MasukEvelyn The hotel suite door hadn't fully closed before Vincent's mouth was on mine.He kissed me the way he'd wanted to kiss me at the altar; I knew that now. The ceremony kiss had been restrained, appropriate, a firm press of lips followed by the polite applause of three hundred guests. This was the real one. The one he'd been holding for hours, through the vows and the toasts and the first dance and the endless parade of well-wishers who shook his hand and kissed my cheek while his fingers dug into my waist beneath the tablecloth.He walked me backwards into the suite without breaking the kiss, his hands tangled in my hair, pulling the pins free one by one, letting the curls tumble down my back. The updo that had taken two hours to construct came apart in seconds beneath his fingers, and I felt the weight of my hair fall around my shoulders and his groan of satisfaction against my mouth."I've been thinking about doing that since the first look," he said, his voice low and rough,
Evelyn POVWe had written our own vows. Vincent had argued against this for weeks, claiming he was not the kind of man who could stand in front of a crowd and say what he felt, which was absurd coming from a man who had sat in front of a camera and dismantled his entire hidden life to save my company. I had told him that if he could do that, he could do this. He had looked at me for a long time and then said Fine, but I'm going to be terrible at it, and I had said I know; that's why I want you to do it.He went first."Evelyn." He cleared his throat. "From the first day I set my eyes on you, I knew I wanted to marry you. Before you, marriage and relationships were topics that weren't too pleasant in the ears because the idea of spending the rest of your life with one person worried me much more than anything, but now I can see it."His voice was shaking, so he had to pause."I don't have poetry for what you mean to me," Vincent said. "I don't have the right words, and I probably nev
Evelyn POVSix months later...My wedding dress was so beautiful that it felt like a sin to even wear it.I stared at my reflection in the mirror, trying my best not to cry; I didn't want to ruin my makeup. A lot has changed since that time. For the first time, I've experienced love in the brightest, sweetest ways ever. Vincent had showered me with love that overwhelmed me so much that occasionally, I'd find myself wondering if it was real. Did I deserve so much of this love?Vincent had proposed to me on a rainy night. He'd been jittery the entire day, occassionally I'll catch him staring at me and when I look towards him, he'd turn away. Well, by evening on the same day, in the quiet of Crescent Harbour beach, he'd asked me to be his wife, stumbling over the words repeatedly before he got it right. And here I was, finally getting married. Margaret Whitmore was in a maximum holding facility that allowed Adrian to visit her twice a month. Isabella was sentenced to fifteen years, al
Evelyn POVGabriel left with the children at eight.Nadia hugged Vincent for so long that Elijah had to physically peel her off, and then Elijah hugged him too, quickly, the way boys do when they're trying not to show how much something means. Vincent crouched down and said something to each of them that I couldn't hear, and Nadia whispered something back, and Vincent laughed, and then they were gone.The house was very quiet after that.Vincent stood in the hallway with his hands in his pockets, looking at the door the children had walked through. He didn't move for a long time. I watched his face and saw the thing he wasn't saying, that the house felt emptier than it should, that two children he'd known for a month had carved a space in his life that would take much longer than a month to fill."She left Mr Buttons," he said."What?""Nadia's stuffed rabbit. She left it on purpose. She told me she was leaving him here so I wouldn't be lonely." He cleared his throat. "I'm fine.""You
Evelyn POVI opened my mouth."Don't," he said gently. "Let me finish. I love you. I have loved you since the day you sat on a bus in Bangria and held a stranger with a gun because you were too afraid to say no and too brave to scream. I'd love you every single second, Evelyn." He paused."And I know you love me, maybe not in the way I love you and not the way I wanted you to love me. You love me the way you love a person who showed up at the right time, held you when you needed holding, and made you feel safe when nothing else did. That's real, Evelyn. I'm not dismissing it. But it's not the kind of love that builds a life."My eyes burned. "Gabriel—""But Vincent loves you better and in the right way that you deserve, more than Adrian or me.""I wiped my eyes. "You asked him to take the children? That's why they're here?""I transferred legal guardianship to him the night before I left. Vincent was the safest person I knew, and I was going into something I might not have come back f
Evelyn POV"Sorry?" I shoved him again. This time his back hit the wall of the house. "Sorry is what you say when you're late to dinner. Sorry is what you say when you forget to return a call. You let me grieve you, Gabriel. You let me think the last time I would ever hear your voice was a voicemail recording, and all you have is sorry?"The tears came then, even though I didn't want them. I had spent weeks training myself not to cry for Gabriel Ross, not because the grief wasn't real but because I knew that if I started, I would not be able to stop, and I had a company to run and a launch to save and a life to keep moving forward. But he was here. He was standing in front of me, warm and breathing and real.I pressed my forehead against his chest and cried.Gabriel's arms came around me. He held me the way he had always held me, completely, as if the act of holding was something he had practised his entire life and only ever perfected with one person. His chin rested on top of my hea
Vincent POVThe conference room at Hayes Acquisition was organised chaos.I sat at the head of the table, reviewing the final details of a merger that had taken months to negotiate. My team was scattered around the space—some standing, some seated, all of them focused on the documents in front of t
Evelyn POV“What’s fuck, Gabriel?” I demanded as he got out of bed. “You’re confusing me.”He dragged a hand through his hair, then muttered something under his breath that sounded like a curse. Then again.“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”He stopped, turned sharply and punched his fist lightly against the wall
Evelyn POVThe first thing I became aware of was pain.A dull, throbbing pain at the back of my head made it difficult to think clearly.My eyelids felt heavy, weighed down by something. I tried to open them but I couldn’t. Eventually, I managed to crack them open, blinking as I tried to make sense
Evelyn POVHe led me upstairs to a luxurious bedroom with a king-sized bed and windows overlooking the city."I'll let you get settled," Gabriel said, turning to leave.“Gabriel,” I called out quietly.He turned to look at me, his eyes flashing with impatience. “Evelyn, this is a bad idea. I know I







