ANMELDENCaspian pov
I couldn't get to sleep. I was hot and restless after devouring the beauty beside me. I swear she was so amazing. I stepped out of bed. I was about to take a shower when I received a phone call from our house keeper at home. She told me that my father had a heart attack. Elowen caught my eye. I didn't want to abandon her. I wanted to be the first person she saw when she woke up. She and I had unfinished business,but I needed to leave because my father meant a lot to me even though we rarely talk. I couldn't take my shower anymore. I dashed downstairs. I called my driver, Micheal, and asked him to bring the car,but he reminded me that I had told him to go home last night. “Fuck.” I couldn't find anyone to help drive me at 4 a.m,so I decided to call a cab and immediately it arrived. I threw a stack of cash at the driver and took over the wheels and hurried to the hospital,but I couldn't see properly on the way. I lost control of the car and struck something,and everything went blank. Elowen POV I slowly opened my eyes. The bright morning sunlight streamed through the curtains, piercing through my pounding headache. Blinking a few times,I realised I was lying on a luxurious king sized bed and this wasn't my room but something felt off. I tried to move,but I couldn't. It was so painful,panic started to creep in as I struggled to recall the events of the previous night. Memories were hazy and fragmented,like shattered pieces of a puzzle that refuses to come together. I sat up gingerly.my head spinning as I surveyed the unfamiliar room. The walls were adorned with abstract paintings,and the furniture exuded an air of opulence. It was clear that I wasn't in my own home,but whose place was this? And how did I end up here? The room itself was pristine,with no signs of a wild party or any other people. I glanced around, searching for any clues that could help me piece together the puzzle. My mind raced, desperately trying to recall anything that would shed light on my current situation. But the memories remained frustratingly elusive ,locked away in the depths of my alcohol addled brain. Feeling a mix of confusion and unease,I swung my legs over the side of the bed and gingerly stood up. The cold wooden floor sent a shiver up my spine,but it helped to ground me in the reality of the moment. I took a deep breath, attempting to steady myself and push away the remnants of the lingering hangover. Then I made my way to the bathroom,where I eventually brushed my teeth and took my bath and that's when everything clicked. I remembered everything about the handsome stranger,I couldn't help but smile. I went into the kitchen and living area,but Rowan was nowhere to be seen. I waited for a while but he didn't return. I decided to return home and Ava was pleased that I was not a virgin anymore. She was curious about Rowan,but I didn't know what to tell her. I refused to believe the obvious,but the fact that few of his belongings were still in the suite gave me hope. When I returned to the hotel after a week, Rowan was not there. I had left his suite exactly as I had found it. I kept coming back in the hope of seeing him again,but he was nowhere to be found. The last time I visited,along with Ava,the receptionist informed us that a man checked out two days before. I was really disappointed,but I simply accepted it for what it was. I was just meant to be a one night stand. We had a fantastic time and that was the end of it. Things went on, I started working as a waitress in a restaurant and I even moved out of my aunt's house,everything seemed to be going well until,a month later,I began to experience morning sickness. I couldn't stand it any longer,so I decided to go to the nearest health center and find out what was wrong with me. However the doctor handed me the test results and said"Miss Bennett ,you are four weeks pregnant.” I instantly got up and my eyes widened in shock as I exclaimed,”pregnant?” I suddenly freaked out,” No doctor! This cannot be! This pregnancy is going to ruin my life. Please help me,I need to get rid of it. I cannot keep it.” “You need to calm down,”the doctor replied."If you want to get rid of this pregnancy,it can be done. However,we need the consent of the father or your parents. But I'm not married,and he doesn't even know and I am an orphan,”I replied. “I'm sorry,but that's the hospital policy. The doctor responded. As I left the health center and returned to my workplace,I decided that I would hide my pregnancy from everyone, even Ava. I didn't want to bother them with my problems. Besides, she went to visit Xavier's parents outside the country and they wouldn't be coming back till about three months time. I worked like nothing had happened but the constant morning sickness made life difficult for me. Nevertheless,I continued to not beat and did whatever I could to get tips . Two months later,after gathering a sufficient amount of money,I planned to visit the hospital the next day for the abortion and made plans for someone else to cover my shift. However when I went to the hospital the next day I was suddenly filled with so much fear,I heard about people that died from abortion and I knew nothing about the process. What if I died?. I wanted to live and being a single mother no longer seemed like a terrible fate to me and in the end I couldn't go through with it and ran away. I made up my mind to keep the pregnancy but it wasn't easy. I had so many cravings that all the money I had saved up was used and I still needed more money.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
Caspian pov I couldn't get to sleep. I was hot and restless after devouring the beauty beside me. I swear she was so amazing. I stepped out of bed. I was about to take a shower when I received a phone call from our house keeper at home. She told me that my father had a heart attack. Elowen caught my eye. I didn't want to abandon her. I wanted to be the first person she saw when she woke up. She and I had unfinished business,but I needed to leave because my father meant a lot to me even though we rarely talk. I couldn't take my shower anymore. I dashed downstairs. I called my driver, Micheal, and asked him to bring the car,but he reminded me that I had told him to go home last night. “Fuck.” I couldn't find anyone to help drive me at 4 a.m,so I decided to call a cab and immediately it arrived. I threw a stack of cash at the driver and took over the wheels and hurried to the hospital,but I couldn't see properly on the way. I lost control of the car and struck something,and







