Alexander’s POV
The house was too quiet once they left.
I sat in my study, the faint tick of the clock needling at my ears, my body restless in a chair that suddenly felt too small. I should have been working, contracts waited on my desk, a stack of files that needed signatures, but all I could see was Sonia’s face as she walked away from breakfast, pale and stricken, her eyes shuttered against me.
And Hayley’s laughter. Low, mocking, triumphant.
I pressed the heels of my hands to my eyes, a growl rising in my throat.
How had I let this happen?
Hayley’s return had unsettled me, yes, the memories, the history we shared, the guilt of how it had ended. But it wasn’t just about her anymore. It was about Sonia.
The girl who had lived across from me my whole life. The girl who still flinc
