhere between the boardroom and my closet, one dinner had stopped feeling like a conversation and started feeling like the first domino in a line I couldn't see the end of.Noah was already asleep at Ava's by the time I left, tucked into the guest room with Sienna's stuffed rabbit clutched against his chest because he refused to sleep anywhere without something to hold. I kissed his forehead before I left, breathed
Elowen Pov Somehow my mouth remembered how to work before the silence stretched long enough to embarrass me. "Thank you for having me," I said, and I was almost proud of how steady it came out, considering my hands were shaking around the edge of my portfolio. "I'm Elowen Bennett, founder of Bennett Design Studio, and I'm honored to present our vision for the Ashford luxury district." I made myself look away from him. I had to, or I wasn't going to survive the next twenty minutes. I turned instead to the board members flanking the table, to the woman with silver hair near the end who'd introduced herself as head of development, to the two men in identical navy suits who looked like they'd been carved from the same expensive mold. I clicked to my first slide. My voice found its rhythm the way it always did once I stopped thinking and started talking about the thing I actually knew how to do. I walked them through the concept. Open air courtyards that pulled natural light into
Elwoen Pov The name Ashford Global sat in my chest the entire ride home, heavy and warm at the same time, like a coal I didn't want to put down. Noah fell asleep before we hit the highway, his cheek pressed against the window, his mouth slightly open the way it always went when exhaustion finally caught up to him. I kept glancing at him in the rearview mirror of Xavier's car, at the soft rise and fall of his chest, and I thought about how much I still hadn't told him. About his father. About the hole in our story that I filled with half truths and gentle deflections every time he asked. "You've gone quiet on us," Ava said from the front seat, twisting around to look at me. "Just thinking." "About the project or about the mystery billionaire?" "There's no mystery billionaire, Ava. There's a shortlist and a very long shot." "Sure." She grinned like she didn't believe a word of it. "Your long shots have a way of turning into sure things. Remember the internship you swore yo
Elowen POV Four years later "Ms. Bennett, they're ready for you on board." I nodded at the airline attendant and glanced down at Noah, who was gripping my hand and staring wide eyed at the massive windows overlooking the tarmac. Five years old and still obsessed with anything that flew. He'd spent the entire flight from Milan with his face pressed to the glass, narrating every cloud like it owed him an explanation. "Are we home yet, Mommy?" "Almost, baby." My chest tightened at the word. Home. I wasn't sure this city had ever really felt like that, not completely, not since the night I woke up alone in a hotel suite that smelled like him and never saw him again. But it was the only home Noah had ever known outside of hotel rooms and rented flats in cities whose languages I was still learning, so I called it that anyway. The past three years had blurred together in a way that still didn't feel real when I tried to walk myself back through it. Paris. Milan. A six month stre
Elowen Pov My boss noticed that I was pregnant but turned a blind eye to it. I continued to work for her but as I got far along ,it became difficult and I spent more time sleeping. Once my pregnancy progressed to five months,my boss called me and said, “I'm not running a charity organisation here, Mira. I've done my best for you. I also have children to feed. I need to employ someone else to assist me because you've become round and lazy. It's not your fault; it's your condition. You shouldn't have gotten pregnant if you knew you weren't ready. I won't be the one to take care of this baby because I have my hands full and I'm not related to it in any way. Move out and look for work somewhere else.” I went on my knees and pleaded with her but she refused to change her mind. In the end ,I left with my luggage and went back to my aunt's place since I had nowhere else to go. I thought she would be loved with pity if she saw my condition. However,I was gravely humiliated. She gath







