By the time dusk bled into night, Ryan found himself back in his car, hands gripping the steering wheel hard enough to ache. He’d searched every place they’d stood side by side, every corner where she’d rolled her eyes at him or smirked when he’d done something stupid. Each empty space carved the truth deeper into him.
The apartment hadn't just been robbed; it had been hollowed out. And she was gone. The wound was wide, raw, and hemorrhaging: Claire was missing, and the silence she left behind was louder than any boardroom shouting match. There was nothing left to do but return to his world.
Pierce Capital welcomed him the next morning with the same polished reverence it always had, but the man who stepped through the glass doors was a stranger to the "Ryan" who had left. Whatever warmth
