The Things We Don't Say

CHAPTER 41ARIANA'S POVI read Damien's message three times before I decided that I didn't like it.Not because he had told me something I didn't already suspect, but because he had somehow managed to tell me a great deal while leaving out the one thing I desperately wanted to know.I found someone who knew your mother.She confirmed that your mother visited the child several times, including after the transfer.My father signed the placement acknowledgment.That was all.No explanation of what the document contained, no mention of where the child had been taken, and certainly no answer to the question that had been keeping me awake for days.Who was Vanessa?I sat on the edge of my bed, my phone resting in my palm as I reread the messages. Outside my window, the morning was already beginning to settle into the familiar noise of the neighbourhood, with distant voices drifting through the air and someone downstairs arguing with a delivery rider. Ordinarily, those little sounds would ha

Last Updated : 2026-10-15

The Space Between Us

CHAPTER 42DAMIEN'S POVI read the message Marcus had sent me twice before putting my phone down.Margaret Ellis had received a warning from an unknown caller, someone who knew enough about our conversation to understand exactly what she had told me. They hadn't threatened her directly, which somehow made the situation worse. Whoever had contacted her had been careful with their words, careful enough to make the warning sound almost reasonable, as though they were offering her an opportunity to protect herself rather than reminding her that someone was watching.I had spent years dealing with people who preferred threats to honest conversations. I knew the difference between an impulsive warning and a deliberate attempt to control the outcome of an investigation.This was the latter."Find out who contacted her," I told Marcus when he called back. "Check her recent calls, speak to the staff at the residence, and see whether anyone visited her in the last few days. Quietly.""And the d

Last Updated : 2026-10-16

The Truth She Left Behind

CHAPTER 43ARIANA'S POVThere was something unsettling about holding a photograph of a child whose face someone had deliberately erased.I couldn't stop looking at it, even after Damien had carefully placed it inside a folder and told me he wanted to examine it properly before we drew any conclusions. The photograph was old, its edges slightly curled, but the damage across the child's face looked deliberate enough to make my stomach twist.Someone hadn't wanted her recognised.Someone had wanted to make sure that, even if the photograph survived, the child herself would remain a mystery.And my mother had kept it.I sat in the passenger seat of Damien's car, watching the streets pass by while my mind returned to the five words written on the back.She deserves to know the truth.Victoria Kingston had written those words on October 15, 2005, the day after the visit to Westbridge. She had kept the photograph for years, hidden it among her belongings, and apparently never told her son wh

Last Updated : 2026-10-17

The Question Between Us

CHAPTER 44ARIANA'S POVI spent the entire drive back to my apartment pretending that nothing had happened.It was surprisingly difficult, considering I had a message on my phone suggesting that someone in Damien's family might have been responsible for putting a child in danger, and the man sitting beside me was the only person I knew who could help me understand what it meant.Every few minutes, I found myself glancing at him, wondering whether I should simply show him the messages and let him decide what to make of them.Then I remembered the last line.Ask Damien who had access to his mother's house on October 15, 2005.It wasn't an accusation, exactly. It was a question designed to make me suspicious, and the more I thought about it, the more I wondered whether that was precisely what the sender wanted.Whoever was contacting us knew enough about the investigation to predict what we would discover next. They knew about Margaret, the placement records, and the photograph Victoria

Last Updated : 2026-10-18

The Woman Who Came That Night

CHAPTER 45Damien's POVI had learned a long time ago that my father had a talent for making silence sound like an answer.It was one of the things I hated most about him.He could sit across from you, look you straight in the eye, and leave you feeling as though you had asked the wrong question simply because he had no intention of answering it. Growing up, I had mistaken that habit for wisdom. As an adult, I knew better.It was control.And lately, I had begun to wonder how many things in my family had been buried beneath it.I stood in my mother's study with her diary open on the desk, staring at the entry dated October 14, 2005. I had read those words so many times that morning they had begun to feel less like a discovery and more like an accusation.I have agreed to take responsibility for what happens next.My mother had written that she hoped the child would one day understand that none of it had happened because she was unwanted.Why would she have needed to reassure a child w

Last Updated : 2026-10-19

The Woman My Mother Feared

Chapter 46 Ariana's POV I woke up with Damien's voice still in my head. It was embarrassing, honestly, how easily that man had managed to occupy a space in my mind that I had spent weeks trying to keep empty. Even after our conversation the previous evening, I had lain awake thinking about the things he had said, the things I had almost said in return, and the way his voice had softened when I admitted that I wasn't ready to explain everything I was feeling. Maybe because I don't want you to stay away. I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling. It would have been so much easier if Damien Kingston were simply an arrogant, emotionally unavailable billionaire who enjoyed making my life complicated. I could have disliked him in peace, avoided him at family dinners, and focused on the much more important business of surviving medical school without having a financial breakdown every other week. Unfortunately, he had to be thoughtful. He had to remember little things I said, n

Last Updated : 2026-10-20