SHADOWS OF THE PAST
Prestige's POV
"Dan, do you ever wonder if we're just characters in someone else's story?"
The question slipped from my lips before I could stop it. The moonlight wrapped around us like silk, the sea whispering secrets I couldn't quite understand. I wasn't trying to be poetic. I was just trying to make sense of the aching quiet that had settled between us since Kate's message.
Dan turned his head slowly, his eyes searching mine. "Only when I'm with you".
The words could have been romantic. They should have been. But there was something hollow in his tone, like he was trying to believe it himself.
I leaned into him, feeling the warm press of his chest, the steady thump of a heartbeat that seemed a little too calm. Too controlled.
"You're not telling me something," I whispered.
He flinched. Just barely. But I saw it.
The boat swayed gently beneath us, champagne forgotten on the teakwood table. I patiently waited.
He didn't speak.
And maybe that was worse than anything he could have said.
Dan's POV
She deserved the truth.
But the truth was complicated. The truth would hurt.
So I said nothing.
Prestige?
So beautiful, so open, so dangerously close to the version of myself I wanted to become, waited for a version of honesty I wasn't sure I could give.
Because everything between us had started with a lie.
Kate and I... it hadn't ended when I said it had. The lines had blurred. The yacht, the dinners, the late-night texts. The pieces of me are still tied to her.
And now? Prestige had the scent of suspicion in her lungs.
I could feel her pulling away even as she hung on me.
I ran a hand through my hair. "I bought the yacht before I met you. It wasn't... it wasn't meant for you originally. But I renamed it. For you..uuu, For what we have now."
Prestige stepped back. The hurt in her eyes was sharp, precise.
"But she was the first you kissed here, wasn't it?" she asked, voice trembling.
I couldn't lie. Not now.
"Ye..eee…sss"
The word shattered the moment between us.
Kate's POV
From my penthouse, the city looked like a constellation of broken promises.
I watched the footage on my phone, Prestige's face expression when she heard the truth. It was all there. Pain. Realization. Betrayal.
Good.
She thought Dan was her savior.
She had no idea he was my unfinished story.
I opened the package again,the yacht's deed, our prenup, the photos. Proof of everything.
But I wasn't done. Not yet.
I opened my laptop. A press release draft waited.
Subject: Tech Billionaire Dan Alexander's Secret Marriage Revealed.
All I had to do was hit "SEND."
Prestige's POV
I locked myself in the yacht's cabin.
The atmosphere felt warm.
I saw the envelope again. The one that had arrived this morning, slipped onto the deck like an omen.
Inside it, the deed. Kate's name. Dan's signature.
The boat wasn't mine. The past wasn't gone.
Everything he said... was it all a rewrite of an old story?
Then I saw it. Tucked behind the deed.
A photo.
Kate. Younger. Smiling.
Holding a baby.
I frowned.
There was handwriting on the back: "For Belle, when she turns eighteen. Your sister deserves to know."
Sister?
I re-read it. And then again.
Was Belle... me?
No. No, that was impossible.
Unless...
Unless I wasn't just a replacement.
I was part of the secret.
Dan's POV
I heard her scream before I saw the door swing open.
Prestige stormed out of the cabin, papers clenched in her fists, anger radiating off her.
"Is it true?" she hissed. "Did Kate have a child? Did you hide a child from me?"
I blinked. "What the hell are you talking about?"
She shoved the photo at me. "This. Look at it. Look at her handwriting! It says I'm... her sister? Dan, what the hell is going on?!"
My throat dried up immediately.
I took the photo. Recognized it instantly.
Kate. Belle.
But Belle wasn't Prestige. Was she?
Unless... No. No, that couldn't be right.
Except now that she mentioned it...
The timelines. The way Kate always hesitated when I brought up Prestige's past. The secrecy.
I felt how cold blooded she's but hid it from me.
"I didn't know," I said slowly. "But if this is real... Prestige, it means Kate isn't just your rival. She's your sister."
Prestige stared at me like I had grown horns.
Kate's POV
I knew the moment the photo reached her.
I wasn't watching, but I didn't need to.
Some truths are too heavy to hold quietly.
She would unravel now.
They both would.
And maybe, just maybe, they'd stop pretending I was the only villain in this story.
I closed my laptop.
A knock came at the door.
My assistant.
"The press release is ready, ma'am. Just say the word."
I smiled. "Not yet. Let them implode first. Then we hand the world the pieces."
Prestige's POV
I sat at the edge of the yacht, the wind sharp on my skin.
Sister. That word felt like an earthquake.
Had Kate known? Had she played me?
Was that why she hated me? Loved me? Watched me?
I felt sick.
And Dan. He didn't even know. Or so he said.
But could I trust that?
The waves beneath me crashed, and I imagined the sound of everything I believed... breaking.
Hours later, as night deepened and silence settled over the yacht, a figure climbed aboard
.
Quiet. Focused. Familiar with every step.
In their hand: a key.
In their pocket: a phone with one message ready to send.
"They think it's about love. But they haven't even met the real threat yet."