himself into the back of his Bentley, his chest tight, his breathing ragged. Logic screamed at him tha

loop in his skull. If I had survived that fall, I wouldn't be

nsuming him was madness. A delusion born of guilt. Was this his punishment? To see his dead wife's face in every woman who walked through the city? To be haunted by a ghost of his own making? He couldn't decide which outcome he dreaded more. The hope that she had survived was a knife twisting in his chest-because if she had, she had every reason to

ced concern. "Alistair, darling, what happened? Don'

ords grated on his nerves. "Be quiet, Elara," he

ir," she said, her voice dropping, losing its sweetness, "you're obsessed with a dead woma

," he said coldly,

st our baby because of her," she hisse

empty. "It says I'm a man who kno

le. She said

ir. He went straight to the Carlisle Group headquarters, the towering glass monument to his power.

Alistair commanded, his voice tight with urgency. "Everything. From the

s pocket, on the desk. "And this. I want it compared against DNA fr

to impossible requests,

eridia City spread out below him. He was the king of this city, yet he

st. He had a threat. I'd be her

n't used in months. "Jed," he said when the line

ause. Then: "Sir?

'm thinking differently." He hu

sedan. In the car seat beside her, a three-year-old girl with h

ook at her. He handed her a bottle of water, his exp

r did little to soothe the fire in her chest. She recounted the en

eatened him directly? That's dan

clearly. They react." She glanced at Luna. "I needed him to know that if he comes

for a long moment

tly. "The woman who loved

never knew? About

e. I found out by accident when I was eighteen and I buried it. I never wanted to be d

lines were

't care what it costs," she hissed into her phone. "Find out everything about Chloe Ashford. And