Chapter 119.
Alek keeps replaying Ward’s words.
You never said the word.
She can still hear Tipton’s muffled voice behind that door, like the building itself is swallowing him.
Then the doors open into another conference room—bright, expensive, unreal.
Wyatt is there waiting for them.
So is Hannah Wagner.
Alek freezes. It’s like seeing a ghost walk into sunlight.
“How?” Alek finally blurts. “What are you doing here?”
Hannah looks tired. Alive. Real. She takes one step forward.
She doesn’t run. She doesn’t do melodrama. She just says, “I’m sorry.”
Alek’s throat locks. “For what?”
“For leaving you with him,” Hannah says.
Alek is already moving. She grabs Hannah—hard. Not gentle. The type of hug that’s half relief, half anger.
Hannah’s voice is in her ear. “We’re alive. That’s the first miracle.”
Alek pulls back, eyes wet. “Why didn’t you say goodbye?”
Hannah swallows. “Because if I said it out loud, it would’ve been real.”
“After this . . . you and me. No more disappearing. Deal?”
Hannah nods once. “Deal.”
Wyatt lifts both hands, palms out, like he’s trying not to get hit.
“I know it’s a lot, Alek,” Wyatt says. “We’re gonna need a minute.”
“More than a minute,” Jimmy says, jumping back in. “Everybody just hang in, because the story you’re about to hear is worth it. And you know I love a good story.”
He pauses and says, “There have been times over the past few days when I wasn’t sure. But now here we are, we’re still together, and it’s finally going to end the way it should’ve ended a long time ago.”
The air in this spacious, sunny room is crackling with excitement and Jimmy’s energy. Alek thinks it might be enough in the moment to power this skyscraper.
But she continues to feel dumbstruck by the presence of Hannah. In Dubai. In this room. Back with Wyatt, back with all these people who mean so much to her.
Alek doesn’t know whether to cry or scream. For the first time in a long time, she feels something close to hope.
And it scares the hell out of her.