ZAYDEN
I thought that keeping my distance would somehow extinguish the forbidden flames that had been quietly ignited the moment Scarlett stepped into my life. She was my best friend’s daughter—someone I’d always regarded as family. I watched her grow up, protected her like my own. But as the years passed and she blossomed into a woman, something shifted. Unsettling feelings surfaced—feelings I buried deep beneath layers of guilt and logic, convincing myself they were nothing more than fleeting confusion.
Pushing her toward Vincent, my son, felt like the only way to keep myself in check. If she belonged to him, I could let go. I could pretend. But fate clearly had other plans, cruel and twisted in the way it worked—placing her back in my life, in my space, and far too close for comfort.
