Page 59 of The Broken Keys

Me:I need discreet surveillance on Livianna Hemings. Any locations she frequents. Priority level: Alpha. No contact. Just eyes unless you see something to be concerned about. If it’s an emergency, reach me on my personal cell phone.

I stare at the message for a few beats. This is wrong. I know it is.

She’s not mine anymore, if she ever really was. I have no claim to her movements, no right to monitor her life from behind the curtains like some phantom she can’t escape.

But the voicemail plays in my head again.I’m not okay.

And I can’t just walk away and hope she’s safe. I can’t trust that Cash will protect her the way she needs or that he’ll see the dangers I’ve spent years learning to anticipate.

She said she’s not okay, and I’m yards away in this fortress of a house, where I held her nightgown like a fucking coward.

I press send. The message is delivered with a soft whoosh that feels like surrender. It’s like admitting I’m too weak to let her go, too selfish to give her the clean break she deserves.

Axel responds within thirty seconds.

Axel:Confirmed. Team deployed within the hour.Updates every twelve hours unless urgent. Ghost protocol is in effect.

I gaze at the screen, at the words that make me both protector and monster.

This is what loving her has become: watching from a distance, making sure she’s taken care of while pretending I don’t exist. And making sure no one uses her to get to me while simultaneously using my resources to stay connected to her life.

Me:If there’s any sign of danger, anything, I want to know immediately. And Axel, she can never know.

Axel:Understood, sir.

I power down the phone and tuck it back into its hiding place, but the weight of what I’ve just done sits heavy in my heart.

This is how it has to be now. I can’t hold her or tell her the truth about who I am or why loving me is better from a distance.

But I can make sure she’s protected, even if she never knows I’m the one standing guard in the dark. Even if it kills me to love her from this far away.

I trudge to the window, peering out in the direction of her house. Somewhere out there, she’s probably lying awake the same way I am, both of us trapped in the carnage of what we almost had.

“I’m sorry,mon trésor.This is the only way I know how to keep you safe.”

But the night doesn’t answer, nor does she. It gives me enough of a pause to question everything.

A moment of clarity seeps into my thoughts. Maybe there is another way.

Chapter Thirteen

LIVIANNA/LILY

Now

The List I Can’t Unwrite

Love isn’t a choice. But confronting it? That’s brave.

My body is wrapped in heavy sleep. The kind of deep, dreamless unconsciousness that feels like drowning in mud.

When my phone rings, it tears through the silence like a sledgehammer, dragging me violently back to consciousness.

I fumble for it on the nightstand, my eyes still sealed shut, mascara probably streaked across my pillowcase. The screen is illuminated, and I squint at the name.

Ella.

“Hello?” My voice comes out raw and wrecked.