LOGINRADIELI discharged myself the following morning.The doctor clearly hated the decision.“Mr. Radiel, this is a terrible idea,” he said for what felt like the fifth time, standing in front of me with his clipboard tucked under his arm. “You still need proper rest. Your body has not fully recovered.”I adjusted the sleeve of my jacket slowly, careful not to move too suddenly because every sharp motion reminded me that my body was still far from fine.“I appreciate your concern, doctor,” I said calmly.He frowned harder, clearly hearing the finality in my tone.“I’m serious,” he continued. “You should stay for at least a few more days.”I nodded once.“I understand.”But I had already made up my mind. At this point, I was only standing there out of courtesy.The doctor seemed to realize that too, because he then sighed heavily, rubbing the bridge of his nose as if I was personally responsible for ruining his morning.“At the very least,” he said, sounding defeated now, “stay for a day o
ELYRAThe moment I saw the photograph, my stomach dropped.I recognized it instantly.Not because it was familiar in a vague way, or because it looked like something I had seen before, but because I remembered that exact day.Every detail of it.The clothes I had been wearing. The sunlight coming through the window. Even the strange feeling that had settled in my chest while I stood in that room and saw what I had seen.I slowly lowered myself onto the couch, my fingers tightening around the edge of the envelope.Three years ago.Three whole years.The picture showed me standing inside Nick’s study, leaning slightly over his desk with a stack of papers in my hand. My expression looked tense, almost cautious, like I had been caught in the middle of something I knew I should not be doing.Because I had been.I remembered it clearly now.That day had started so normally.Nick had gone out for the day as usual, and I had spent hours cleaning around the house simply because I wanted someth
ELYRAI stared at my phone for several long seconds, my fingers frozen around it while my chest felt unbearably tight.The article was everywhere.Everywhere.No matter how many times I refreshed, there it was again, spreading faster than I could even process. Headlines twisted into something ugly. Comments piling up faster than anyone could read them. People who knew absolutely nothing about my life suddenly spoke like they had been standing beside me all along.The worst part was not even the lies. It was how quickly people believed them.I shut my eyes for a second and forced myself to breathe.Panicking would not help, not now. I immediately searched for my lawyer’s contact and pressed call.The line barely rang twice before he picked up.“Elyra,” he said before I could speak. His voice already sounded tired. “I’ve seen it.”Of course he had.I swallowed.“So?”There was a pause on the line.“I’m already working on a takedown protocol,” he said carefully, sounding professional as
ELYRAI didn’t sleep properly that night.The night had dragged on in long, restless hours, and instead of lying in bed staring at the ceiling while my thoughts slowly drove me insane, I had buried myself in work—designs, sketches and unfinished projects I had abandoned for days.If my mind refused to rest, then at least my hands could stay busy.The glow of my laptop had become my company sometime after midnight, and I had barely realized how much time had gone as I sat there in front of the laptop.I remembered glancing at the clock at some point.Three-thirty.After that, exhaustion finally won.I barely managed four hours of sleep before my alarm exploded through the room like an angry warning. I jolted awake with a sharp inhale as the sound drilled into my skull.Groaning, I reached for my phone with heavy hands and shut it off.For a moment, I stayed there, face pressed into the pillow, eyes closed.Everything hurt.My shoulders felt stiff, my head heavy, and my body felt like I
ELYRAI didn’t leave the studio until past midnight.By the time I finally shut my laptop and walked out of my office, the building had gone completely quiet. Everyone else had left hours ago. The hallway lights had dimmed automatically, casting long shadows against the walls as though the place itself had decided it was time to rest.But my mind had refused to rest.The entire evening had been swallowed by work, designs, and the heavy thoughts I kept trying to outrun.Unfortunately, none of it worked, because no matter how much I distracted myself, the memory of the man who had walked into my office earlier refused to leave my head.His face, his calm voice, the warning… they all stayed there like a stain I couldn’t scrub away.Outside, the night air hit me immediately as I stepped into the parking lot. The city had quieted down, though not completely. Somewhere in the distance, I could still hear the faint sound of moving traffic.I unlocked my car and slid inside, and I started the
ELYRA.I woke up to the dull, miserable ache of someone who had fallen asleep in the worst possible position and somehow stayed there for a long period.My neck hurt, my shoulder hurt and my cheek…I slowly lifted my face from my laptop keyboard and winced.My cheek hurt too.I blinked several times, trying to clear the heaviness in my eyes while my brain slowly remembered where I was.I had dozed off while working on the desk after I had locked the bedroom last night. Wonderful.I squinted at my laptop screen and frowned.The letter G stretched endlessly across the document. Rows and rows of it.A horrifying amount of Gs.I stared at it for several seconds, then sighed.I rubbed my face and pressed my fingers on the backspace button, deleting what looked like several hundred accidental letters.The screen returned to normal.I leaned back slowly and rolled my neck.Crack.A painful but deeply satisfying sound.“Oh, that’s concerning,” I whispered.I closed my eyes for a second. This
Elyra’s POVI could still feel the sting on my cheek. It wasn’t just the slap. It was the shock of it. The disbelief.She had actually slapped me.For a few seconds after it happened, I just stood there, staring at her as if she had grown two heads. I mean, I had always known she never liked me, bu
ELYRA.I woke up earlier than usual, the room still dim, the house quiet in that heavy way that made every small sound feel loud. For a few seconds, I just lay there, staring at the ceiling, replaying what had almost happened. If he had turned around a second earlier… if I had made one wrong step…
ELYRA.The skies had gone black by the time I got home. The mansion stood tall and still, its lights glowing softly against the darkness. I checked the time on my phone and sighed. Past eight.I had stayed back with the design team to finish the refitting. The new collection pieces needed adjustme
ELYRA.If there was one thing I didn’t expect when I decided to start over in this city, it was how hard it would be to get anything done without influence.I had the money, yes. But the connections? Not so much.And in this city, connections were everything.For the past few days, I had been runni







