f my horses on the estate grounds when the saddle suddenly came

his face a mask of grim concern. For a fleeting moment, I had thought, He does care. H

the horse that day. She must have tampered with it. And Liam' s "rescue" wasn't a heroic act of love;

home, and headed toward a new, uncertain life with Ethan Miller. I didn't

el, with a panoramic view of the city. It was the com

an I expected, with a calm, steady presenc

I've had a room prepared for you.

a whisper. I felt emotionally exhaust

of my situation crashed down on me. I had run from

a dark alley, a shortcut I thought I knew, and suddenly two men were blocking my pat

lady, and no one gets h

g, ready to run, but the other man grabbed my arm,

a phone, angled just so. He wasn't just robbing me. He was filming it. And in the ref

lo

anted to humiliate me, to show me how helpless I

gling against the man's g

oe smiled, a cold, satisfied little smirk, before me

the screech of tires. A black sedan swerved into the alley's entra

wasn't any of my so

as E

rously low. His security team fanned o

aporating. They dropped my bag and

his hands gently checking

his jacket around my shoulders. It was warm and smelled faintly of sandalwood. He didn

age on a scrape on my arm, my phone buzzed. It

e alley, filmed from the mugger's perspective. It ended with a

n you're all alone, Ava.

oming back so their plan could continue. He didn't save me. He let it happen, and then sent the video

se. He said he was worried about me. He brough

voice laced with concern. "You shouldn

and felt nothing but ice in my veins. I was co

e, Liam?" I aske

yes searching mine. "We all

doubt was a nagging whisper in my mind. What if I was wr

my room when I overheard Ethan on the phone in

two men were hired. I have their bank records. The payment came from an offshore a

nst the wall,

g. The footage shows him meeting with the men beforehand and

ose men to terrorize me. The soup, the concerned words, they were all part of the act. He had sto

at moment, replaced by a cold, burning certainty.