The silence on the other end of the line was heavy, thick with the ghosts of Manhattan and the broken pieces of a marriage built on a foundation of shifting sand. I stood in the middle of a French vineyard, the cold mist biting at my skin like a thousand needles, clutching the burner phone like it was a detonator. My heart was thumping a rhythmic war drum against my ribs. I had spent months running from this man, using every ounce of my soul to escape his gravity, but now, he was the only one who could give me the ammunition for my revenge.
"Elena?" Silas’s voice was a rough, fractured whisper.
It was the first time I’d heard him sound human. Vulnerable, even. The cold, untouchable titan of Thorne Global sounded like a man drowning in his own shadows, gasping for air in a house that had
