Chapter: Chapter 62 — You Don't Decide ThatChapter 62 — You Don't Decide ThatDominic POVI saw Ryan ask her to leave.Not because I was standing beside them, but because I had been watching the corridor from across the room for the better part of ten minutes. The engagement party had been running smoothly on the surface. Guests were drinking, laughing, taking photographs, congratulating the happy couple. Everything looked exactly the way an engagement party was supposed to look. But appearances had become increasingly unreliable around this family, and I had long ago learned that what happened at the edges of a room usually mattered more than what happened in the center of it.I saw Ryan pull Zara aside. I saw Keisha follow shortly afterward. I saw the tension before I heard a single word. Then I saw Zara pick up her bag.That was what made me move.Not because she looked upset. She didn't. If anything, she looked irritatingly composed. Zara had a habit of accepting things she shouldn't accept, not because she lacked a backbo
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-06-07
Chapter: Chapter 61 — The PartyChapter 61 — The PartyZara POVThe engagement party was exactly what it was supposed to be.Beautiful, expensive, carefully arranged to tell a very specific story.Flowers framed the entrance in soft colors. String lights hung from the ceiling, casting a warm glow across the venue. Every table had been positioned to encourage conversation, every decorative detail chosen to create the impression of happiness, stability, and celebration. It was the kind of event that looked effortless to guests because dozens of people had spent weeks making sure it would.I knew because I was one of those people.The styling adjustments Keisha requested at the last minute had given me a legitimate reason to be there. Officially, I was working. Unofficially, it gave me access to every corner of the room, every conversation, every expression people thought nobody was noticing.I arrived early and spent the first hour making final adjustments alongside the venue team. By the time guests started arriving,
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-06-05
Chapter: Chapter 60: The Engagement party eve Chapter 60 — The Engagement Party Eve(Dominic POV)The evening before the engagement party settles into something unexpectedly quiet.Not empty, not strained—just steady in a way that has become familiar without either of us deliberately naming it. Zara is already in the kitchen when I come in, moving through the space with an ease that still feels new in a place like this. There is nothing performative about it. No attempt to turn the moment into something softer or more significant than it is. She is simply there, finishing dinner, as though this has always been part of her life.I take my jacket off and set it aside, watching her for a moment longer than necessary. She notices, of course.“You’re staring,” she says without looking up.“I’m observing,” I reply.“That’s worse.”There is no argument in it, just a quiet exchange that settles easily between us. We eat without interruption, no calls brea
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-06-01
Chapter: Chapter 59: Three days before Chapter 59 — Three Days Before(Zara POV)Three days before the engagement party, I have two photographs.The first one—the gala—is already familiar. I’ve looked at it enough times now that I don’t need to open it to remember the angle, the distance, the intention behind it. The second one arrives the next evening, from the same unknown number.This one is different.It’s taken outside the penthouse building.Not inside, not close enough to suggest access—but close enough to confirm something else entirely. The frame catches me stepping out of the car, Dominic just behind me, his hand briefly at my back again. The lighting is lower, evening shadows stretching across the pavement, but the quality is just as clean.Same eye.Same purpose.I don’t react when I see it.I save it.Then I document it properly—timestamp, source, sequence. I add it to the first one, building a file that is no
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-05-31
Chapter: Chapter 58; The Photograph Chapter 58 — The Photograph(Dominic POV)Zara sends the photograph without commentary.No message layered with reaction. No attempt to frame what I should see when I open it. Just the image itself, followed by a second message a minute later.Sent it to Marcus too.I look at it for longer than I should need.Not because I don’t understand what it is, but because I want to understand how it was taken. Angle, distance, timing. The moment itself is clear—I remember it without effort. Leaving the gala, the room still loud behind us, her attention half on the exit, half on the event she had just finished managing. My hand at her back, not for display, not for effect. Just there.But the photograph turns it into something else.Something composed.Someone was waiting for that moment.I don’t call her first.I call Marcus.He answers immediately.“I have it,” he says before
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-05-31
Chapter: Chapter 57: Eight daysChapter 57 — Eight Days(Zara POV)After my mother leaves the penthouse, I don’t stay.Not because I’m upset in a loud way, or because I can’t sit in that space anymore. It’s something quieter than that. I just know I need distance to think, and Dominic doesn’t try to stop me when I say I’m going to Jane’s. He looks like he wants to ask me to stay, but he doesn’t. He understands when something needs space.Jane opens the door before I knock properly, like she already knew I was coming.“You look like you’ve been thinking too much,” she says, stepping aside to let me in.“I have,” I reply, dropping my bag by the couch.We settle into the living room the way we always do, familiar without effort. I tell her everything. Not in one rush, but in pieces—the knock, my mother standing there, the way she walked in like she had a right to be in that space. What she said. What she didn’t say.Jane listens the way she always does. No interruptions, no rushing me through it.When I finish, she lea
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-05-30
WHERE SIN FEELS LIKE HOME
His hands were everywhere, and I let them be.
“You know this is wrong,” he murmured against my throat.
“I know.” I tilted my head back anyway.
He pulled back, eyes dark. “Tell me to stop, Zella.”
I looked at the silver in his hair, the jaw that could cut glass, my best friend’s father, twenty years too old and a thousand reasons too dangerous.
“Don’t stop,” I whispered.
Seven days before my Christmas wedding, I caught my fiancé with my cousin. By morning I had lost everything, my relationship, my job, my future. I walked into the London rain with nothing left.
A stranger stopped his car. Offered an umbrella. Gave me a drink instead of the mistake I begged for. Then disappeared before dawn.
I never expected to find him again in a darkened hotel room on New Year’s Eve… or to give him the one thing I’d never given anyone.
The next morning, when my best friend introduced me to her father, Evander Ashford looked me in the eye and said, “Nice to meet you,” as if he hadn’t already ruined me the night before.
He is forbidden.
He is twice my age.
He is the one man I was never supposed to want.
But he is the first person who ever made me feel worth keeping, and the only place this broken heart has ever felt safe.
Where Sin Feels Like Home — because sometimes the wrongest man is the only home you’ve ever known.
Baca
Chapter: chapter 51Chapter 51: The Call~zella POV ~"Hey, girlie...""Finally!" Brynn's face filled my screen, pixelated for a second before clearing. She was in her car, sunlight catching the gold in her hair. "I've been trying to reach you all day. How are you feeling? The drug thing—did it mess you up? Are you okay?""I'm fine," I said, and I was surprised at how easily the lie came. "Really. No lasting effects. I'm completely fine.""Good. That's good. I was so worried." She shifted the phone, getting more comfortable against her car seat. "Are you still mad at me? For not telling you about Cole and Dara? I know I apologized, but I've been thinking about it constantly. I just... I didn't want to ruin your happiness.""It's fine," I said, and I meant it. "That's in the past now. We're good.""Thank you for forgiving me," she said, and I could hear the relief in her voice. "I hate that I kept that from you. I hate that I chose silence."If she only knew what I was doing now."So, what about Callum?"
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-06-28
Chapter: Chapter 50Chapter 50: Moving ForwardI was still staring at my phone when the knock came.I knew before I opened the door that it was him. I'd recognize his knock anywhere now, deliberate, patient, the knock of someone who has nowhere else to be.He was holding flowers. Roses, mostly, with white peonies mixed in. The same flowers he'd put in my bath. Behind him was a small gift bag, silver, with a ribbon."Come in," I said.He did, and he handed me the flowers like they were something fragile, like I was something fragile."I might not be sure about my feelings yet," he said, his voice steady in a way that made me understand he'd rehearsed this, "but I know this: I promise I won't hurt you. I'd appreciate it if you let us continue. Let us figure this out together."I took the flowers. I held them against my chest like they could shield me from what was coming."I promise to be faithful with you," he continued. "Sincere with you. Real with you. No games. No calculations. Just us trying to unders
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-06-26
Chapter: Chapter 49Chapter 49: What She Knows~zella pov~"I'm not sure if this is love yet," he said quietly. "But I've forgotten how to love. What I know is that I want you. I've never wanted anyone like this. Not in years."I went very still.He was waiting for me to respond, but the words wouldn't come. I didn't know what to say to that. I didn't know if that was enough. I didn't even know if I had the right to ask for more.I stood up from his lap."I have something to do in my place," I said. "I need to go."He didn't try to stop me. He just watched me leave, and I felt the weight of his gaze following me as I walked out of the penthouse and back into the apartment that he owned but I was supposed to live in.The moment I closed the door, it crashed down on me. The reality. The choice sitting in front of me like something I had to either accept or walk away from.I sat on the edge of my bed and thought about what love actually was.---With Cole, I'd been sure. I'd felt it so completely that I'd b
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-06-23
Chapter: chapter 48Chapter 48: What He Knows~ Evander POV ~I was on my laptop in the sitting room when she walked through the door.I didn't look up immediately, there were emails, correspondence, the usual demands of a life that felt increasingly irrelevant but I felt her the moment she entered. That was the thing that had been happening for weeks now: my entire nervous system registered her presence before my conscious mind caught up. After ten years of solitude, after a decade of being completely self-sufficient and untethered, I'd forgotten what it felt like to have someone matter that much.And then she'd walked into my life soaking wet on a London street, and I'd remembered everything I'd spent ten years trying to forget.I closed the laptop without finishing the email and watched her move toward me. Something had happened. Something had shifted. I could read it in the way she held herself, that wariness, that specific tension that hadn't been there this morning when I'd kissed her forehead and
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-06-17
Chapter: Chapter 47Chapter 47: Questions and Confessions~zella Pov ~I woke to find him watching me.He was sitting in the chair by the window, fully dressed in a dark sweater, and the moment my eyes opened he stood. The morning light caught the grey in his hair, making him look distinguished, patient and completely in control. There was something in his expression that looked almost vulnerable, like he'd been waiting for this exact moment, like my waking mattered to him in a way that went beyond possession or claim."Morning, little trouble," he said.The endearment felt different in daylight. Gentler somehow. More real. Less like a command and more like genuine affection.I jolted up, suddenly aware of time slipping away. "Wait... what time is it?""Eight-thirty. Sunday morning."I stared at him in disbelief. "I fell asleep around noon yesterday. That's..." I did the math in my head, the numbers not adding up correctly. "That's
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-06-14
Chapter: Chapter 46Chapter 46: Princess Treatment.~ Zella Pov ~He carried me to the bathroom like I weighed nothing.My legs were unsteady, my body aching in places I was becoming intimately familiar with, my mind still fuzzy from what had just happened against the wall. I should have felt self-conscious about being carried like this, naked and marked and completely exposed.Instead, I felt claimed.The bathroom door opened and I stopped breathing.He'd prepared a bath.Not just a bath, a statement. The tub was filled with water that steamed gently, and floating across the surface were flowers. Roses, mostly, in shades of deep red and blush pink. White peonies. Something delicate that I couldn't name. Candles lined the edges of the tub, their flames casting everything in soft gold light. The air smelled like jasmine and something floral and expensive, the kind of scent that came from candles that cost money.When did he prepare
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-06-13
Masuk
