Nina and the Ice-Prince

JADEMarcus comes to New York for a conference in November — three days, a hotel near the hospital district, and a schedule so packed Nina has to threaten actual bodily harm to pin down a single dinner.He doesn’t come to the penthouse. I don’t push it. We meet instead at a diner halfway between everyone’s lives, neutral territory, the kind of place with vinyl booths and coffee that’s been sitting too long, and for the first twenty minutes it’s stiff and careful in a way that makes my chest ache with how much I miss the version of us that used to talk over each other constantly.Then Nina shows up twenty minutes late, blaming traffic in a tone that convinces no one, and slides into the booth directly across from Marcus like she planned it, which she absolutely did.“You’re late,” Marcus says.“You’re insufferable,” Nina says. “Different problems entirely.”“I ordered you the salad you hate just to watch you suffer through it.”“I’m sending it back. Waiter!” She’s already flagging some

Last Updated : 2026-08-27

The Locked Phone

JADEIt’s a small thing. It’s always small things that crack a foundation before the whole wall comes down.His phone buzzes on the counter while he’s in the shower, and I glance at it out of habit more than suspicion — we’ve never had rules about phones, never needed them — and the screen shows a missed call from a number with a country code I don’t recognize, and underneath it, a single line of preview text in a language I can’t read.I don’t open it. I’m not the kind of person who goes through someone’s phone. But I remember it — the country code, the unfamiliar characters — and later that night, at dinner, I ask, as casually as I can manage, “Who called you from overseas today?”Something moves behind his eyes. Fast. Gone almost before I catch it. “Work,” he says. “A supplier issue in Osaka.”“You didn’t call them back.”“I will.”“You always call back same-day. You’re annoyingly responsive about work stuff.” I try to keep my voice light, but I hear the edge creeping in anyway. “I

Last Updated : 2026-08-27

A Good day, Almost

JADEThe week before everything falls apart is, ironically, one of the best weeks we’ve ever had.Derek takes an actual vacation day — the first one I’ve ever witnessed, an event so rare Priya sends me a congratulatory text like I’ve accomplished something medically impossible — and we spend it doing nothing, genuinely nothing, sleeping until ten, eating pancakes at noon, watching three terrible movies back to back on the couch while he provides increasingly unhinged commentary on plot holes that I’m fairly sure he’s inventing just to make me laugh.That night we end up on the balcony with a bottle of wine, city lights spread out below us, and he’s quieter than usual, watching me instead of the skyline, in a way that makes my chest go warm and a little nervous at the same time.“What?” I ask, when he’s been silent for too long.“Nothing.” He shakes his head, smiles, something private moving behind his eyes. “I’m just happy.”“That’s a very un-Derek thing to say out loud.”“I’ve become

Last Updated : 2026-08-27

All Chapters of Secret Relationship with my Brother’s best friend : Chapter 31 - Chapter 33

Nina and the Ice-Prince

The Locked Phone

A Good day, Almost