I scroll to a number I only used once,Emily.
I hesitate, just a fraction, because this is crossing a line. Because she’s her sister, and she’ll hear the panic in my voice, and she’ll hate me for hurting Lucy.
Then I think about everything Rowan just said, and I hit call.
Because whatever pride I have left can burn.
The call goes to voicemail. I send her a quick message.
Me: Please, Emily, I need to know she is safe.
I grab my suit jacket. My Luggage and passport. The documents for this acquisition, papers I suddenly want to tear in half with my bare hands.
I text Caleb.
Me:Where are you? How far out?
Then I look at the shattered glass on the floor, the wreck of the room, and I feel something settle. Not calm, resolve.
My father started this.
But I’m going to finish it.
And I’m going to find my wife.
Not as an arrangement.
Not as a contract.
As the woman I love. The woman I should have protected.
The woman I will not lose.
Chapter 46 - Julian
Caleb arrives twenty minutes after Rowan’s call.
Twenty minutes is nothing in the grand scheme of a life, yet it feels like a lifetime when you’re standing in a hotel room with shattered glass on the carpet, your phone hot in your hand from calling your wife into voicemail again and again.
No answer.
No read receipt.
No sign she’s evenaliveon the other end of the silence.
I’m still in motion when the knock comes. I open the door before it finishes.
Caleb stands there like he always does, composed, controlled, jacket perfectly fitted, eyes scanning me with a single glance that takes in the dishevelled room, the tension in my shoulders, the violence I’ve left behind.
He doesn’t ask about the broken lamp.
He doesn’t ask why I look like I haven’t slept in days.
He just says, “Rowan filled me in.”
Good. Because if I have to explain the wordsmy father went after Lucyout loud again, I might continue to break things,apparently this is the new me.
I step back. Caleb walks in, sets a sleek laptop bag on the table, and pulls out a folder so thick it looks obscene.
