“Who?”
“Julian. He said he had bad news. A girl had been found at the base of the clock tower on campus.” He stopped to draw in a shaky breath, blinking rapidly like he was trying to hold back tears. His hands were gripping his knees so hard his knuckles had turned white. “Before he even said her name… I just knew. I got a chill through my body, and Iknew.”
“What did you do?” I asked in a low voice.
“I ran over to the tower, and I… I saw her lying there.” His voice cracked completely, and he pressed the heels of his palms against his eyes. “I saw her friends too, crying and holding each other. They eventually noticed me, and… the looks they gave me. It was pure hatred.”
“They thought you did it.”
“It wasn’t just them. The Club assumed it was me too, because I was the one who put her name on the List, and then she was killed during the hunt. So I guess it just seemed obvious to them that I did it, even though it wasn’t true,” he said. “They initiated the coverup right away, to make sure nothing ever made it to the news.”
‘They even paid off the dean to bury it as much as possible, right?”
“Yes. So the case didn’t go anywhere. The media never picked up the story, and the Club was safe from public scrutiny. But… Cal was gone. Gone forever, and I—”
His voice shattered completely then. He doubled over, elbows on his knees, face in his hands, and a sound tore from his throat that was barely human. A raw, guttural sob that seemed to come from somewhere deep inside him, somewhere he'd been keeping locked away.
“Roman…” I said softly, trying to bring him back, but he didn’t seem to hear me.
His whole body was shaking now, shoulders heaving, breath coming in ragged gasps between sobs that wracked him like physical blows. He tried to speak, tried to say something else, but all that came out were broken sounds and gasping breaths.
I sat frozen against the cold stone wall, watching him completely shatter in front of me. This wasn't performance. This wasn't manipulation. This was grief in its rawest, most unfiltered form; the kind that destroyed you from the inside out, that left you gutted and empty and barely able to breathe.
“I loved her,” he finally managed to choke out between sobs, his voice so thick with tears it was almost incomprehensible. “I loved her so fucking much, and I… I failed her. I should've been there. I should've protected her. It's my fault she's dead. My fault.”
He kept saying it, over and over. “My fault. My fault. My fault.”
Each repetition was punctuated by another wracking sob, his entire body convulsing with the force of his grief. That was when I knew. Not suspected. Not wondered.Knew.
Roman Valcourt hadn't killed my sister.
He'd loved her. Truly, devastatingly loved her in a way that had destroyed him when he lost her. The kind of love that still tore him apart a year later, that left him sobbing in front of another person because he couldn't hold it in anymore.
That meant everything I'd believed up until this moment was wrong. Which meant Cal's real killer was still out there… and I had no idea who they were.
32
Julian
I'd searchedtwelve cells so far, with nothing to show for it. The labyrinth beneath the estate was massive; a warren of passages and chambers that dated back centuries. Roman could’ve taken Violet to any one of them.
My phone buzzed. The security team had managed to recover more footage from the recycle bin.
I pulled it up as I strode down another damp corridor, my footsteps echoing off ancient stone. The video showed Roman carrying Violet through the south wing, then disappearing down a service stairwell. After that, nothing.
I'd already checked with every guard stationed along the estate perimeter. No one had seen Roman leave, and no vehicles had departed since I arrived. That meant he was still on the estate.
The tunnels were a possibility—the old passages that connected the estate to BHU—but that didn't make sense. Roman would’ve been spotted by the exterior guards when he emerged from the mansion to access the tunnel entrance. And more importantly, carrying an unconscious woman throughmiles of underground tunnels would be exhausting, even for someone as physically fit as Roman.
No. He was still here. Still somewhere within the estate walls.
Which meant I needed to think like my brother. Where would he take her that would give him time to do whatever he wanted to do with her? Somewhere isolated, somewhere no one would think to look immediately, somewhere with...
That was when I’d realized he’d taken her down to the cells.
Most of the staff didn't even know they existed beyond the labyrinth down there, but Roman and I had found and explored them as children, playing hide and seek in the darkness.
I changed direction, heading toward the next cell, jaw clenched so tight it ached. Every minute that passed was another minute Violet was alone with Roman. Another minute she was frightened, possibly hurt.
