That night, Jennifer didn’t text him. Not because she didn’t want to but because her fingers trembled too much to form the words. Because whatever had passed between Steven and her mother had altered the air around her, and she knew instinctively that this was not something that could be reduced to glowing screens and typed reassurances, some conversations demanded presence. Steven understood that without being told, he showed up just before midnight. No grand entrance, no security detail and no dramatic announcement. Just the quiet knock at the gate—the kind that said he wasn’t here to impose, only to be let in. Jennifer was already awake, she opened the door herself. For a second, they just stared at each other. Steven looked… different as though he was stripped of armor in a way she rarely saw. His jacket was still on, sleeves rolled back, the faint crease between his brows deeper than usual. He looked like a man who had walked into a storm willingly and come ou

The bell above the gold shop door chimed softly as Dianna stepped inside. The sound felt louder than it should have more like a mark being struck against her name. The shop was small, narrow, and overly bright. White fluorescent lights reflected sharply off glass cases, multiplying the gold within until it seemed to surround her from every angle. Chains lay coiled in careful spirals, rings stood upright in velvet slots, proud and untouched. Bracelets were displayed like heirlooms, each one whispering of ownership, permanence, history. To anyone else, it was just a store. To Dianna, it felt like stepping into judgment. The air smelled faintly of polish, sharp enough to perceive. Her fingers curled instinctively around the strap of her bag. Inside it... hidden beneath a folded scarf she had once admired while standing in front of a mirror in the Guler mansion were pieces that did not belong to her. Not gifts, but stolen. The word clawed at her chest even as she

Dianna had timed it carefully, he had hoped that she would just come home take a look at Leo because she couldn't bear holding on to him while taking care of Jackson so her father's place was the safest place for Leo to be right now. Just a quick look, enough to quiet the ache before she went back to a house that no longer felt like home. She slipped her shoes off at the door, lifting them in one hand as she moved barefoot down the hallway of her childhood home. Every step was deliberate, measured, memory guiding her more than sight. She knew which floorboard creaked and she avoided it. Leo’s soft babbling floated from the dining area. Her heart tightened instantly. There he was. Sitting in his high chair, chubby fingers gripping a spoon far too big for him, cheeks smeared with the faintest trace of mashed fruit. He looked up the moment he sensed her, eyes lighting up in a way that undid her completely. “Mama,” he gurgled, reaching. She crossed the room in three

Two weeks, well, it was fourteen slow, dragging, emotionally stretched days for a lovely young woman. Cassandra had pretended to function like a normal human being, going to work, replying to messages, smiling at neighbors but inside, she had been counting, not days but moments. Moments since Princewill had held her hand, went out with her and made her happy. When he told her over the phone in his masculine voice; “Two weeks. I’ll come see you.” No overpromising, no sweet talk, just certainty! And somehow… that certainty had wrapped around her heart like safety. Saturday afternoon, the sun sat lazily in the sky, warm but not harsh. Cassandra stood by her window, pretending to rearrange the curtain for the fifth time in ten minutes. Her best friend Mabel was sprawled across the bed, watching her like a reality show. “You’re pacing again,” Mabel said. “If you walk any more, you’ll wear a path into the floor.” “I’m not pacing,” Cassandra lied, smoothing her dress. “I

Javier didn’t move, how could he possibly? Not even when someone brushed past him with an apology, or when laughter rose like nothing had shifted. Because for him, everything had changed. His eyes tracked Cassandra across the ballroom with quiet intensity. She wasn’t scanning the room for him as she used to in the past, rather she was listening to Princewill, head tilted slightly, her expression open in a way Javier had never seen during their final months together. When she laughed, her hand touched Princewill’s arm absent-mindedly and natural, it was unforced. Javier’s throat felt dry. “She looks… settled,” someone near him murmured. And it hit him like a slap, definitely she hadn’t just replaced him but had healed past him. Near the tall windows, Cassandra let out a slow breath, city lights flickering below like scattered stars. “I thought I’d panic,” she admitted quietly. Princewill stood beside her, not crowding her, not claiming space that wasn’t offered. “