로그인I sat up straighter.My fingers stopped around my glass of water.There was no message first. No careful sentence I could read five times before answering.Just a call.I picked up the phone before my courage found somewhere to hide.“Adrian?”“Hi, Jas.”“How are you?” I asked immediately. “Where are you?”On the other end, I heard the soft sound of a door closing. Then footsteps.“I’m at the office,” he said. “Fontvieille.”“The office?”“I went home for a bit. Showered. Changed clothes. Stared at the ceiling like a man who’d just received a terminal diagnosis from PowerPoint.” He let out a short breath. “Then I came here.”“Did you sleep?”“A little.”“That’s a man’s answer for no.”“I slept for forty minutes on the meeting room sofa.”“Adrian.”“I know. Very glamorous.”“Did you eat?”“I had a sandwich.”“What kind of sandwich?”“Why does that sound like an immigration interrogation?”“Because I know you. When you say you ate, you could mean you had coffee and smelled an almond cro
“We’re going to your family party.”I waited.I don’t know. At least one blink that looked a little more human. A little concern. A little relief. Anything that proved my last sentence hadn’t sounded like I’d just agreed to a marble supplier meeting on Tuesday.Sebastian only looked at me for a second.Then he picked up his phone.His thumb moved quickly across the screen. One message. Two. Then he sent something longer, his face still calm, his shoulders still straight, as if I hadn’t just agreed to walk into a den full of people who had once seen me wearing the Romano name.Yeah. Very romantic.I took the remaining bread from my plate and spread too much butter over it.From the hallway came quick little footsteps, house slippers dragging across the wood floor, then Poppy’s voice arrived before the rest of her.“Mommy!”The dining room door flew open.Poppy stood in the doorway with Bunny tucked under one arm, her bangs a mess again, and the expression of someone who had just won a
“We’re going to your family party.”I waited.I don’t know. At least one blink that looked a little more human. A little concern. A little relief. Anything that proved my last sentence hadn’t sounded like I’d just agreed to a marble supplier meeting on Tuesday.Sebastian only looked at me for a second.Then he picked up his phone.His thumb moved quickly across the screen. One message. Two. Then he sent something longer, his face still calm, his shoulders still straight, as if I hadn’t just agreed to walk into a den full of people who had once seen me wearing the Romano name.Yeah. Very romantic.I took the remaining bread from my plate and spread too much butter over it.From the hallway came quick little footsteps, house slippers dragging across the wood floor, then Poppy’s voice arrived before the rest of her.“Mommy!”The dining room door flew open.Poppy stood in the doorway with Bunny tucked under one arm, her bangs a mess again, and the expression of someone who had just won a
Poppy chewed the egg solemnly.I waited.She swallowed. “Croissant now?”“One piece.”“A big half?”“One normal piece.”“Normal according to who?”“According to a mother who would still like you to have teeth when you’re five.”Poppy sighed. “Castle breakfast is very complicated.”“Welcome to Mommy’s government.”Luca left the dining room carrying the outer envelope, and the young security officer disappeared with him like he had just delivered a gold-embossed bomb.Poppy finally accepted the piece of croissant I gave her, took a huge bite, then stopped. Her face changed.I looked at her immediately. “What?”She set the croissant down on her plate very carefully. “Mommy.”“Yeah..?”“I need to poop.”“Now?”Poppy nodded seriously. “My body has an announcement.”I closed my eyes for a second.“I’ll take her.” Salma was already on her feet.“I can go by myself,” Poppy said.“You can go by yourself after you stop flooding half the bathroom.”“It was a little waterfall.”Poppy climbed down
“Mommy.”I pulled the blanket over my ears.“Mommy.”The bedroom door opened wider.“Mommy, wake up. It’s an emergency.”I pressed my face into the pillow.Didn’t move.The villa guest room was too peaceful for an emergency. Pale oyster walls, old wood paneling that didn’t try too hard to look antique, sheer linen curtains over the glass doors leading to a small balcony, and a large bed with a low oak headboard that had somehow convinced my body to sleep almost dreamlessly.Deeply irritating.I should have slept badly.I should have woken up every hour, checked my phone, thought about the unicorn tracker, Kelsey, Adrian, Sebastian, and every form of disaster that came wearing a handsome face.Instead, I slept in a Romano bed that felt like a threat to female independence.Then Poppy climbed onto the mattress.The bed dipped on one side.“Mommy,” she said again, now right behind me.I was sleeping on my stomach.Fatal mistake.Poppy immediately dropped her little body onto my back.“Ug
We left without speaking.In the hallway, the wall lights glowed softly. From Salma’s room at the far end came the low sound of television and dramatic Turkish dialogue that definitely involved betrayal, inheritance, or both.I stopped at the stairs. “I need air.”Sebastian didn’t ask if I was okay.Good.If he had asked, I might have answered, and that would have created a whole new problem.I went downstairs alone, took a glass of water from a staff member who appeared too quickly near the dining room, then walked out to the large balcony on the west side of the villa.Night in Èze had no right to be that beautiful.The sea below was dark and shining. Small lights along the coast looked like jewelry some rich person had dropped and left there because they were too lazy to pick it up. The wind was colder above the cliff, carrying salt and old stone.I stood on the balcony with one hand on the stone railing, the other holding my glass of water.Water.A very adult choice, considering







