Just like five years ago.
A sound leaves me—low, raw, feral. Not fit for boardrooms or clean air. David freezes, reading the truth on my face. He doesn’t ask. He knows. This isn’t business anymore. This is about Della.
“She’s leaving,” I bite out, each word ground between my teeth. “We were supposed to meet for dinner, move forward. She was happy, she was—” I stop, fury shaking me. “What the hell happened?”
The chair crashes back into the wall as I surge to my feet. My blood is fire, my veins ice. I slam the intercom button, my voice cutting like glass.
“Call the hotel. Now. I don’t care who—manager, maid, anyone. I want to know if Miss Toma is still there. And if she isn’t, I want to know when she left, and how.”
“Yes, sir.”
I hang up before he finishes, already dialing Greg. My hand shakes so violently it slips on the screen.
Greg answers on the second ring, cheerful until he hears my voice. “Greg. Where’s Della? Tell me.”
He hesitates, then sighs.
“She left the office a couple of hours ago. She wasn’t feeling well.”
My heart claws its way into my throat. “Why? What happened?”
“Nothing, really. She met Miss Leah Kingsley right as she arrived at the office,” Greg admits. “Minutes later she asked to leave.”
The world goes still. My jaw locks, my teeth grinding until my temples throb.
Leah. Of course it was Leah.
She must have told her about the deal. About the one stain I hadn’t yet confessed.
My vision burns black at the edges. Rage and guilt coil in my gut like barbed wire.
“I thought she’d be happy about the news I gave her regarding the transfer file to Chicago,” Greg adds carefully. “But… she seemed…shattered.”
Shattered.
Because of Leah. Because of me.
The storm inside me twists tighter—devastation twisting with guilt and fury. I can feel it eating at me, hollowing me out.
The phone nearly cracks in my hand. I want to destroy everything in reach, burn the city to ash, find Leah and—
But first—before anything else—I have to find Della.
I will not lose her. Not again.
If I have to drain the ocean to bring her back, I will.
Chapter 20
ANOTHER WORLD
A quiet shore can't calm a storm in the heart
Della
No matter how many miles I put between us, the pain is still fresh and sharp. It doesn’t fade away.
Dorian is still in my heart, in my mind, on my skin… and Leah’s thorns are still deeply embedded in my chest, tearing me apart with every breath.
