Chapter 191 Aria’s POV The photographer arrived at ten, which meant the household had been in productive chaos since eight-thirty. Noah, now nine years old and possessed of opinions about everything, had vetoed three outfit combinations before arriving at the navy suit he’d chosen himself — which I suspected had

Chapter 190 Damien’s POV I had been planning it for months, because when I wanted something arranged, it got arranged. What took months was the meaning of it. What I wanted to say. How to say it to a woman who had survived every version of my worst self and

Chapter 189 Aria’s point of view I set the boundaries first, before I agreed to anything. Supervised only with me present at all times. No alone time with Emma, not yet, perhaps not for a long time. An hour, maximum. And Eleanor arrived exactly when I said to arrive, which

Chapter 188 Aria’s POV I remembered the nights. With Noah it had been a small apartment in Europe, just me and him and the particular silence of a city that didn’t know my name. I had learned the newborn hours alone — the feeding, the small sounds, the 3 a.m.

Chapter 187 Aria’s POV months later The first thing I noticed when I woke up that morning was the quietness. I lay still for a moment with my hand resting on my stomach, feeling the weight pressing down on my lower back, and thought: today. I didn’t know how I

Chapter 186 Aria’s POV “Yes,” he said. “But you held it together when I didn’t know how. When Noah was taken. When Marcus — all of it, you held it down p> “So did you p> “Not the way you did p> I didn’t argue because it was late and

Chapter 185 Aria’s POV We found the grave a few days later. Eleanor, in exchange for her cooperation and a reduced charge that Barnes had negotiated with that suggested he felt the arrangement was fair, provided the cemetery name and the plot number and the fact that she had been

Chapter 184 Damien point of view The parking garage opened below me and I heard his voice before I saw them — Charles, mid-sentence, and then Aria’s voice, steady and deliberate and I came around the concrete pillar and saw them and the world narrowed to a single point. I

Chapter 183 Aria’s POV Damien found me there few minutes later, because of course he did, and he sat beside me without asking anything. “She’s not my mother,” I said. “My real mother died giving birth to me.” My voice was remarkably calm. “She was twenty-one, she was raped and

Chapter 182 Aria’s POV Barnes met me in the corridor before I reached the door. “Before you go in,” he said. I stopped. He kept his voice low and even. “The phone records from one of Charles’s contacts came back an hour ago, we now have the full picture now