“What?” My voice is laced with confusion and dread.
She looks at me. No, she looks straightthroughme, and says the words that unravel me from the inside out.
“I’ll help you get rid of the clause. Then… you can marry whoever.”
FOURTEEN
Cece
I stare at the message on my screen, forcing an impassive expression I barely have the strength to hold. My grip on the steering wheel is tight. White-knuckled.
It’s not Levi’s message that has me trembling—but now, at least, it makes sense.
Levi: There’s some development. I’m heading to my parents’ house. But we need to talk. Be at their place in an hour if you can.
I’d just dropped Vi off at our parents’ place, already planning to head to the Astor estate like Levi asked.
That’s when my phone pinged again.
I wasn’t going to look. I was driving. But when I saw the sender—Unknown—my eyes flew to itanyway.
And now I think I’m losing my mind.
Unknown: Thought you should know who he is with when not with you.
Attached are two photos.
The first is from my parents’ anniversary party. Levi and Iris huddled together in a corner, his expression sharp—heated in a way that could be anger… or something else. Something more intimate. Something I don’t want to name. It must’ve been after I left.
But it’s the second photo that nearly brings me to tears.
Levi—his back to the camera—is unmistakable. Even grainy and taken from a distance, I’d recognize that silhouette anywhere. That suit. Thatstance.
Feminine hands rest lightly on his shoulders. Iris. Her face isn’t fully visible, but I can see the length of her hair—falling just shy of her waist.
They’re in the Astor cafeteria. Empty. I don’t know when the photo was taken, but it’s definitely not ten years old.
My throat pulses with a panicked beat.
This. Then his message. The timing is impossible to ignore. And I wretchedly recall how he didn’t even call mebabyin that message. That’s an odd thing to focus on, but my mind hollows out in its absence anyway.
I blink rapidly, trying to clear my vision—trying to focus enough to drive to the Astor estate.
But right now, I don’t know what I’ll find when I get there.
??????
“I loved Iris.”
I hear Levi’s unmistakable raging voice as I enter the estate, just a few feet away from the sitting room. I also notice the hint of sorrow there.
“And you took her away from me.”
My stomach sinks to the floor at his words.
“You used your influence, your threats, and you dismantled the one thing in my life that was mine back then. So then I did everything you asked after that. I played the part. But it’s still not fucking good enough, is it?”
Oh god!His parents threatened Iris? That’s why they broke up, isn’t it?
