LOGINInside, Blair sat on the sofa, her hand resting on her slight belly, while Roman stood nearby deep in conversation with Luca. Two-year-old Olivia was showing off her drawings to anyone who would look."Aunt Keira!" Olivia shouted, abandoning her colouring-in to run across the room. Keira bent down,
Olivia, growing restless, wiggled off Blair’s lap. “Can I go play with my blocks?”“Yes, but stay in the playroom,” Roman told her. “I’ll be there in a minute.”As Olivia skipped off, Roman pulled Blair to her feet and into his arms. “You look tired. You should have let me bring someone in to handle
“Mama! Look!”Blair looked up from her laptop to see her two-year-old daughter, Olivia, proudly showing off a crayon drawing that was mostly colorful scribbles.“That’s beautiful, sweetheart,” Blair said, genuinely impressed with the artwork of her toddler. “Is that our family?”Olivia nodded madly,
"Is that what you think?" Niko's voice was dangerously quiet. "That your only value is as a... what? A royal broodmare?""It's the reality of our position," she insisted. "The Wystovian crown needs an heir. You need an heir. And I can't—" Her voice broke.Niko crossed the distance between them in th
"I'm trying to protect him—""From what? From having a choice?" Keira's voice grew stronger. "You're deciding what's best for Niko without asking him what he wants. That's not protection, that's control."Amelia stared at her, startled by the blunt assessment."Look, I get it. The pressure is overwh
Amelia shook her head, the weight of her failure pressing down on her. "The doctors say there's nothing wrong with Niko, which means the problem lies with me. I'm considering stepping aside, letting him divorce me so he can marry someone who can actually give him an heir." She glanced at Keira, sudd
Luca helped her out of the car later that afternoon. His hand steady at her lower back as they made their way up the front steps. He could see she was still tired and clearly still in pain. The doctor had told them Sutton could be in pain for at least another month—not only from giving birth to Mile
And yet, increasingly, it was her unimpressed look that he pictured when he was alone. Keira wasn’t impressed with his title, and she’d tell anyone she wasn’t impressed by him. He liked being around her, even when she was hating him with her eyes. He was surprised she hadn’t quit.The thing was, he
“There was never an us. And there never will be.” His voice didn’t rise. It didn’t need to.She stepped back a little, a shaky laugh escaping her lips. “Okay, well… that’s a hell of a greeting after everything we’ve been through together.”“We were never anything,” Luca said, sharper this time. “You
“Papa.”She turned to face Luca when she heard his voice.She had expected to see Luca with his father, sort of bracing herself to meet the man who hadn’t wanted her in his son’s life. What she hadn’t expected…was that he’d be alone and staring directly at the man beside her.The man with the cane.







