جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 5

Camille's POV The night my daughter almost died, I was thinking about my thighs. It's a shameful thing to admit, but it's the truth, and I promised myself a long time ago I wouldn't lie to you, not even about the ugly parts. I was sitting in a plastic chair too narrow for my hips, in a dress I'd chosen that morning because Kyrian liked it on me — liked it, not loved it, there's a difference, and I'd learned to hear the difference the way other women learn to read weather — when Dr. Adeyemi came around the corner with a face that told me before her mouth did. "Mrs. Voss." She said it twice before it landed. "I need you to look at me." I nodded. My hands wouldn't stop shaking, so I pressed them flat against my thighs — my too-wide, too-soft thighs, the ones Kyrian's mother once called "healthy" at Thanksgiving in a tone that wasn't a compliment — like that would help anything at all. "Nancy's bloodwork shows a toxin attacking her red cells. Her body can't keep up. If we don't

Camille's POV "Leaving so soon?" Olivia's voice floated down from the top of the stairs before I even had my hand fully around the door handle. I stopped, my palm flat against the frame, and didn't turn around. She came down slow, one step at a time, wearing nothing but Kyrian's shirt, buttoned crooked, her hair still a mess from an hour ago. Her smile didn't reach her eyes. It never had, I realized now. I'd just never bothered to check. "I'm always three steps ahead of you, Cami. Did you know that?" She crossed her arms and leaned against the door frame in front of me, blocking it with her whole body. "You've been getting the perfect things your whole life without even trying. Perfect grades. Perfect family." Her eyes dragged over me, slow, deliberate, the way you'd size up something you were about to throw away. "Meanwhile I had to actually work for what I wanted. Do you know how many rooms I walked into where men looked straight past you and straight at me? You never even

Camille's POV The Argent Ballroom smelled like money and orchids. Crystal chandeliers threw gold light over three hundred careful smiles, and a string quartet worked through something that sounded expensive even if you didn't know the composer. I walked in wearing a gown the color of dried blood, my handbag alone worth more than most people's cars, and not a single head turned twice. That was the whole point of five years. Nobody looks past a woman who looks like she belongs. A silver-haired man in a tuxedo raised his glass toward Kyrian before I'd even found the bar. "To Voss Industry, back from the dead. You've landed the deal of the decade, Kyrian. Siyah Entertainment doesn't partner with just anyone." "We're finalizing the details," Kyrian said, that easy smile sliding into place, the one that used to make me feel chosen and now just looked rehearsed. "But yes. It's shaping up to be a very good year." "A very good year," Olivia echoed, tightening her grip