Chapter 31
Alexander
His Penthouse
Saturday Night
The room is dark. Not dim. Not low-lit. Dark—like someone sucked all the oxygen out of the air and left only memory behind. Grace is in the guest suite, humming to herself like a woman who thinks she’s already won.
I can hear her moving around—unpacking, settling in, poisoning the walls with her perfume. She thinks she’s still part of my life. She thinks she still has access to my oxygen.
My phone buzzes. A calendar reminder. Evelyn’s next weekly report is due on Monday. My hand tightens around the device as I open our thread. My last message sits there untouched. Delivered.
Not read.
A cold crack runs through my chest—thin, precise, surgical. She’s slipping away from me. I type anyway. One last message I have no right to send. Alexander Black: Please… just wait. I’m sorry. Later, you will understand.
I stare at the screen long after the message lands. Nothing. No dots. No breath. She’s gone from my phone the same way she’s gone from my gaze. I sit in the dark and do the one thing I swore I’d never do again—not since Grace nearly ended me.
I pray. Not for myself. For Evelyn. That she doesn’t give up on me before I find a way to destroy the woman who once tried to kill me…and is now trying to take the only good thing I’ve touched in years.