ast shred of denial that clung to the edges of his shattered heart. He told Olivia he was meeting with a supplier acros

tel bar. He got there first, taking a small table in a dark corner, a baseball cap pulled low

ually around her shoulders, his fingers stroking her bare arm. They didn't look like friends. They looked like lovers. They took a

s clenched into fists under the table, his nails digging into his palms. The image burned itself into his brain, a per

to them. She was exactly as he imagined from her texts:

g across the quiet bar. "How is our lit

course meal last night. He actually th

on. The one thing he had always been proud of, the thing he

m touch you," Leo chimed in, wrinkling his nos

about what Isabella did, ruining my father, I can stomach anything. And the payoff wil

ng forward. "After you've broken him, he'll be so desperate

eir laughing faces in. He wanted to scream until his throat was raw. But he stayed frozen in his chair,

movements stiff and unnatural. He made it to the street before his composure cracked. He d

icting. A dry, ragged sob escaped his lips. He cried, not just for the love he thought he had, but for

in a hotel bar, listening to th

tarted to flicker on. When he finally stood up, his legs were numb. The grief was still t

. The face staring back at him was pale and drawn, but the

His steps were steady, his purpose clear. They wanted to see him break. They