Victor’s POV
I was sitting in the dark when her call came in.
The house was quiet but tonight the silence felt different like the walls themselves were waiting for something. I had been thinking about her for hours, replaying the café, the way her pulse jumped under my fingers, the way she looked at me when I told her to stop lying to herself.
She was lying to herself still and I could feel it.
My phone lit up on the table beside me. I could see her picture I had saved from Marcus's social media months ago, before I ever touched her hand.
I picked it up before the second ring.
"Iris?"
No response. Just loud music pounding in the background, voices overlapping and the sharp clatter of glasses. She was at a bar.
My grip tightened on the phone.
Then another voice came through, high
