Sophia Morgan stopped in the kitchen doorway, heels clicking to a halt against the tile. She looked exactly like every photograph the tabloids loved printing of her, sharp suit, sharper eyes, patience worn thin as old paper. In his old life the sight of her would have sent his heart pounding so hard he could barely breathe. Now he simply watched her the way a man watches a storm roll in, something to note and wait out.Her gaze dropped to the pot on the stove, then to the dirty bowl by his elbow, and her mouth curled with open disgust."You're cooking now?" she said, voice cool enough to frost glass. "What is this, some kind of little performance for me?""It's dinner," Ethan said. "People eat it."He stood and stepped back from the counter without thinking, putting distance between them, and something in him noted with mild surprise that his own body no longer wanted to close that gap. In his old life he would have crossed the kitchen to take her coat like an eager pet waiting for a

Sophia's threats still echoed faintly in his ear when Ethan ended the call, calm and unbothered despite the venom she'd spat at him in her final breath. Let her threaten whatever she wanted. He had more important things waiting for him this morning.He dressed quickly and drove across town to a small coffee shop tucked between two office buildings, parking where he could see through the front window without being seen himself. He remembered this exact morning from his old life, the morning Ryan Kessler had sat right there by the window sharing coffee with a sweet faced neighbor named Chloe Sanders, the same morning that eventually led to blackmail, assault, crushing debt, and finally a rope in Ryan's apartment months later. Ethan had learned about his best friend's death three days too late, arriving at the funeral a stranger after a year of silence between them.Not this time.He watched through the glass as Chloe slipped something small into Ryan's cup the moment he turned to answer

Chapter 6Sophia had always run herself ragged at the office, skipping meals, drinking coffee instead of water, and her stomach had paid the price for years because of it. Ethan remembered how his cooking used to settle her ulcers back when he still bothered trying to help her. He doubted that mattered anymore. She had someone else now to bring her soup when her stomach turned sour, someone with a far prettier face than his own.Ryan left early that morning for an unexpected work call, apologizing twice before he rushed out the door, leaving Ethan alone to get ready for the interview by himself. He studied his reflection in the mirror for a moment, adjusting his collar carefully. Not the ethereal, magazine cover look of Sophia's precious doctor, but a solid, handsome face all the same, one that had simply been buried under years of exhaustion and neglect.The address Ryan sent him led to a glass skyscraper downtown, and something about the lobby tugged at Ethan's memory the moment he

Chapter 8Ethan didn't wait to hear what Nicole would say next. The moment the elevator reached the ground floor he was through the doors and across the lobby before she could call after him. Outside, he swung his leg over his motorcycle, the one he had bought with his own savings long before Sophia's money ever touched his life, and pulled out of the parking lot without looking back.His phone buzzed halfway across the bridge. Gerald Cole's name on the screen."Your aunt's here for dinner," his father said, voice flat and clipped as always. "I expect you at the table by seven.""Fine," Ethan said, and hung up before his father could tack on conditions.He didn't go home right away. Instead he drove east until the streets turned quiet and tree lined, all the way to the cemetery on the outskirts of the city where his mother lay buried under a simple gray stone. He knelt in the grass and pulled a few weeds from around the base of it, smoothing the dirt carefully with his hands."You tol

Chapter 10Whatever Kyle expected to hear from the other end of that phone call, it was not what came next.Sophia's voice cut through the speaker sharp and clear enough that Ethan could hear every single word standing three feet away, and Kyle's face began changing in real time, the charming mask crumbling like wet paper in the rain."Let me be very clear with you," Sophia said, her tone flat and final as a closing door. "I don't know what makes you think you're qualified to work at my company. You have no degree worth mentioning, no work experience that amounts to anything real, and the fact that you called my personal number directly instead of going through proper channels tells me everything I'll ever need to know about your sense of professionalism. You have the manners of a stray cat walking into someone's kitchen and expecting to be fed."Kyle's mouth opened but nothing came out. His hand tightened around the phone until his knuckles turned bone white."And let me add somethin