She is Like the Beauty of Moonlight

Ethan Shane, our city's infamous Capital Sage, has a step-sister who's his long-lost crush.

She's back in town, strutting around like she owns the place.

I can't help but smirk.

For years, I've been the invisible hand guiding Shane Group, propping up this so-called Capital Sage.

It's turned my heart into something as sharp and unyielding as a butcher's blade.

Ethan's lovesick drama? Just another drop in his ocean of screw-ups.

1

Ethan, the icy Capital Sage, has a step-sister he worships like the moon. She's always on his mind and at the tip of his tongue.

On our wedding anniversary, his precious moon goddess flew back home.

Ethan rushed to pick her up, leaving me with a cold text.

[Gia, Mia's staying with us. Set up the second-floor balcony room for her.]

That room is my studio. Ethan seemed to have forgotten.

Soon after, Mia waltzed in, demanding her room.

Her face, eerily similar to mine but younger and bolder, sized me up the moment she entered.

"So you're Gia Shaw?" she said, her tone dripping with judgment.

"Pretty average. I guess your only perk is looking like me. What, did my brother find himself a knockoff version of me?"

Then she spotted my garden, bursting with lilies and irises. Her face lit up, barely hiding her smugness.

"My brother once promised to plant my favorite flowers. Can't believe he actually remembered."

I've always been the one tending to our garden.

Before Ethan, I'd never even planted a flower.

But soon after we married, he surprised me by building a flower bed, saying he loved irises and lilies.

Eager to please, I spent a whole day hunting for the perfect seedlings.

As the garden bloomed, I'd catch Ethan looking at it with an emotion I couldn't quite place.

"Gia, you're amazing. You're all I have now," he'd say.

It hit me then – with Mia gone, I was his everything.

"Gia, why so glum? My brother just planted these for me," she said, casually plucking a lily.

Her words felt like a slap, dismissing the bond Ethan and I shared.

But the Shane princess had me all wrong.

I'm not some fragile socialite easily rattled by mind games.

When she reached for an iris, I swatted her hand away.

"Didn't anyone teach you not to touch what isn't yours?"

Mia's sweet facade crumbled.

"This is my brother's house, which makes it mine. You're just his wife. How dare you hit me?" she shrieked.

I met her glare with a cold smile.

"Actually, my name's on the deed."

"When you're a guest, Ms. Smith, act like one."

For years, I've been the invisible hand guiding Shane Group, propping up this so-called Capital Sage.

It's turned my heart into something as sharp and unyielding as a butcher's blade.

His old flame popping up? Hardly the worst of his screw-ups.

Turning to our housekeeper, I said, "Ms. Ward, prepare a guest room downstairs for Mia." Let her stay – I could handle whatever came next.