All Chapters of Valerio's Secretary: Chapter 1 - Chapter 6

I grip the steering wheel so tight that it makes my knuckles ache. The city blurs past my window—steel towers and honking traffic that feels both familiar and wrong after three years. I should have turned around at the last exit.I almost did.But the envelope in my bag, the one with Liam’s latest daycare bill marked overdue in angry red wouldn’t let me. “You’ve got this,” I whisper to the empty car. The lie tasted bitter.My phone buzzes in the cupholder, and it’s a message from the nanny.Mrs. Rivera: Liam’s fine. He asked again about his daddy. I told him he works far. You okay?I don’t answer. I mean, what would I say? That I was driving straight back into the mouth of the man who had looked at me like a stranger three years ago? That our son—three years old with Valerios’s stubborn chin and my own dark eyes—is the only reason I was doing this at all?I pull up outside the modest brownstone where Mrs. Rivera lives before I head towards doom. Liam stands on the steps in his favorit

Valerio’s POVI can’t get her out of my fucking head.Zara Matthews.Even her name feels like it belongs to my mouth. I stand at the window of my penthouse, whiskey in hand, staring at the city sprawled below me like scattered diamonds. The glass is cold against my palm, and my mind refuses to settle. Every time I close my eyes, I see her, poised in that black skirt, the way her fingers move across the keyboard like she’s done it a thousand times in that exact office. The way she looks at me, not nervous like the others, and not eager to please me.It pisses me off.I take another sip, letting the burn slide down my throat. The no-office-romance policy I’d put in place after the accidents was law, and I wasn’t going to break it myself. It’s there for clarity and control: something I really needed after I’d woken up from that coma with pieces of myself missing and the need to keep everything and everyone at arm's length.Especially women who made my blood run hot for no goddamn reason.

Zara’s POVThe apartment is quiet when I finally push the door open a little after ten. The living room lamp casts a soft yellow glow over the second-hand couch and the small pile of toy cars scattered across the rug. Mrs. Rivera looked up from her knitting, smiling that gentle, knowing smile she always gives me.“He fought sleep, but he’s out now,” she whispers, gathering her things. “Drew three more pictures of the big glass building. Kept saying ‘Mommy’s big important place.’”I nod, throat tight. “Thank you. Really. I’m sorry it’s so late.”She waves it off like she always does and slips out. I lock the door behind her, kick off my heels, and walk down the short hallway to Liam’s room.He’s curled up in his race-car bed, one small arm hugging his stuffed wolf. My heart squeezes so hard it hurts. He looks so much like Valerio when he sleeps—those dark lashes, the same stubborn set to his little mouth. I sit on the edge of the bed and brush a curl off his forehead.“I’m sorry, baby,