Mag-log inThe fever delays Luna's trip two days.By the time she's back in Harlow, a full week has passed.She slides into the backseat, raising a hand to stop Nathan before he can embrace her. "I am exhausted. Don't move.""Did you rush back for me?" He studies the circles under her eyes."Don't flatter yourself." She leans against the window. "I need to go home. You can just drop me off in the city center, and I will take a cab to the estate.""Am I forbidden from going with you?"Nathan is acutely aware of which "home" she is referring to. Ever since they dramatically secured their marriage certificate, Luna has deliberately avoided visiting her parents."You think my parents want to see your face right now?" Her brother had texted that her mother was unwell—the only reason she pushed through the flight at all. If her mother is hiding an illness from her, it means how disappointed they both are in this marriage.Nathan ignores her instructions entirely, ordering the driver straight through t
By the time they pull into the estate, Julian is already waiting at the front entrance.He wraps an arm around Luna with deliberate possessiveness, glaring at Ethan over her shoulder."I made all your favorites. Eat first."Ethan's expression darkens—until Luna pulls back and grabs his arm."Are you trying to catch pneumonia standing in the wind?"His menace evaporates instantly into something frail and pitiful. "The wind's making me dizzy.""Come inside."Inside, Julian slams a water glass onto the table hard enough to splash over the rim.Luna feeds Ethan his medication. He stays silent through it until she strokes his hair, and only then swallows obediently."Out of water," Ethan notes afterward, shaking the empty glass and looking straight at Julian. "Be a good guess and pour me another glass."A vein rises in Julian's neck, but he pours it anyway, jaw locked, while Ethan rests his head against Luna's shoulder and shoots him a look of pure triumph."Go to sleep early since you too
Stella drags herself back into the penthouse, still reeling from Jade's rejection, when Ethan's jacket—carelessly draped over the coat rack in the foyer—becomes something to cling to.He's been coming to her bed every night for weeks now. If he's still obsessed with Luna, why is he suddenly treating her like a real wife?That thought, together with the secret growing inside her, is the only thing keeping her together.Meanwhile, Harlow's elite circles are drowning in whispers. The famously glacial Ethan Caldwell has begun appearing beside Stella at one high-society gala after another, distant as ever, yet unmistakably by her side.Sympathy pools for Luna, watching her ex secure his happy ending with another woman.But Luna knows the truth.For two months, Ethan has been managing an overseas acquisition. The man in Stella's bed, the man at those galas, is Tom Carson—wearing a flawless disguise.Outside her office, a black Maybach glides to a stop. Tom rolls down the window, smile polis
On the top floor of Caldwell headquarters, a middle-aged woman in haute couture marches toward the CEO's office.The entire secretarial pool freezes—Grace Caldwell rarely sets foot in this building unless there's a gala. Why does she look ready to commit murder?"Ethan!" She shoves the door open without knocking.His assistant halts mid-presentation. Ethan raises his eyes, expression void of emotion. "Step out."The man bows tensely and slips away, leaving mother and son in a vacuum."What in God's name is this will?!" Grace slams her hands on his desk.Ethan leans back, unbothered. "If you lack the reading comprehension to understand legal documents, go ask the author himself.""Everything to you?! He was only in his fifties—how could he prepare this so flawlessly?""Did you honestly believe he'd leave his empire to you?" Ethan's fingers begin a slow, rhythmic tap against the desk."I am asking how he could have arranged this so perfectly!" Grace leans in, forcing the words through h
By the time Nathan is discharged, news of his marriage to Luna has already spread through half of Harlow.It becomes the sort of scandal old money families live for and pretend to despise. The Vane name is suddenly on everyone's tongue, and Mrs. Vane can barely step into a room without being met with thin smiles and pointed congratulations. She returns each one with a face so tight it looks painful.Stella has spent the day buried in arrangements for Richard Caldwell's funeral, so she does not hear the rumors until she walks into the house and feels the shift in the air at once."Mom? Dad? What happened?"Marcus comes in behind their parents, hands in his pockets, expression unreadable. "Someone leaked the wedding."Stella stops walking.Married.With Richard gone, Ethan answers to no one now. Nothing stands between him and a divorce except his own timeline.Except Luna's married to Nathan now."Dad, Nathan's already married," Stella says carefully. "There's no point making this worse
The silence after Luna's confession still hangs over everyone like a sentence.Her parents leave the restaurant shattered, and before the night is over, Nathan ends up in a private hospital room with his face bruised black and blue from her father's rage.Luna stands beside the bed with her arms folded tightly across her chest, forcing her expression to stay cold. Her father nearly beats Nathan to death, and if her mother had not stepped in, the scene would have turned far uglier.Nathan slowly opens his eyes and catches her wrist with a swollen hand. "I thought you were gone," he murmurs, a faint smile tugging at his battered mouth."I stayed because I didn't want you dying and dragging my father into a murder case," Luna says flatly, but the sharpness in her voice cannot hide the knot of emotion choking her chest.Nathan's thumb brushes lightly over her wrist. "Then tell me about the wedding. Summer, or autumn?"Luna gives a humorless laugh and pulls her hand away. "Do you really th
The private room on the second floor of Harlow's most exclusive members' bar is exactly as Luna remembers it—dark oak paneling, low amber lighting, the kind of acoustics that swallow secrets whole. The city's old-money crowd keeps this place for exactly that reason.Luna sits casually at a premium
When the Cullinan finally comes to a halt in front of a safer hotel, Luna steps out into the biting night air without a backward glance. She leaves his vows sitting in the passenger seat exactly where they belong—in the past.She sleeps for two hours that night.By the time Julian calls the followi
Half an hour later, Luna is sitting on the cold concrete steps of the precinct, the adrenaline finally crashing.She is wrapped in a heavy, expensive wool coat that isn't hers—someone had draped it over her shoulders during the bureaucratic chaos, and she had pulled it tight without thinking.Ethan
Ten minutes later, the residual chill of the black Cullinan still clinging to her bare shoulders, Luna finally slides into the plush passenger seat of the other Cullinan—Julian's actual ride."Next time, I'm keeping you in my pocket."Julian says it with a half-laugh, but Luna can hear the thread o







