Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 21 - Chapitre 30

ARIANNA My grip on Noah tightened and I took a deep breath to calm my nerves as she stood across, dressed in a fitted black gown hinting at the quiet elegance I've always heard about her.Her hair was tied into a sleek bun, two strands dropping off her face with her lips painted in red. “We meet again,” her words came out with a suspicious calm while I shut my eyes in a bid to stop my heart from racing.“It isn't what you think it is,” I said as soon as I found my voice. Then I took a step, “we were just leaving.”“We?” The word dangled off her tongue as her eyes roamed Noah. “That is surprising. I never knew Nikolai to be attracted to a woman with a kid. Even more surprising he would bring you home,” she scoffed as she stepped forward, “must be a really sweet honeypot, huh?”My jaw tightened and I instinctively blocked Noah's ears, “watch your words. A child is here!” I warned and shook my head. “I don't know whatever it is you have with your husband and I think it's very degrading

NIKOLAI “He would find out soon,” with a kick, the door burst open and Mrs Kate's eyes widened as she froze on the phone. Then like nothing, she ended the call. “Give me a second.”As the call ended, I dashed towards her, pulling the phone from her grip. “You were suspicious. That was certain.”“I only cared for her,” she protested as I reached for the phone, and at the digits on the screen, my eyes narrowed.I inputted it on my phone next and when the owner appeared, I froze.I blinked hard, trying to see if the name would change. But it didn't. It never did. Because it was real.Silence settled around me like a storm.Him.He knew she was alive.He knew she wasn't dead and he kept the secret.My jaw flexed with explosive anger as I took my eyes to Mrs Kate then headed for the door. “Stay with her. Make sure she tells no one,” I dashed outside but as I reached the car, a silent scream escaped my lips.He knew everything.He knew she lived.He knew her death was fake yet he watched m

ARIANNA POV My thumb hit the end call button so fast I almost dropped the phone.Nikolai's eyes were already on my face when I looked up. He hadn't moved. He just stood there at the bottom of the staircase with that stillness he used when he wanted you to feel like the room was closing in.It worked. I hated that it worked."Who was that?" He asked, not as a question."None of your business." I tried to keep my expression neutral.He crossed the room in four steps and held out his hand. I looked at it, then I looked at him."Give me the phone, Arianna." He said, his voice calm.I didn't move fast enough and he took it anyway, his fingers closing around it before I could pull it back. I let him because fighting over a phone wasn't worth it. He was going to look regardless.I watched his eyes drop to the screen. I watched him study the number. It wasn't saved — I had been careful about that — so all he had was the digits and whatever story he was going to build around them."Who is thi

ARIANNA PovI couldn't sit down.I had tried twice and both times I was back on my feet within seconds, moving from the window to the wall and back again, my arms crossed over my chest like I could hold myself together by force.Noah was asleep on the bed behind me. I had pulled the blanket up around him twenty minutes ago and he hadn't stirred since. His breathing was still a little rough but it had evened out, and the fever felt lower than yesterday. Small mercies.I stopped at the window and looked out at nothing.I pressed my fingers to my mouth.The fire hadn't been an accident. I had felt that from the moment the smoke started pouring under the door, something in my gut telling me that this was deliberate, that someone had made a decision. I just hadn't had a face to put on it.Now I did.I thought about what would have happened if I hadn't woken up when I did. If Noah had slept through the smoke for ten more minutes. If no one had been close enough to hear.My chest tightened s

NIKOLAII drove too fast. I knew it and I didn't slow down. I moved through the city with my hands tight on the wheel and my jaw tighter, and I let the rage sit in my chest and burn because it was the one thing I wasn't going to try to manage right now.A man nobody recognised had walked into a room in my building. Past my men. Through my security. And he had left food that would have killed them both.Both of them.Noah's face surfaced without permission. The way he had reached for that spoon with the hunger of a child who had no idea. The way his eyes had gone wide when I knocked it away.I pressed harder on the accelerator.I had done a lot of things I wasn't proud of. I had made decisions that were ruthless and cold and entirely deliberate. But there was a line. There had always been a line. And whoever had drawn up the plan to put poison in front of a four-year-old boy had just shown me exactly who they were.The gates of the house opened before I reached them. Someone had seen m