smile still on his lips. Her heart felt like a cold, dead weight i

He saw her standing in the same spot, unmoved. He

s tone that of a man explaining a complex financial report to a child. "Isabelle

of emotion. "Our contract stipulates fidelity

sheer size of him, the oppressive weight of his presen

, his voice hardening. "You'r

ergy. "My lawyer's office. Ten o'clock t

er back straight, not once looking back. She close

first time since she'd walked into his life, he felt a genuine loss of control. A raw, unfamiliar fury surged through him. He snatched the thic

e had never realized how much space she took up, not with her body, but with the soft

he woman he had been married to for three years. She had no close friends he knew of. She r

t. This wasn't about Isabelle. This was somethin

rything you can about someone. Chloe Sullivan. Everything. Where she

sir?" Lucas Hayes's voice was

ly. "It's not. I think... I thi

r in a sterile conference room on the 50th floor of a midtown skysc

d back to the penthouse. She didn't go to a hotel. She hailed a yellow cab and g

ove Apartmen

k building. It was a world away from the polished marble and uniformed do

two small figures launch

om

with serious dark eyes and a girl with a cloud

her arms around them, burying her face in their hair, and breathed in their scent of

ry of how she got there or who the man beside her had been. Then came the shock of the pregnancy, and

Leo and Aurora. She had to get them away from the Sterling name and the iron-c

ption of his wife was still frozen in time: a dependent, a woman who needed

-