“We know.” Ares’s lips quirked. “But right now, staying visible makes you a target. The more you engage, the more ammunition you give people. For now, you lie low, you rest, and you let us protect you.”
The word “protect” should have felt patronizing. Instead, it felt like relief.
“Okay,” I said. “But I want updates. Real ones. Not sanitized versions designed to keep me from worrying.”
“Deal,” all three of them said.
We ate in relative silence after that—not the comfortable kind, but the exhausted kind where nobody had energy left for conversation. When they finally left around midnight, each of them kissed me goodbye. Leo’s was playful. Orion’s was possessive. Ares’s was gentle.
And I was alone again.
But this time, the isolation felt different. Not like abandonment, but like strategic regrouping. They were out there fighting battles I couldn’t see, working angles I didn’t understand, trying to save everything we’d all built—separately and together.
I picked up my phone and called Marta.
She answered on the first ring. “Finally. I was seriously about to book a flight.”
“I know. I’m sorry. Things have been…” I trailed off, not sure how to finish.
“Complicated?” she supplied. “I saw the news, Tashi. The harassment allegations, the Gaming Commission investigation, all of it. Are you okay?”
“Honestly? I don’t know.” I curled back up on the sofa. “It’s such a mess, Marta. Everything’s such a mess.”
“Tell me,” she said simply.
I did. Not everything—some things were too private, too new, too fragile to share even with my best friend. But enough. Enough for her to understand why I’d gone silent, why I was scared, why I didn’t know what came next.
When I finished, she was quiet for a moment.
“So let me get this straight,” she said finally. “You’re in a relationship with three billionaire brothers, someone’s trying to destroy them by using you as ammunition, and you’re sitting alone in a hotel suite trying to figure out if love is worth fighting for?”
“That’s…an oversimplification, but basically yes.”
“And you’re asking me what to do?”
“I guess?”
“Tashi.” Her voice was firm. “I’ve known you for our whole lives. I’ve watched you rebuild your life after bad relationships, after career setbacks, after every disappointment that should have broken you but didn’t. And you know what I’ve never seen? You giving up when something matters.”
“This is different?—”
“Is it? Or are you just scared because for once, you found something—someone—worth the risk?”
The question hit harder than I expected.
“What if I’m wrong?” I whispered. “What if they’re not worth it? What if this destroys me?”
“Then you rebuild. Again. Like you always do.” Marta’s voice softened. “But Tashi? What if you’re right? What if they are worth it? What if this crazy, impossible thing actually works? Isn’t that worth finding out?”
I thought about Orion’s intensity. Leo’s warmth. Ares’s protectiveness. The way they’d shown up tonight, not to pressure me but to remind me I wasn’t alone.
“Yeah,” I said. “Maybe it is.”
“Good. Now get some sleep. Eat actual food. And stop reading whatever garbage people are saying about you online. None of them know the real story.”
“What is the real story?”
“That you’re brave enough to love people who everyone says you shouldn’t. That’s always been your story, Tashi. Don’t forget it now.”
