ALEX.
The notification came in quietly, but it felt loud. My phone vibrated once against the table, subtle enough that no one else could have noticed, but Edmund did anyway. My heart reacted as if an alarm had gone off. I glanced down without thinking, and the moment I saw the message, my stomach dropped.
Derek.
I didn’t open it immediately. I just stared at the preview, my thumb hovering uselessly over the screen as dread crept up my spine.
“I know you might not want to hear this, but I need you to read everything…”
That alone told me everything I needed to know.
It was exactly how Derek wrote. Long-winded. Emotional. Dramatic. Like he was standing in front of me, blocking the door, refusing to let me leave until I listened.
Against my better judgment, I opened the message. It was
