SHADES OF ICE AND ASHES

LILA’S POVThe Blizzard’s arena faded behind me, but Zane Callahan’s green eyes burned like acid. My boots pounded the icy Chicago pavement, every step feeding my anger. He’d humiliated me, storming out like I was some rookie gossip—monger. Overreacting? That was putting it lightly. He’d exploded, and I’d been the fuse. But those questions weren’t mine. Meredith’s sabotage had set me up to fail, and the realization twisted my gut as I shoved through the revolving doors of Windy City Sports.The newsroom buzzed with clacking keyboards and ringing phones, a chaotic pulse that matched my racing heart. My auburn hair clung to my sweaty neck, and my coat felt like a straitjacket as I marched to Meredith’s glass-walled office. Eyes followed me—reporters smirking, interns glancing away. They knew. Word traveled faster than ink. My fingers tightened around my crumpled notebook, the pages still bearing the scars of Zane’s wrath. Meredith sat behind her glass wall, framed in sleek black lin

LILA’S POVThe Chicago skyline glittered through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the downtown club, but the Blizzard’s charity gala felt like a cage. My heels clicked on the polished marble, each step heavier than the last, as I scanned the crowd for Zane Callahan. The air pulsed with laughter, clinking glasses, and the low thrum of a live band, but my pulse drowned it all out. I didn’t want to be here. But Meredith’s ultimatum of getting Zane ‘s answers or kissing my job goodbye had forced me into this glitzy hell, and the weight of my forced engagement to Ethan Callahan crushed me further. The crowd parted, revealing him. Zane leaned against the bar, a champagne glass dangling from his fingers, his jet-black hair tousled, his green eyes glinting with that predatory edge. His navy suit hugged his broad shoulders, every inch screaming wealth and danger. My stomach twisted—hatred, yes, but something else, something I refused to name. I marched toward him, my auburn hair bouncing agai

LILA’S POV The chandelier was a frozen explosion of crystal above the table, every prism throwing knives of light across the china. Eleanor Callahan walked towards the table with a man by her side as she gestured to the table. “Everyone, this is the woman joining our family,” she said, her voice sweet. “Lila Harper.” The name cracked through the room louder than the crystal ever could. Forks froze halfway to their mouths, conversations died mid-sentence. And about ten pairs of eyes turned to me at once, and I felt every single one strip me bare.I couldn’t breathe.The six-foot-three of living nightmare standing beside her stared at me like he wanted to sniff the life out of me. It was Zane.He leaned against the frame as if he owned the oxygen itself—black suit jacket open, white shirt stretched across his chest, hair a deliberate mess. Those green eyes swept the room once, dismissed everyone, and locked on me like crosshairs.My heart slammed against my ribs so hard I was sure t

LILA’S POV The last guest left and the front door shut with a heavy click that echoed through the house like a judge’s gravel. Silence fell hard but my legs still shook, my thighs felt sticky and cold and the place between them throbbed with every heartbeat. I stood in the dining room holding a stack of dirty plates because I needed something to do with my hands. Anything except look at the people who had just watched my moment of shame. I carried the plates toward the kitchen, porcelain clinked against porcelain and a few green stalks of broccolini slid off the edge and hit the marble floor. I bent to pick them up and my dress rode high on the back of my legs as I felt the air hit the wet skin there and heat rushed to my face all over again. Victoria walked in behind me, her heels were slow and deliberate. She stopped so close that I smelled her perfume, it was something sharp and expensive. “I’m proud of you,” she said. I straightened up fast and turned around, the plates ratt

LILA’S POV His words hit harder than Ethan’s grip ever had. “Tell your boss to send another journalist if she wants this interview so badly, because I won’t be seeing you anymore.” Zane stood three feet away with his arms crossed over my bare skin and his green eyes flat and cold. The same eyes that looked at me like I was everything last night now looked at me like I was nothing. My throat closed up. I opened my mouth and nothing came out. I wanted to scream that this wasn’t my choice, that Ethan bought me, that I never wanted any of this, but the words stuck behind my teeth. He already decided what I was. A liar, a whore, and a problem he could throw away with one phone call. He turned his back and walked toward the hallway. “Lock the door on your way out.” That was it. I stood in the middle of his living room clutching my notebook so hard the spiral dug into my palm. Tears burned hot and fast and I hated them. I hated that he made me cry, I hated that I cared he didn’t w