The silence that stretched across the sitting room was deafening.
I stood frozen at the threshold, the heavy oak door frame the only thing keeping my trembling knees from giving out entirely. My heart battered against my ribs like a trapped bird, each thud echoing loudly in my ears. Across the room, those silver, piercing gray eyes held me locked in place. Marcus didn't blink. His expression didn't change from the cold, unyielding mask I had seen in the penthouse, but I saw the subtle, dangerous tightening of his jaw. He knew exactly who I was. The dominant stranger who had pinned me to the floor, the man who had ruthlessly taken my body and then thrown a million dollars at me to buy my silence, was sitting on my mother’s velvet sofa.
"Elena! You're finally here!"
My mother’s voice brok
