Chapter 54
Alexander
The Morning She Disappeared
The door slammed behind Aiden as he left, and suddenly the penthouse was too quiet. Not peaceful quiet—The kind that screams. The kind that wraps around your throat and squeezes until breathing feels optional.
Her scent was still woven into the sheets. Her slippers were still tucked neatly under the bed. Her mug sat beside the kettle, the tea stain inside it drying like a bruise. And she was gone.
Gone.
The word hit harder than any bullet ever had. Even the one Grace orchestrated. Even the ones I’d put into men who deserved far worse.
I didn’t sleep. Didn’t eat. Didn’t change clothes. I paced the length of the penthouse like an animal trapped inside its own skin. Every step echoed off the walls she used to fill with her laugh, her shy glances, her soft “good mornings.”
Every ticking second without her twisted tighter around my chest. Where is she? Is she safe? Did I scare her that much? The questions clawed at me. Her face replayed in my mind—Those wide, broken eyes as she looked at me like I was a stranger wearing the mask of the man she loved.
My bloodied fists on the screen. The man chained to the chair. The monster she thinks she saw.
I grabbed a glass from the counter and hurled it at the wall. It exploded into a thousand glittering shards, just like the fragile stability I’d built with her.
My breath came ragged. My hands shook. I barked orders at staff. I fired three people for asking questions. I threatened Aiden when he dared say:
“Maybe she needs space.”
Space.
“She’s carrying my children,” I snarled. “She doesn’t get space from me.”
But even then—even boiling, shaking, furious—I didn’t know who I was angrier at: Grace, for starting this war. I'm the one who didn't lock that goddamn door. Or Evelyn… for running.
No. Not Evelyn. Never her.
I slammed both palms onto the cold marble counter and lowered my head. “I’m getting her back,” I whispered into the silence. “I don’t care what it takes. I don’t care what I have to burn.”
Before I could reach for my phone, it rang. Sammy’s name lit the screen. And suddenly… the firestorm inside me sharpened into something cold. Precise. She knew something. She had to.
I swiped to answer, my voice a low blade. “Where is she?”