All Chapters of Lovely Little Liar : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Arianna's Pov The first thing I noticed when I woke up that morning was Noah's breathing. It was wet and sounded like he was having difficulty breathing. I pressed my hand to his forehead, and the heat burning through my palm confirmed what I already feared. He was running a fever. "Mama." His voice was small, and hoarse. He opened his eyes slightly, squinting them to block the sun. "I'm here." I smoothed his hair back and forced a smile even though my heart was doing something ugly in my chest. "Mrs. Kate next door is going to watch you today, okay? Just for a few hours. I need to go to work today." "But mum, you promised to stay home today with me." He said, voice small, and it made my heart feel heavy. I had promised to stay home today with him to make up for not attending his school's PTR meeting, last week. "I promise baby, just for today. I'll get you lots of goodies. I promise. Then maybe we could go to the park this weekend. Good?" He raised a brow, brushing a stran

Arianna's Pov I stared at him. A second passed, then another. The seconds stretched at the edges because my brain refused to process what it just heard."You're married," I said, not as a question, but to process what I had just heard."I'm aware." He responded like it meant nothing."You're standing here telling me that you're going to keep me beside you, and I belong to you?" I said it slowly, like I was explaining something to someone who hadn't heard themselves. "You have a wife, Nikolai.""And you have a lot of nerve," he said, "lecturing me about what I do with my life." He tilted his head slightly. "Given everything."The ‘given everything’ landed the way he intended it to, so I had to close my mouth.He moved to the window. The city stretched out below him, indifferent and enormous, and he looked outside like he was already deciding what to do with it. The light caught the line of his jaw, the set of his shoulders, and I hated that I noticed. I hated that even now, even stand

My brain short-circuited.The questions came at me fast, one after the other, and I stood there processing each one like a person trying to walk through thick fog. How old are they? Don't tell me you have a boyfriend.Nikolai's eyes hadn't moved from my face. They never did when he was thinking. He had this thing where he'd go very still and just watch, like he was giving the room permission to incriminate itself.I thought about confessing. Just for a second, it crossed my mind. A part of me, some tired and reckless part that had been carrying this secret for five years, almost wanted to say it. Just say it. Just put it down.But that part didn't get a vote.Because telling Nikolai about Noah wasn't just telling him I had a son. It was handing him a weapon. The only one that could actually finish me.And everything I'd done — the fire, the body they couldn't identify, the years of invisibility, the jobs that paid just enough, the life I'd built from the ground up with my bare hands —

ARIANNA Pov:You shouldn't have tried to run.The words sat in my ear the whole way to the car. I got in and Niko shut the door close with a thud.What else was I going to do? Stand in the middle of the departure hall and make a scene with my four-year-old son standing right there, watching my face for clues about whether or not to be scared? No. I got in. I pulled Noah in beside me and he closed the door and I stared straight ahead.Nikolai got into the front. His driver pulled out without a word. He understood what Nikolai wanted without saying a word. Now, it was just Nikolai, I and Noah inside."Mama."Noah's voice was small and close. I felt his hand find mine in the space between us, his little fingers wrapping around two of mine the way he always did when he wasn't sure about something but didn't want to say so.."I'm fine," I said, reassuring him.He looked at me. He had this way of looking at me that I had never fully gotten used to, like he was waiting for me to say the true

NIKOLAI PovThe car was already waiting at the curb. I got in without breaking stride, pulled the door shut, and sat back. The leather was cold. The city outside the tinted windows moved past in streaks of light and noise."Anything?" I said.Drev's eyes found me in the rearview mirror. He had been with me for four years and had learned that I asked that question as a baseline, before anything else."A few things, sir. Nothing critical." He paused. "There have been calls, though, from the family residence.""How many." I asked"Six. Miss Arande has been calling since eight."I looked out the window. "The dinner," I said."You're approximately an hour late, sir."I said something under my breath that Drev was polite enough to pretend he hadn't heard, and said nothing further. He merged onto the main road and I sat with the quiet and the city lights and the knowledge that I had, in fact, forgotten about the dinner. Or not forgotten. I filed it somewhere low and left it there.I turned m