로그인The Trail WidensCamilla POVMy contact called at midnight, which was either very good news or very bad news, and after the week I'd had, chasing shadows and covering tracks that kept multiplying faster than I could bury them, I wasn't feeling particularly optimistic. "Hospital records," he said, his voice flat and businesslike, the way it always was when he'd earned every dollar of his fee.'Birth certificate.Everything you wanted, delivered exactly as promised."And what?I put the phone to my ear and walked the length of my kitchen on the cold marble in bare feet. "Father's name is blank."I closed my eyes and exhaled slowly, letting the information settle in. Blank meant intentional.Blank meant Ariana had made sure there was no paper trail connecting that boy to Sebastian, which told me she’d known, or at the very least suspected, exactly what she was protecting him from the moment she found out she was pregnant.“Something else,” he added, and his tone shifted, becoming cautio
Confrontation Ariana's POVThe next morning, before I could even finish my coffee, Kylan had beefed up security. Two new cars followed Jason’s way to school. A plainclothes officer stood by the door, introduced to Jason with great pomp as 'part of a special mission' - a story that had thrilled my son to the point of ecstasy, and made the whole terrifying situation, for one small mercy, seem like a game a five-year-old could survive without ever understanding what it really meant.I'm not so fortunate. I understood it on every level, and not one of those levels lets me breathe easy.By ten o'clock, Sebastian was standing in the lobby of my office.Skylar barreled through the door without knocking, and that told me everything before she could say a single word.He's downstairs. “And the security's are holding him at the desk, but he's not leaving”.He says he'll wait there all day if necessary.Skylar said.”"Let him up," Ariana said, setting down her pen, with a steadiness she did
Too CloseSebastian’s POVI told myself I’d pass the school. One time. To observe it. Just that.I didn't intend to stop.But then the black gates appeared, kids pouring out in a wave of backpacks and noise, and something in my chest tightened enough that I had to park across the street before I'd consciously decided to.I didn't know what he looked like. That part got me the most, sitting there scanning a crowd of children for a face I had no reference for, looking for myself in a stranger's.Then I saw her.Ariana emerged from a car near the entrance, sunglasses on against the overcast sky, moving through the crowd with the same unhurried authority she brought to any boardroom. A boy broke from the pack of kids and ran straight toward her, backpack bouncing, dark hair falling over his eyes. She knelt to meet him halfway. I couldn't hear what he said, but I watched him talk with his hands, animated, serious, the way children are about things that feel enormous to them and nothing a
Blood and BloodinesSebastian's POV I came in to find my mother sitting already, tea untouched in front of her, spine straight as a blade. "You said this was about Ariana's son," I said, not bothering to sit. "It is." "Say it." Isabelle studied me a moment, the way she always did when she was deciding how much truth I could handle."Have you counted, Sebastian? The boy's age?" Something in my chest went very still. "Say what you're really saying."He's five. Ariana left this city six years ago. Her tone was flat, clinical, as if she were reading a quarterly report and not blowing my entire understanding of the past six years. Not that hard to figure out." I lowered myself down slowly, and the room tilted a little. You're saying he's mine. It could be, I'm saying. I'm telling you to find out before someone else does it for you." I thought of the boy in the photograph I had seen, only heard about, secondhand, through gossip columns and board members pretending not to whisper. A
The MessageCamillas POVI got a message from the person who works with me at FrosTech's public relations company. I read the message two times before I allowed myself to feel happy.Isabelle Frost wants to meet with me. She wants to meet tomorrow. She has seen the picture.It is no surprise that she has seen it. Isabelle Frost always finds out about the things that might hurt her son's business. She usually knows about these things before Sebastian does.I put my phone down. Poured some more wine into my glass. I thought about what this meeting might mean. I did not plan to talk to Isabelle Frost soon.. It is good to have someone on my side, even if I didn't plan it. Now nobody wants Ariana Frost to be gone more than Isabelle Frost does. She tried to get rid of Ariana FrostI wrote back one word. Confirmed.Then I sat back. Felt good, about the things that are starting to happen. The things I have been working on are finally coming together.Isabelle's point of viewI hadn't been in
What The Cameras Can't SeeAriana’s POVThe street security footage took three hours to retrieve, and by the time it landed on my desk, I had already convinced myself that I wouldn't like what I found.I didn’t.The man in the black SUV had sat in the same spot for four nights in a row. Always at night. Always gone by dawn. His face was never pointed at the camera, not once, as if he knew precisely where it was mounted.“Professional,” Kylan said, leaning over my shoulder to watch the footage loop again. “Or well-paid,” I said. "Amateurs catch lucky angles. "This one never slipped.Skylar said standing near the door. "Should I get the police involved?" Not yet." I froze the footage on the clearest frame, a blurred jaw, a gloved hand. "The second we go official, whoever hired him disappears and we lose our only lead.Kylan stood up straight. “Then we pull the thread ourselves.”“Delicately.”"When have I ever been anything but?"I nearly smiled. Close.Skylar cleared her throat. It's a
Sebastian’s POVSomething was wrong with my company FrosTech. I had felt it long before the reports ever confirmed it. It had been going on for years, causing instability in the company, making me struggle to keep the company afloat. And if I was going to be honest with myself, it all started sho
Ariana’s POV (Six years later)After six years away, the city of Los Angeles still looked the same, smelled the same, and even felt the same to me.And although the place hardly forgot a scandal, especially one linking to one of the most powerful families in the city, it didn’t recognize me.There
New City, New ProblemsAriana’s POV This city didn’t know me, and that was exactly why I had chosen it. Here, there were no scandals, no headlines, and no judging eyes following my every move.I stood by the small window of my tiny motel room, watching the unfamiliar streets below.Everything went
The Cheating Scandal Ariana’s POV Morning came too quickly.I woke up to the incessant vibration of my phone against the bedside table, the notification sound cutting through the little sleep I’d managed to steal.My head throbbed faintly as I reached for the phone, my eyes still heavy with sleep







