“He’s one cold bastard… got the news and didn’t bother calling the cops or even trying to come up with the ransom…”
The whispers behind me were sharp, but I couldn’t bring myself to care anymore.
Since the case was still under investigation, they wouldn’t release the body for burial. I signed a stack of paperwork and by the time I walked out of the station, night had already fallen.
I took a cab to see my brother.
He’d ended up fully paralyzed after getting beaten over one of Dad’s gambling debts. Aside from being conscious and able to twitch his fingers a little, the rest of his body was useless.
Doctors said his organs were shutting down. There wasn’t much point in keeping him alive.
He lay there in the bed, eyes half-closed, already asleep.
I tucked the blanket around him and sat beside him, speaking softly. I talked about Dad. About myself. About him. All the things we’d been through, all the pain I’d buried—once I started, I couldn’t stop. I stayed there talking until daylight broke and flooded the room.
God, I was exhausted.
A whole day and night—and Luna hadn’t even bothered to call.
When I got home, she was in the living room, laughing with a group of her students, casually discussing their upcoming business trip. The atmosphere was light and carefree.
I pulled the divorce papers from behind my back and slammed them on the table. The laughter stopped instantly.
Luna’s eyes snapped to me, blazing like fire through steel. “You disappear for a full day and this is what you come home with?”
She sneered. “What now? How exactly did you manage to get that four hundred fifty thousand dollars yesterday? Sell yourself to some rich man?”
Luna’s words were sharp and brutal—each syllable like a hooked blade. I didn’t even have the strength to argue anymore.
“I saw Cyrus get into a woman’s car yesterday morning,” Seth chimed in, resting his chin in his hand with a grin. “Looked like Professor Crawford—you know, the one who just got back from overseas?”
He glanced between me and Luna, eyes dancing with amusement.
The next second, Luna shot to her feet and slapped me hard across the face.
“This is why you want a divorce?”
“Vega comes back to town and suddenly you can’t keep it in your pants? That night at the gala—was that it? You saw her and couldn’t wait to throw divorce papers in my face, right!?”