Se connecterMy throat locks up. I’ve seen Owen angry, I’ve seen him arrogant, and I’ve seen him lethal in a courtroom. But I have never seen him cry like this. "I am so sorry for leaving you in that jail cell, Sydney," he whispers again, his voice cracking completely now as he stares down at my lips. "I know n
The second Owen’s fingers touch the chrome handle of his sleek black sedan, I violently twist out of his reach. I yank myself away from his side, clutching the lapels of his oversized designer suit jacket against my chest like a shield. He freezes, his hand dropping from the door as he whips his he
My stomach completely drops. The press. The paparazzi who were banned from the main service have already spotted the commotion from the outer gates. Long, heavy camera lenses are already poking through the iron bars, the rapid, machine-gun clicking of shutters filling the air as they capture every
Before I can even register her movement, her hands fly out and strike my chest, shoving me backward with everything she has. "Ah!" I gasp as my foot catches on a raised root. I lose my balance entirely, crashing heavily onto the damp, muddy ground. "You don't get to say goodbye to her!" She scream
I stand a safe distance away from the black-clad crowd, the damp cemetery grass sinking slightly beneath the soles of my kitten heels. The heavy scent of rain and oversized funeral wreaths hangs thick in the air as the burial service for Owen’s mother officially commences. From where I’m hiding—ha
The maid nods rapidly, leaning in closer. "Oh, absolutely. And Madame Caroline is either too stupid to notice, or she’s just pretending not to know because she simply doesn't care enough about her husband to waste the energy. Honestly, I think she just uses it as an excuse to yell at him." I let ou
The vibration of my phone against the marble tabletop sounds like a gunshot in the quiet room. I glance down, expecting Nicholas checking in or maybe a notification from my legal team. Instead, the screen displays a number I’d rather throw into a woodchipper. Deckard. I slide the bar across the sc
"Are you blaming Sydney for your mother's death, Owen?" The weight of his question hits me like a bucket of ice water. I freeze, the reality of what I just muttered sinking in. What is wrong with me? How could I even think that, let alone say it out loud? The guilt, heavy and suffocating, slams i
The water is the only thing that doesn’t feel like it’s judging me right now. After Nicholas left, I couldn’t stand the silence of the house, so I headed straight for the pool. I need the physical burn of the laps to drown out the mental noise of everything he said. I dive in, the cold shock of the
I sit in the back of the car, the scent of raw egg and sulfur filling the cramped space until I feel like I might actually gag. I need to get clean, and I need to be somewhere that feels like mine—or at least, somewhere that doesn't smell like a holding cell. "Take me to the studio," I tell the dri







