The silence in the study was sharper than any blade. Silas stood in the doorway, the dim light from the hallway casting his shadow across the floor like a giant reclaiming his territory. He didn't look angry which was worse. He looked hollowed out, as if the sight of me standing over his open safe had finally snapped the last string of trust that had been holding us together.
“I wanted to believe you were different, Elena,” Silas said. His voice was a low, dangerous rumble that seemed to vibrate through the very floorboards. “I told myself that the woman who saved my son from Barnabas, the woman who looked at me with such fire in her eyes, couldn't possibly be the same person who would crawl into my office at midnight to rob me.”
“I’m not robbing you, Silas,” I said, my voice trembling a
