Three years ago, Hazel Vance made a choice that changed everything. One night of passion with a mysterious stranger at a masquerade ball left her with more than just memories—it left her with a son whose rare violet-blue eyes are a constant reminder of the father she'll never find.

Now a struggling single mother, Hazel desperately needs the executive assistant position at Sterling Group. The salary could finally give her two-year-old Leo the life he deserves. But her new boss, CEO Liam Sterling, is nothing like she expected.

Demanding, brilliant, and devastatingly handsome, Liam has a reputation for being impossible to work for. Most assistants don't last a week. When Hazel refuses to be intimidated by his cold demeanor and sharp tongue, something shifts between them. The attraction is immediate and electric, crackling through every professional interaction.

But it's his eyes that stop her cold. The same striking violet-blue shade that stares back at her every morning when she looks at her son.

As the tension between them builds and the lines between professional and personal begin to blur, Hazel finds herself caught between her desperate need for this job and her growing attraction to the one man who could destroy everything she's worked for.

She doesn't know that Liam has been searching for the mysterious woman from the masquerade ball ever since that night changed him forever. And he has no idea that the composed, fiery assistant who challenges him at every turn is the same woman who haunts his dreams.

When the truth finally comes to light, will it bring them together or tear apart the fragile new life Hazel has built for herself and her son?

I left Liam's place and drove straight to Iris's, but my mind kept spiraling back to the image of Stella with Logan. The thought was eating me alive from the inside. When I arrived at my sister's house, she wrapped me in her arms immediately. The pain Patterson had caused her was written all over her face, but at least she was finally seeing him for who he really was. The awakening had come at a brutal cost.


We settled into her living room, and I spilled everything. The harassment incidents at the Community Guild, the formal complaints brewing against Patterson, what he had done to Stella, what I had done to Stella, and how he was now stalking her like some deranged predator. By the time I finished, I was stretched out on the couch with my head in Iris's lap, sobbing like a child and drowning in regret for being such an impulsive fool who destroys first and thinks never.


Chapter 269 - S2 Chapter 53 - Painful Confessions and Right