bChapter /bb254 /b

    OLIVIA’S POV

    Staring at him, I could see the shock written all over his face, as though every word bthat /bbhad /bjust left my lips was something foreign, something he could never imagine hearing from bme/bb. /bHis eyes widened slightly, his jaw tightened, and for a brief second, I bsaw /bthe flicker of bdoubt/bb, /blike he was trying to convince himself that I was the one who had lost grip of reality.

    “Listen, you’ve got everything all mixed up,” he said, his tone firm but not angry, the kind of voice a man uses when he’s desperate to be believed.

    But before I could even form my reply, my attention shifted. Movement behind him caught my eye – subtle, almost too subtle but my instincts sharpened instantly. Someone was crawling through the back, moving slowly and deliberately, toward the same space Adrian and I were.

    And then I saw her.

    It was a woman.

    I leaned slightly to the side, craning my neck just enough to get a clear look at her face, and the moment her features registered in my mind, my eyebrows shot upward. Recognition hit me like a bucket of cold water, but instead of freezing me, it ignited something far hotter. My blood boiled, my breath caught in my chest, and I felt the me inside me roar back to life.

    Her.

    It was her.

    The audacity of that woman to set foot in mypany… The sheer gall of her to even dare cross the threshold of this building, let alone walk so brazenly into an event where every eye

    the invitations had spread could fall upon her. I knew this ceremony was open to everyone far and wide, businesspeople, allies, even rivals but this? I never once expected her to show up. And worse Adrian too?

    –

    If I had known… if I had even suspected… I would have given the guards strict orders from the beginning. I would have told them to bar those two froming anywhere near the doors. But it was toote now. Toote. They were already inside. They were here, breathing my air, disrupting my peace.

    My eyes snapped back to Adrian.

    He sat there next to me, staring with his convincing expression, feeding me his carefully chosen lies, pretending as if he was innocent in all of this. And yet he dared to bring her here? That woman?

    b17:25 /bbThu/bb, /bbSep /bb4 /b

    M

    My chest tightened with fury, because the truth pressed heavily against my heart. The bsame /bWoman Isadora was responsible for everything. She was the reason Charlie’s brother bwas /bdead. She was the reason my world had cracked apart in ways that could never be fully mended. If not for her, if not for her selfish, cruel hand in it all, I would have had two blessings today. My son would not have been robbed of someone who should have been bhis /bprotector.

    And now she was here as if she had every right.

    My hands curled into fists, The heat rising inside me was almost unbearable, and a single question burned its way across my mind.

    Did she have a death wish? Did she truly want to tempt fate by stepping into my world again?

    I tilted my chin up, unable to hold my silence any longer. My voice came out sharp, cutting through the murmurs of the room like a de.

    “Speak of the devil,” I muttered, my gaze locked on her every movement.

    Adrian’s brows furrowed. His face shifted from confusion to something darker. At first, he didn’t understand, but then, slowly, he followed my eyes. He turned his head back and caught sight of the exact same thing that had set my blood on fire.

    I didn’t miss the way his body stiffened. I didn’t miss the way the color drained slightly from his face.

    “What?” he breathed, his voice breaking into the quiet between us. It was barely a whisper, so soft I almost thought I imagined it but I heard it. I heard the shock and the disbelief tangled inside that single word. He hadn’t expected her either, or at least that’s how it sounded.

    But I didn’t care about his surprise.

    I leaned forward, my voice low butced with venom, every word carefully chosen to cut him where it hurt.

    “You’re over here talking with me,” I said slowly, “while your mistress is all alone over there. But don’t worry she’sing for you now. So go talk to her, Adrian. Go run back to her, and stay away from me and my son.”

    “Wait, I didn’te here with her,” Adrian said suddenly, his voice tight but controlled. His eyes, however, told a different story. They were wide, unblinking, fixed on Isadora as though she were some ghost that had crawled out of his past and walked straight into the present.

    When she realized Adrian was staring at her, her lips curled into a smile. Not a shy one, not even a polite one. It was the kind of smile that carried secrets, a smile that knew it was being watched. And yet, Adrian didn’t smile back. He just kept staring at her, his expression a

    mixture of shock and something deeper pain, maybe.

    CSX

    I didn’t even bother answering him after that. What was the point? I decided it was safer, smarter even, to stay quiet and mind my own business. The tension in the room was already unbearable with these armed men blocking every exit, waving their guns at anyone who dared to twitch too much. If not for the fact that they were here, that they had us trapped in ce with their weapons gleaming under the dim lights, I swear I would have killed one iof /ithem right then and there just to release some of the rage building up inside me.

    Adrian’s voice broke through again, low and cautious this time, the kind of voice a man uses when he doesn’t want to draw the wrong kind of attention. “What are you doing here? And how did you know I was here?” His tone wasn’t angry yet, but it wasn’t kind either.

    Isadora stopped once she was close enough to answer him. Her eyes flicked briefly in my direction, but she didn’t dare hold my stare. She knew better. She knew whatever storm I was holding back was something she didn’t want to get caught in. Because one day, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but one day, I’d do things to her that she would never seeing.

    “Babe,” she began, her voice soft, calm, almost dripping with affection. “Why are you saying this while seeing me here? This is an open ceremony, so I have every right to be here. And I came for you too. Can we talk?”

    Her words were so gentle, so filled with a fake kind of love, that for a moment it almost sounded like she believed them herself. But I wanted tough. Talk? During a robbery? With men pacing around us, rifles clutched in their hands, barking orders at the terrified guests? Who in their right mind thought now was a good time to sort out old heartbreaks?

    Can’t they see their lives are hanging by a thread? Can’t they hear the fear in the room, the shaky breaths, the suppressed cries, the sound of jewelry and wallets being emptied into bags?

    But that was their business, not mine. I forced myself to look away, tightening my grip around my son. His small body pressed against mine was the only thing keeping me steady. My whole focus should have been on protecting him, making sure he didn’t panic, making sure he didn’t draw attention to us. Yet no matter how hard I tried to block them out, their conversation kept slipping into my ears, pulling me in like a ma.

    “Don’t call me that,” Adrian shot back, and this time his voice carried more bite. His words sliced the air between them like a de. “I’ve told you already, you lost the right to call me that years ago. The day you lied to me about the pregnancy.”

    Thosest words hung in the air, heavy, impossible to ignore.

    My whole body stiffened. That single word pregnancy snatched me out of my attempt to stay calm. My head turned slightly, almost against my will, toward their direction. My heart thudded once, hard and loud. What did he just say?

    What was he talking about

    68400

    that she lied about the pregnancy?

    biAD /i/b