Luc had barely been back in Venice for a week before Isabelle decided she had waited long enough.
She found him in the kitchen of L'Azur during the quiet hours between lunch and dinner service. The restaurant was unusually peaceful. Prep work for the evening had already begun, and the rich aroma of fresh herbs, butter, and baked bread filled the air.
Luc was carefully tasting a sauce before adding another pinch of salt.
"You've been avoiding my questions," Isabelle said, leaning against the counter with folded arms.
Luc smiled faintly without looking up.
"I wasn't aware I was."
"You were."
He chuckled softly.
She had always been able to read him far too easily.
For a moment, neither of them spoke. Luc finished adjusting the seasoning before turning off the stove. Only then did he give his sister his full attention.
Isabelle studied him carefully.
She knew he rarely talked about his private life unless someone asked directly. If she wanted answers, she would have to ask them herself.
"So," she began, "what would you do with Alina?"
Luc looked at her calmly.
There was no surprise on his face.
He had expected this conversation sooner or later.
"Are you still together?"
Luc nodded.
"Yes."
"Are you going to marry her?"
He didn't answer immediately.
"Or are you satisfied with long distance relationship?"
Luc finally spoke.
"Yes. I think that's the best option for now."
Isabelle tilted her head.
"What about the other men? I know I can ask her myself, but I want to hear it from you. Is she restarting something with her ex husband? Or are you seeing anyone else?"
Luc sighed quietly before answering each one.
"No. Of course not."
He didn't need Isabelle to clarify.
There never had been anyone else.
Not once.
Not since Alina.
Isabelle continued.
"Is she seeing someone else beside you?"
Luc answered without the slightest hesitation.
"No, she's not."
The certainty in his voice made Isabelle smile.
He trusted Alina completely.
"So you're both simply… waiting?"
Luc looked out through the restaurant window toward the Mediterranean Sea shimmering beneath the afternoon sun.
Distance had never frightened him.
Love had never been the problem.
Timing had always been.
Living to New York permanently wasn't yet possible for him.
Leaving everything he had built in Venice wasn't a decision he could make overnight.
And Alina was in the middle of building something extraordinary.
Neither of them wanted the other to sacrifice a lifelong dream.
Sometimes love required patience more than proximity.
Silence settled comfortably between the siblings.
What Isabelle didn't know…
What Luc had no intention of telling her yet…
…was that he had quietly begun visiting jewelry boutiques whenever he traveled.
He had been searching for engagement rings.
Not obsessively.
Not every day.
Just often enough to realize how seriously the thought had begun occupying his mind.
He could already picture asking Alina.
He could picture the smile on her face.
He could even imagine the life they might build together someday.
Yet every time he came close to making a decision, he stopped himself.
He was still thinking about it.
Was it really the best step for them, at this moment?
For now, he chose patience.
Not because he doubted his love for Alina.
But because when he finally asked her to marry him, he wanted both of them to be ready for the future that would follow.
****
The alarm rang at six in the morning.
Darius had already been awake for nearly an hour.
His bedroom remained immaculate, yet it carried the unmistakable atmosphere of another restless night. The sheets were slightly wrinkled, a business magazine lay open on the bedside table, and his phone rested beside it, its battery already lower than it should have been for so early in the day.
He had slept.
Just not well.
His mind refused to stay quiet.
After showering and putting on his usual perfectly tailored charcoal suit, he walked into the kitchen of his penthouse. The housekeeper greeted him, but he merely nodded before pouring himself a cup of black coffee.
He drank it quickly.
By the time he arrived at Voss Corporation, he had already finished a second cup from the car.
"Good morning, Mr. Voss."
"Good morning."
His employees greeted him with the same respect they always had. His pace remained measured, his posture perfectly straight, and his expression calm enough that nobody outside his closest circle would suspect anything was wrong.
When he entered his office, Chloe was already waiting with his morning schedule.
"You have the executive board meeting at nine, lunch with the legal department at twelve thirty, and an interview with Bloomberg at three."
Darius nodded while scanning the documents she handed him. Without thinking, he reached for the coffee waiting on his desk.
Chloe watched him take a sip.
"Mr. Voss." He looked up.
"That's your third coffee."
He glanced briefly at the cup before giving a small nod.
"I suppose it is."
"You also skipped breakfast."
"I'm not hungry."
She hesitated for only a second.
"I'll ask the cafeteria to prepare something light for lunch."
"There's no need."
He returned to reading the reports.
Chloe understood the conversation was over.
Still, she couldn't help noticing the difference.
For years she had worked beside him. Darius had always been disciplined, almost mechanical in his routines. He exercised at the same hour, ate lunch on time even during difficult acquisitions, and rarely appeared tired.
Recently, those routines had begun to disappear.
She quietly left the office.
The executive board meeting began precisely at nine.
A presentation filled the screen while department heads reviewed quarterly forecasts, overseas expansion, and manufacturing projections.
Normally, Darius would have interrupted with sharp questions every few minutes.
Today, he simply listened.
"…our Singapore division expects seven percent growth next quarter."
Silence.
The executive glanced toward him. "…Mr. Voss?"
No response.
He was looking down at the phone beside his notebook.
A notification had appeared.
White Clover Capital Announces Strategic Investment in Renewable Infrastructure.
Almost automatically, he opened the article.
The meeting room faded into the background as he skimmed the headline.
Another successful investment.
Another analyst praising White Clover's long-term strategy.
Another photograph of Alina standing beside Helena Ashcroft after signing the agreement.
"…Mr. Voss?"
Still nothing.
"…Mr. Voss?"
Only then did Darius look up.
Every pair of eyes in the room had turned toward him.
"My apologies," he said calmly. "Please continue."
The executive resumed the presentation.
No one commented.
No one questioned him.
But several people exchanged quick glances before looking back at the screen.
It was subtle.
Barely noticeable.
Yet unusual.
One senior executive frowned almost imperceptibly.
He never used to lose focus.
The thought disappeared as quickly as it came, but it lingered somewhere in the back of his mind.
Throughout the rest of the meeting, Darius asked intelligent questions and made sound decisions.
Anyone unfamiliar with him would have considered the meeting perfectly normal.
Those who had worked beside him for years knew better.
His attention drifted.
Only briefly.
But it drifted.
Lunch arrived.
It remained untouched.
When Chloe entered his office to obtain signatures for several contracts, she noticed the meal exactly where it had been placed nearly an hour earlier.
"You skipped lunch."
"I'm not particularly hungry."
"It'll be cold."
"That's fine."
She wanted to argue.
Instead, she simply gathered the empty coffee cup beside him.
It was the fourth one that day.
Darius finally made time to be with Evelyn.
For weeks, their schedules had rarely aligned. Between board meetings, shareholder discussions, endless reports, and the growing pressure surrounding Voss Corporation, every appointment seemed more urgent than the last. Evelyn had accepted the postponements with remarkable patience. She understood the demands of leading one of New York's largest corporations. She had always admired Darius's discipline and commitment to his work.
Tonight was supposed to be different.
They sat together in a quiet restaurant, one that overlooked the glittering skyline. Soft piano music drifted through the room while conversations from other tables blended into a gentle hum. It should have been an evening free from business.
Yet Darius was somewhere else entirely.
He answered her questions politely, but his responses were shorter than usual. Every few minutes, his attention drifted back to the phone resting beside his glass. The screen lit up repeatedly with notifications from financial newspapers, market analysts, and investment commentators.
Almost without thinking, he refreshed the feed again.
And again.
Every article seemed to revolve around one topic.
White Clover Capital.
Every interview, every headline, every discussion somehow found its way back to the woman who had quietly become one of Wall Street's most influential figures.
Evelyn watched him in silence.
She had noticed this long before tonight. At first, she convinced herself it was only business. White Clover had become Voss Corporation's largest competitor. Naturally, Darius needed to monitor every development.
But gradually, the line between professional vigilance and personal obsession had become increasingly difficult to ignore.
His attention lingered just a little too long whenever Alina's name appeared.
His expression changed ever so slightly whenever another article praised her achievements.
Tonight, there was no board meeting.
No emergency.
No crisis.
Yet his thumb continued scrolling across finance news.
Darius finally made time to be with Evelyn, but he was very distracted.
Unable to ignore it any longer, Evelyn finally spoke.
"Have you truly moved on, Darius?"
Darius turned to her with a surprised look.
"From the board meeting?"
"You know exactly from what, or from who the question is about."
For a brief moment, silence settled between them.
Darius looked at her, then briefly at the phone still resting in his hand before placing it face down on the table.
"Of course I have, Evelyn."
Evelyn just stared at him, who was refreshing his social media consisted of finance news.
The irony was impossible to ignore.
His words insisted on one thing.
His actions revealed another.
He hadn't even realized how instinctively he searched for updates that mentioned Alina.
He hadn't noticed how often conversations somehow circled back to White Clover.
He hadn't recognized that every success of hers seemed to occupy space inside his thoughts long after the headlines disappeared.
He hadn't moved on from his ex wife at all, Evelyn concluded.
She finally admitted it to herself.
The realization settled heavily inside her chest, not because it surprised her, but because she had spent so long trying not to believe it.
The problem was, was she willing to keep a relationship with a man whose attention for her was fractured?
She looked at Darius for a long moment.
He was still the man she admired.
Still intelligent.
Still dependable.
Still someone she cared for deeply.
But a part of him remained somewhere she could never reach.
Unfortunately, for Evelyn, the answer was still yes.
Yes, she'd rather keep Darius with a fractured focus, then not at all.
*****
Later that night, Darius drove home alone.
The city lights reflected across the windshield as traffic gradually disappeared.
His apartment was silent when he entered.
He loosened his tie and poured himself a glass of water before placing his phone on the kitchen counter.
He stared at it for several moments.
"I'm over her," he murmured to the empty apartment.
There was no one there to hear him.
The words sounded convincing enough.
He picked up his phone again.
His thumb moved almost instinctively.
Search.
White Clover Capital.
The newest interview appeared immediately.
Beneath it was a photograph from one of Alina's recent public appearances.
He looked at it for several long seconds.
Without realizing it, he opened the article and began reading every word.
The apartment remained completely silent.
Only the glow of the phone illuminated the darkness.
His actions contradicted everything he had told Evelyn.
And somewhere deep inside, Darius was beginning to realize it himself.
*****
The evening had been unusually peaceful.
After returning home, Alina changed into comfortable clothes, made herself a cup of chamomile tea, and settled onto the sofa with her tablet. Tomorrow's schedule was already finalized, and for the first time in days, she had nothing urgent demanding her attention.
Out of habit, she scrolled through the latest financial headlines.
White Clover had enjoyed another successful week. Analysts were discussing the firm's newest investments, while several newspapers continued debating whether the company had become Wall Street's most influential capital firm.
She skimmed the articles without much interest.
Then another post appeared.
Not from a financial newspaper.
From @WallStreetWhisper.
The anonymous account had become surprisingly accurate over the past few years, breaking news about executives, acquisitions, and high-profile relationships long before traditional media confirmed them.
A photograph accompanied the post.
Darius.
And Evelyn.
Leaving an elegant restaurant together.
The caption suggested the two had been steadily dating for around three months.
Alina paused for only a second before continuing to scroll.
Good for them.
She had divorced Darius two years ago.
He was free to move on.
So was she.
She placed the tablet on the coffee table and walked toward the kitchen to refill her tea.
On the way back, she passed the large mirror standing against the hallway wall.
Without thinking, she glanced at her reflection.
Then she stopped dead in her tracks.
Her eyes widened.
Slowly, almost unconsciously, she reached for the tablet again and reopened the photograph from @WallStreetWhisper.
She looked at Evelyn.
Then at herself in the mirror.
Back to Evelyn.
Then back to herself.
Her breathing slowed.
No.
No…
She stepped closer to the mirror.
The same dark hair.
A similar face shape.
Almost identical height.
The same elegant style of dressing.
Even their smiles carried a strangely similar softness.
There were differences, of course.
No two people were exactly alike.
But standing side by side…
She and Evelyn Parks…
…looked nearly identical.
They definitely would be able to pass as sisters.
A chill spread through her body.
Her fingers tightened around the tablet.
Her body felt cold and her heart beat so much faster.
For several seconds, she simply stared at her own reflection, unable to look away.
The realization settled into her mind before she could stop it.
What does this mean?
The question echoed louder with every passing heartbeat.
Did Darius choose Evelyn because she looked like her?
The thought horrified her.
It sounded absurd.
It was cruel.
Impossible.
She immediately shook her head.
No.
That couldn't be.
Right?
She searched for another explanation.
Perhaps she had never noticed the resemblance before.
Perhaps it was only the angle of the photograph.
Perhaps she was imagining similarities that weren't really there.
Yet every time she looked back and forth between the mirror and the photograph, the resemblance refused to disappear.
She slowly lowered the tablet.
For the first time in a very long while, Darius's choices no longer seemed as easy to understand as she had believed.
She remained standing before the mirror, staring at her own reflection, wondering whether she had discovered a meaningless coincidence…
…or something neither of them was ready to confront.