LOGINEDDIE"She was hit by a car," Arlene said, her voice suddenly turning hard and cold and stripped of any emotion. "If you still have any conscience left, get over here."I slammed the brakes. The tires screeched against the asphalt, and the car came to a halt.A horn blared behind me, followed by a string of angry curses. But I barely heard them. My grip on the steering wheel tightened as Arlene's call cut off.Beside me, Lydia had heard everything. She said nothing at first, but then her phone buzzed with a new notification and she glanced down, then slowly tucked it away. Turning to me, her eyes widened with worry."Eddie… could something really have happened to her? We should go -now." Her voice trembled, full of concern. "This doesn't sound small. It sounds serious. Thank God she was brought to the hospital. And Arlene's there - her best friend. She'll be in good hands, but… Eddie, we should hurry. Adrienne called you so many times - it must've been important."She looked like she
EDDIEI reviewed the contract spread across the conference table, exhausted after back-to-back meetings that had consumed the entire day.Several decisions still needed to be made before midnight. I had been working without pause since early afternoon, and the room around me had grown progressively quieter with each passing hour - everyone present was being very careful not to draw my attention.I tapped the table once with two fingers and kept reading."Who drafted this clause?" My tone was even, but the room stiffened regardless.A young associate at the far end of the table rose halfway from his chair. "That was me, Mr. Quinn."I looked at him. "Explain it."He opened his mouth. What came out was a tangle of justifications and half-formed reasoning that circled the actual problem without once landing on it. He knew he had made an error. We both knew it. The explanation was simply the performance that came before the acknowledgment."That's enough," I said.He stopped talking immedi
ADRIENNEThe pain hit me before I could make sense of it.It started low, sharp and insistent, cutting through the fading adrenaline like something was wrong in a way that had nothing to do with the concussion in my head. I pressed my hand against my stomach and felt the cold truth of it settle over me all at once.The baby.I thought about the parking garage - the way I had thrown myself sideways, sprinted hard across concrete, slammed into my seat just before the impact came. The force of the black car hitting mine. The way my whole body had jolted violently to the left, the seatbelt cutting into me like a blade. The second impact. The dizziness that came after.I had done all of that. My body had done all of that.And the baby had been through every second of it with me.Could my baby really be slipping away?I had spent weeks telling myself I wasn't ready. That the timing was impossible. That the terminating the pregnancy was the right choice - the only choice that made any sense
ADRIENNE A slow breath steadied my nerves as I forced my eyes shut, trying to find a moment of stillness. No matter how hard I tried, the clarity I needed never came. I abandoned the kitchen station and began packing up for the night. A glance at my phone showed the time - it was already pushing 9 PM. Fatigue sat heavy on my shoulders. I wiped my hands on my apron, shrugged it off, and decided tomorrow would have to be better. The endless demands of the day had hollowed me out completely. Without bothering to change my shoes, I threw my jacket over my shoulders and made my way toward the exit.Now that I thought about it, living as Ren had been exhausting. she had always been busy. Always had something to do. And now, I was juggling three identities. I almost laughed out loud. That would be hard for anyone. The city was alive outside, even at this hour. April had settled warmly over the streets below, neon lights pulsing through the building's windows, the hum of nightlife drift
LYDIA I lounged on the settee in my dressing room, scrolling through the online chatter with a satisfied grin on my face. “Nicely done,” I said, speaking to my publicist over the phone. “Keep pushing Lydia’s Embrace everywhere. I want my name trending before the grand opening. Make sure every food blog, every entertainment page, every influencer is talking about me.” Once the call ended, I glanced over at Dana, my personal assistant, who stood near the door with that particular look on her face. The one she got when she had something to say but wasn’t sure she should say it. “Out with it,” I said, rolling my eyes impatiently. Dana shifted awkwardly, her fingers lacing together in front of her. “Are you sure about this, Miss Quinn?” she asked. “If Saffron decides to raise concerns about the usage agreement, we’ll bein very big trouble?” A dismissive laugh escaped my lips. “Isn’t the deal I signed with them generous enough? What more could they possibly want?” “But it still
ADRIENNE I stared at Marcus Warren's message for a long time. My thumb hovered over the screen, the cursor blinking at me like a dare. Why would Lydia's father want to meet me? why would he want no one to know we were meeting? Those questions hovered in my head. After everything that had happened at the gala - after he'd publicly defended me against his own daughter—what could he possibly have to say that couldn't be said over the phone? I was still staring at the message when my phone buzzed again, this time with a flood of notifications that made my eyes widen. Dozens of alerts lit up my screen. Trending topics. Hashtags. Videos. I tapped into them, my brow furrowing as I scrolled through the chaos. #TheEmberTable #LydiaWarrenCulinary #LydiasEmbrace #ChefLydia One of the links was a new video from Lydia's social media channel - posted less than an hour ago. I pressed play, my stomach churning as her face filled the screen. She appeared radiant and glowing
ADRIENNE The address Mr. Hubert sent to me wasn’t his office – at least, not the one I remembered. It was the building that housed Saffron – a five-star restaurant he’d launched three years ago after I won the culinary competition. It's been so long since I saw the place – three years – but it
ADRIENNE My heart stirred long after Marcus disappeared behind the door. There was a longing in my chest I didn’t understand and honestly, I wasn’t sure I wanted to. Still, it pulled me in. What was this? I recognized the feeling, the beginning of it, but did I want to acknowledge it? I hardly
LYDIA “Your father is here,” Eddie had said, pulling his jacket back on, already halfway to the door as he finished his sentence. “I don’t want to be here when he comes and I have something to attend to at the office. We’ll talk later.” That was ten minutes ago. Ten minutes of my heart beating l
ADRIENNE I had nothing to say. No, I had lots to say but my mouth wouldn’t move. I wanted to tell Old Mr. Quinn that his son could go to hell. That I wanted nothing more to do with his family. That I already had plans to move on. But I respected Old Mr. Quinn too much to say all of that. If







