My mind keeps replaying the way Adam wouldn’t even look at me, and my heart clenches painfully. All week I’ve tried to talk to him, to no avail. He keeps declining all my calls, and at work he refuses to discuss anything that isn’t related to our project. The words he did say, on the day the news broke, still resound through my mind over and over again, cutting deep.
“Think about why you’d keep something so significant from me, Raya. If your marriage was something you were proud of, something that genuinely made you happy, you’d have told me. I’d have kept your secrets, and you know it. There’s only one reason why you’d have hidden this from me: you couldn’t look me in the eye and justify what you’ve done. If you couldn’t do it then, don’t do it now.”
The worst part is that there’s an element of truth to his words. I never told him because I knew what questions he’d ask me, and I knew my answers would disappoint him. He’d ask me if Lex loves me, if my marriage is what I’ve always wanted, what I’d been waiting for all my life. He’d wonder if I’m truly as happy as I’d always hoped to be, and I wouldn’t be able to look him in the eye and lie.
“Little fairy,” Lex says, his glasses resting on the bridge of his nose as he leans back on the sofa. He’s wearing a pair of gray sweats that hang low on his hips paired with a white tee, and on any other day, I’d have climbed onto his lap and distracted him from his work. “You’ve been absentminded for a few days now. Give me a Truth, Raya.”
I shake my head, not wanting to talk to Lex about Adam. He’d never understand, and I know he doesn’t really like Adam. He just tolerates him out of respect for me. “I’d rather accept a Dare.”
His gaze roams over my face, and he puts his tablet down. “Yeah?” I nod and force a smile. “Then I dare you to tell me what’s on your mind.”
A startled laugh escapes my lips, and I shake my head. “That’s not how that works, Lex.”
He sighs and pulls me closer, and I go willingly. Lex takes me into his arms, and I sigh as I rest my head against his shoulder, my lips pressed to his neck.
“He’ll come around,” my husband says, his tone soft, reluctant. “I can pretty much guess how he feels right now. Give him time to lick his wounds, and he’ll return to being the friend he’s always been.”
I push off him, unsure how to reply to that. Lex seems to think Adam has a thing for me, and no matter how I try to convince him that isn’t true, he just won’t take my word for it. “Lex,” I begin to say, my tone tinged with irritation, when an alarm goes off in the house.
“Critical alert,” Pippy says, repeating the words over and over again as metal security shutters begin to lower over the windows. I jump up in surprise as the lights in the house turn on while we’re barricaded in. “Raven Windsor has triggered a full shutdown on the entire Windsor Estate,” Pippy informs us. “The tunnels have been activated with Lexington Windsor’s home as the designated meeting spot.”
“What is happening?” I ask, panicked.
Lex shakes his head, indicating that he doesn’t know. “All our homes are connected via tunnels,” he explains. “My grandmother had them built when I… after…” He clears his throat. “We’ve never had to use them before. Grandma’s house is in the middle of the estate, and each of our houses are connected to hers, and then connected together, almost like an underground wheel with the tunnels being the spokes. When a full shutdown is initiated, no one can get in or out. It’ll make Silas Sinclair’s full private security army come rushing in. I don’t know what she’s thinking.”
I nod and take his hand, my heart pounding. “What could’ve triggered this?” I ask, my voice trembling.
Lex grimaces. “Only one thing. There’s been an unauthorized breach on the property. Only a Windsor or Silas Sinclair can activate this specific protocol, and the only time we ever would is if there’s a security breach. Raven didn’t use it when the media attacked her, and I know she regrets not using it when she needed it most. She told me that if it ever happened again, she wouldn’t hesitate to press the panic button.”
I look up when Raven and Ares walk through a door I never even knew existed; the walls sliding open. I stare at them wide-eyed, a hint of discomfort running down my spine. How could there have been a door in my own home that I never knew about? Lex told me nothing was off-limits to me, but he never told me about this specific security protocol or the tunnels, probably because they could lead me right into his family’s homes if misused. I glance at him, my heart twisting painfully. I understand why he might’ve kept this from me when we first got married, but now? If there was even the smallest chance the protocol would be initiated, he should’ve told me, prepared me.
My eyes widen when Lex turns to the TV to a security channel, and Raven and Ares’s expressions turn sour. Swarms of reporters have invaded the property, and I frown in confusion. “Why now?” We announced our marriage days ago, and everything has been relatively quiet as we stayed out of the public eye, using cars with tinted windows and security escorts to keep the media away. There were a few articles questioning my education, since Lex was my professor for a while, but my husband swiftly solved that by leaking my academic records, proving his class wasn’t the only one I excelled in.
Raven lowers her head and hands me a tablet, and I take it from her with trembling hands. My stomach turns when I read the article in which Akshay accuses my mother of being a cheating gold digger who went after her rich boss, leaving her devoted husband behind. Then there’s another one about how my dad forcibly kept him out of my life, only to eventually sell me to the Windsors to save his company. It paints a picture of both my mother and me being opportunistic and manipulative, using the men around us as steppingstones. All the while, he makes my father sound cold and cruel, when all he’s ever done is love me.
Tears fill my eyes at the thought of my parents reading this nonsense, and I tighten my grip on the tablet. How could he? This is the man that fathered me, and I’m nothing but a paycheck to him. He knows how much damage this will do to my parents and me, and he did it anyway. I’d wondered if someday we might be on speaking terms, but I should’ve known it wasn’t an option. The kind of man that would mistreat my mother was never going to be someone I’d want any type of relationship with, but deep down, I’d been curious about him, wanting to know which of my traits I might’ve gotten from him, what his family might be like.
Lex wraps his hand around my waist and shakes his head as he takes the tablet from me. “Don’t read that, darling,” he urges. “They don’t know anything. They’ll write anything if it’ll help them bring in advertising revenue. We’ll fix this, okay?”
I nod and bite down on my lip to keep my tears at bay, my heart bleeding. I draw a shaky breath, and Lex gently brushes my hair out of my face, his expression murderous.
“I’m going to gut that piece of shit,” Dion says, appearing behind Ares and Raven, his hand in Faye’s.
“Not if I get to him first,” Luca says, stepping out of the tunnel with Val by his side. His expression rapidly turns stormy when he sees the tears in my eyes.
Zane pushes his brothers aside and walks up to me, Celeste trailing just behind him. “Don’t worry,” he says, his tone placating. “We’ll return each tear you shed a thousandfold. Touching a Windsor has consequences, and this fucker is about to find out what they are.”
“In that case,” I say, my voice breaking. “I’m going to cry a river.”
He smiles, and Lex tightens his grip on me, both of our gazes roaming over our packed living room. Everyone steps aside when Grandma Anne walks through the doors wearing a black suit, her expression perhaps the angriest of them all. “How dare they?” she snaps, fury rolling off her in waves. “How dare they touch one of my kids? Invade our homes?”
She turns to the women in the room then, completely dismissing her grandsons as she raises a brow. “How are you handling this?”
Raven steps forward. “I’ve cancelled all my contracts with every media outlet that’s dared speak ill about Raya, with no repercussions to us thanks to the clauses written in all my contracts. Most of them are actively in the process of removing their articles in an attempt to retain me and avoid the heavy penalties they’ll have to pay.”
Val grins, her eyes cold. “I’m pumping and dumping as many papers as I can, silently investing for now. In the next couple of days, when their share price is inflated, I’ll sell, leaving them scrambling to explain themselves to their shareholders. They’ll make huge losses, and they’ll never be able to tie it back to us.”
Faye holds up her phone. “I just cancelled all my upcoming concerts and let my fans know that I’m deeply distraught about the way my sister-in-law is being treated. It has all my fans up in arms, and they’ve massively begun to comment on all articles out there, defending Raya, just like Raven’s fans have started to do.”
Celeste places her hand on Zane’s shoulder and smiles. “I spent the last hour finding out the names of all reporters that dared publish anything about Raya. They’ll all receive the Windsor Kiss of Death — we’re freezing their assets if they’re with the Windsor Bank, blacklisting them from every establishment we own, and because I’m extra pissed off by this, I’ve also checked whether they or any of their family members have any holidays booked at any of our hotels. I’ve instructed my staff to cancel their reservations, but not to let them know until they arrive at the premises. Let’s see how they feel when not just their own, but their friends’ and family’s lives are affected, for years to come.”
I stare at the women in the room, equal parts in awe and terrified of how swiftly and ruthlessly they acted. Their husbands seem to share my feelings, because they stare in shock.
“I told you,” Lex says, his voice soft as he pulls me closer. “My sisters-in-law keep our family running. You’re loved fiercely, Raya, and there’s nothing a Windsor won’t do for those we love. I don’t think this is quite enough, but it’s a good start. The boys and I will handle the rest.”
“Lex,” Pippy says from overhead. “Sierra’s signal was just cut off. I cannot reach her, nor can I trace her.”
Lex blanches and reaches for his phone to call her, his free hand moving to his laptop. I watch as he pulls up a security system that shows us all being at his house. I stare at him wide-eyed, confused as to how he’s tracking us all like that. “For me to lose her signal, she’d have to be pretty deep below ground, deeper than our tunnels.” He looks up when Silas Sinclair walks into our living room, Lex’s shoulders relaxing marginally at the sight of him. “Sierra,” he says, his voice pained. “Please help me find Sierra.”
