บททั้งหมดของ An Almost Honest Affair : บทที่ 41 - บทที่ 50

Hospitals always looked like too much of everything.Too clean. Too white. Too loud in the quiet.Mia sat beside her mother’s bed, one hand resting on the blanket that covered Sophia Cross’s frail frame. The older woman looked nothing like the graceful matriarch the city once admired. Her hair had gone gray at the edges, her eyes heavy even in sleep.The fall from wealth to wreckage and her father's arrest had stripped more than their name it had stolen Sophia’s mind piece by fragile piece.Some days she was herself. Some days she screamed at shadows.And some days, like this one, she just slept.Mia ran her fingers gently through her mother’s hair, her own eyes tired and red. “Hey, Mom,” she whispered. “You’d probably scold me for crying if you were awake.”Her lips trembled as she tried to smile.“I still remember how you used to make us hot cocoa after school. Dad would be at work, Daniel would hog the marshmallows, and you’d sit with me at the piano while I pretended I could play.

The house didn’t feel like home anymore.Mia sat by the window, legs pulled to her chest, staring at nothing. The city lights shimmered outside like a world she no longer belonged to. Somewhere beneath the hum of traffic and the faint ticking of the clock, the silence pulsed loud, suffocating, endless.It had been weeks since the verdict.Weeks since her father was taken away.Weeks since her mother’s eyes had gone glassy with madness.The world kept spinning, but for Mia, everything had slowed to all color draining out of every day until everything looked gray.The papers were still on the table old headlines, statements, reminders of everything she’d lost. Her company’s name was still being dragged through the mud, but she had stopped checking. There were no more explanations left to give, no more apologies that mattered.Even her reflection felt like a stranger.She didn’t notice Liam at first when he entered the room. He stood in the doorway for a moment, just watching her his wif

The house felt wrong.Not just empty.Wrong.Like someone had rearranged the air itself while she wasn’t looking.It had been three days since Bloom’s death. Three days since she buried her with her bare hands, whispering promises into the cold soil.Three days since Liam told her it was “just an accident.”He had gone back to work the next morning, leaving her alone with the walls, the silence, and the echo of what she’d lost.Mia hadn’t eaten much since.Couldn’t sleep.Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Bloom’s body trembling on the floor her eyes pleading with her, the way they used to when she wanted one more walk, one more treat, one more moment with her.The house still smelled faintly of lavender from the candle she’d lit after burying him.Sometimes she thought she could still hear the faint jingle of Bloom’s collar, the padding of her paws on the marble.But when she turned, there was nothing.Just her heartbeat. Loud. Unsteady.Rosemary was kind these days. Too kind.S

The night smelled like rain and the Earth Mia sat in the driver’s seat of her car, parked two blocks from Grant Industries, watching the tall mirrored building glow like a fortress. Her hand trembled slightly as she checked her phone.One new message.Ethan: Back entrance. 9:00. Come alone.She took a slow breath, the kind you take before walking into danger, then stepped out.Her heels clicked softly on the pavement as she crossed the empty lot. The wind tugged at her coat, the air damp with the promise of a storm.The moment she reached the side door, it opened. Ethan stood there, expression tense, phone light glinting off his jaw.“You came,” he said quietly.“I said I would.”He motioned her inside. “Let’s make this quick. My father’s in a meeting upstairs.”They slipped through the corridors, moving like ghosts.Grant Industries looked beautiful on the outside all polished glass and money but up close, it smelled of something colder: fear, control, silence.Ethan led her into a

The elevator doors slid open with a soft chime, and Mia stepped into the penthouse carrying the weight of an entire world on her shoulders.The visit to the psych ward had drained the last bits of strength she’d been pretending to have. Seeing her mother strapped to a bed, whispering to ghosts only she could see… it carved something out of Mia that she didn’t know how to refill.All she wanted was a warm shower, a quiet night, and the faint comfort of Liam’s arms around her.But the moment she stepped into the living room, something felt wrong.The air was thick.Heavy.Tense.Liam sat on the edge of the couch, elbows on his knees, running a hand through his hair like he was trying to hold his skull together. Rose stood across the room, arms folded tightly, eyes red and swollen.They both froze when they saw her.“Hey…” Mia said softly. “What’s going on?”Liam shot upright as if burned.“Mia ...hi. You’re home. Are you okay? How’s your mom? Did she ,did you…”He was rambling.Liam nev