Untie Me

Back at the estate, the morning had settled into an uneasy stillness. Two police officers stood in the hallway taking statements from the staff. Mrs. Harris kept pressing the same cup of tea into every hand that would take it.Isabella sat in the small sitting room with her lawyer beside her, hands folded in her lap, looking like a woman waiting for a train."You can't keep me here," she told Lucien when he came in. "Nobody has charged me with anything.""Nobody is keeping you." Lucien stood by the door with his arms crossed. "You can leave whenever you want. The gates are open.""Then I'll have my tea in my own room.""You'll have it here.""Lucien." She said his name gently, the way she used to when he was a boy who had broken something. "Your brother is grieving and frightened, and frightened people say terrible things. I don't blame him. I'm only asking you not to join him.""Where is Eva, Grandmother?""I have no idea.""You said that many times." Lucien didn't raise his voice. "S

Last Updated : 2026-10-24

The Man Who Wasn't Julian

The footsteps stopped outside the warehouse door.Henderson stood in the middle of the room, still holding his phone. Eva watched him closely, noticing how his expression changed when he heard the voice from outside.He had been frightened before, but this was different. He looked like a man who had hoped someone would never come looking for him.“Henderson,” a man called from the other side of the door. His voice was calm, almost conversational. “Open up. It's cold out here.”“Reed.” Henderson swallowed. “What are you doing here?”“Isabella sent me. You know that.”Eva recognised the name immediately. Thomas Reed had driven Isabella for as long as she could remember. He was a quiet man who usually wore a grey coat, opened car doors for her and rarely spoke unless someone addressed him. She remembered seeing him in the garden at the estate, where he used to tip his hat to her whenever she passed.Then another memory surfaced, bringing with it a sudden sense of dread. She remembered th

Last Updated : 2026-10-25

The Woman Who Escaped

“Eva!”Julian rushed inside with Leo and two security men behind him. He stopped when he saw Reed lying on the floor, Henderson bleeding beside the crate, and his wife struggling to free her legs.Henderson immediately lowered the gun and placed it on the concrete before raising both hands.“I didn't hurt her,” he said, his voice unsteady as he looked at Julian. “I swear I didn't hurt her. Please believe me.”Julian barely seemed to hear him. He crossed the room and knelt beside Eva, immediately reaching for the rope around her ankles.When he noticed the cut on her cheek and the blood staining her collar, his expression changed. He touched her face carefully, avoiding the injured skin, before examining her restraints.“Baby, look at me.” He cupped her face gently, searching her eyes for any sign of a more serious injury. “Can you hear me? Are you hurt anywhere else?”She tried to answer, but the moment she saw him, the fear she had been holding back threatened to overwhelm her. Her f

Last Updated : 2026-10-25

The Airfield

The ambulance doors had barely closed when Eva caught Julian’s sleeve, her grip tight despite her weakness."Go," she said, her voice strained."I’m not leaving you," Julian replied, refusing to budge from her side."The doctors are going to keep me for hours, and you'll just stand in the corridor and stare at the wall." She tried to smile, but the raw cut on her cheek pulled painfully, making her wince. "Lucien called you because she’s running. If she gets on a plane, I’ll never hear her confess. I need to hear her say it, Julian. For both of us."Julian looked up at the paramedic, who was currently wrapping a blood pressure cuff around Eva’s arm. "Will she be okay?""Her pulse is steady, and so is the baby’s from what we can gather so far," the paramedic reassured him, keeping a calm efficiency. "But we’ll know more once we get her to the hospital."Julian leaned down, kissing her forehead and lingering there for a long moment. "Leo is staying with you. I’ll be back before they even

Last Updated : 2026-10-27

The Cruelest Truth

Isabella set the cup down deliberately. "I know what I've done."She spoke slowly, maintaining direct eye contact. "I won't pretend otherwise. You’ve clearly seen the offshore bank records, and I’m told Henderson is already talking to the authorities. There isn’t much point in lying anymore."Julian felt the air leave his chest. It was one thing to follow a paper trail of corruption, but it was entirely another to hear her confess to it so calmly, right to his face."Why?" Lucien asked, his voice cracking slightly despite his effort to keep it steady. "Don't give us the speech about protecting the family legacy. What was the real reason?"Isabella remained quiet for a long moment, the wind howling outside the hangar walls. When she finally spoke, her voice sounded thinner, stripped of its usual authority."I started taking from the company when your grandfather was still alive," she confessed, staring at the steam rising from her tea. "Small amounts at first. He was a generous, trusti