LOGINDamien's first message came at 12:58 AM.DAMIEN: Wait for me. Wait for tomorrow's meeting. Trust me to make this right. Please, Lyra.Lyra stared at the words on her screen, her phone illuminating her face in the darkness of her room.She read them three times. Four times. Couldn't bring herself to respond.His second message came two minutes later.DAMIEN: Lyra? Answer me.Then a third, almost immediately after.DAMIEN: Don't do this. Don't run. Call me.She didn't call. Couldn't call. Didn't know what she would say if she heard his voice.Her phone rang.Damien.She stared at the screen, watching his name flash across it, her entire body trembling. Her thumb hovered over the answer button.She pressed it."Damien," she whispered."Lyra." His voice was sharp, controlled, but there was something underneath it. Something that sounded like fear. Like desperation. Like the mask was finally starting to crack. "Don't hang up.""I...." she started, but the words got caught in her throat.Sh
"Lyra." her father's voice came from behind her, and she turned to see her father emerging from the guest room. His expression was tired, worn down by the weight of everything that had happened. "Go to bed. We'll talk tomorrow. All of us. Together.""But Dad, Mom won't even look at me. I need to explain...""Tomorrow," Victor said firmly, but not unkindly. He put a hand on her shoulder and gently turned her away from Isabella's door. "Tomorrow, Lyra. Right now, your mother needs rest. We all do."He guided her down the hallway toward her room, and Lyra didn't fight him. There was no point in fighting. There was no point in anything anymore.***The room felt smaller than it had before.Lyra closed the door and leaned against it, her breathing shallow. She moved to her bed and sat down, staring at nothing, her mind completely blank.Her phone was on the nightstand, still silent from earlier when she'd turned off the ringer. She picked it up slowly and unlocked it.There was a text mess
Damien met his father's gaze steadily."She's not my biological sister," he said again, his voice hard. "I don't see the problem."Isabella made a sound that was somewhere between a sob and a scream."Listen to yourself!" she cried out, her entire body shaking. "Can you listen to yourself? Do you hear how insane you sound?"She tried to sit up, and Victor had to help her, concerned that the emotion was going to trigger another medical crisis."I raised her!" Isabella continued, her voice hoarse from crying. "I raised her for twenty-two years as your sister! So whether you like it or not, she IS your sister, Damien. And what you're doing to her is pure selfishness. You could have had anyone. Anyone in this world. But instead, you chose your own sister because you're so obsessed with control that you can't even see what you're doing to her!"Her voice had risen to a shout, and Damien saw tears streaming down her face, saw the way her whole body was shaking with the force of her emotion.
He picked up his phone and stared at it for a moment. Then he dialed a number he knew by heart.His father picked up on the second ring."Damien," his father said, and there was something wary in his tone. Caution. Distance."Father," Damien replied. "I wanted to inform you that I'll be visiting the hospital tomorrow to speak with you and Mother regarding the situation with Lyra."There was a pause."Your mother isn't being discharged until tomorrow evening," Victor said carefully."I'm aware. I'll come in the afternoon. We can talk then.""Damien...""I'll see you tomorrow," Damien said, cutting off whatever his father was about to say. "Let Mother know I'm coming."He ended the call before his father could respond.Then he sat back in his chair and stared out the window at the Manhattan skyline stretched out before him. The city was a living thing, full of movement and energy and people living their lives without knowing what was happening in the lives around them.Lyra was at the e
The front door closed behind Lyra with a soft click.She stood in the entrance of the estate, her hands still trembling from the drive back from the hospital. The hallway was quiet, the afternoon light filtering through the high windows casting long shadows across the polished marble floors.Mariana appeared almost immediately, as if she'd been waiting."Welcome home, Miss Lyra," she said gently. "Should I prepare your meal? You must be hungry."Lyra looked at the older woman, at the concern in her eyes, and felt something crack inside her chest again."No, thank you, Mariana," she said quietly. "I don't need anything. I just want to rest.""But Miss Lyra you haven't eaten anything since yesterday""I'm fine," Lyra said, and she knew her voice sounded hollow. "Really. I just need to sleep."Without waiting for another response, she made her way up the grand staircase to her room. Each step felt like it took an eternity. Her legs were heavy. Her entire body was heavy, weighed down by t
Instead, she watched as the phone rang. Once. Twice. Three times.And then it stopped.The silence that followed was deafening.Lyra set the phone down on her chest, her breathing shallow, her mind spinning.The phone rang again thirty minutes later.This time, Lyra picked up immediately."Hello, Mom," she said, her voice small."Lyra." Isabella's voice was tired, weak from the hospital. "Didn't you want to pick up my call earlier?"Lyra's stomach twisted. She could lie. She should lie."I wasn't with my phone when you called," she said quietly. "I'm sorry."There was a pause on the other end. Lyra wasn't sure if Isabella believed her or not."I need you to come to the hospital tomorrow," Isabella said finally. "We need to talk. Both of us.""Okay, Mom," Lyra said."Okay?""Yes. I'll be there tomorrow."Another pause. Then: "Goodbye, Lyra."The line went dead.***The hospital hallway felt longer than it had before.Lyra walked toward her mother's hospital room the next morning, her h
LYRA POV:The plane touched down at JFK with a jolt that matched the anxiety thrumming through Lyra's veins.She'd barely slept during the flight, her mind spinning with questions her mother refused to answer over the phone. Urgent. Family matter. Need you home. The words had echoed through her hea
Her phone screen glowed accusingly in the darkness, her shameful confession staring back at her. With shaking hands, she minimized the app and clutched the phone to her chest, heart hammering so hard she thought it might break through her ribs.Footsteps on the stairs.Light, measured and feminine.
Lyra's fingers trembled as she typed, the blue glow of her phone the only light in her darkened bedroom.LyraNight: I thought about him again today. God, I'm so fucked up.She held her breath, waiting. The three dots appeared almost immediately....her anonymous stranger always responded, no matter
Lyra set her phone down with shaking hands and stood up.Her legs felt weak, her body hypersensitive. Every movement of fabric against her skin made her gasp.She walked to the full-length mirror in her room and looked at herself.Her hair was disheveled from the flight and the stress. Her face was







