EMMA
I should have known he wouldn’t leave it there.
Men like Damien Roche never do.
The estate had settled into a brittle, watchful quiet by the time I slipped away from the main hall. Not peace—never that—but the kind of silence that comes when everyone is listening for the first crack of thunder. I told myself I was just going to my room. I told myself I needed air. I told myself a lot of lies.
The truth was simpler and far more dangerous.
I needed to think without Gabriel’s presence pulling at me, grounding me, making it impossible to pretend everything was normal.
The corridor near the east wing was dimmer than the others, lit by old wall sconces that threw uneven shadows across stone. My footsteps echoed softly. Too softly. I was halfway down the hall when I felt it—that famili
