Chapter 6

Caroline POV

The silence in the penthouse held a different weight than the silence in the hospital.

The hospital silence was sterile, a void punctuated by the rhythmic beeping of machines that kept people alive. The silence here was heavy, suffocating-charged like the static air before a tornado touches down.

I had discharged myself against medical advice. The nurses had protested, citing the fresh plaster encasing my leg and the stitches in my shoulder, but I couldn't endure another hour in that room.

Every time the door opened, I expected to see him. And every time it wasn't him, a small, pathetic part of me withered and died.

I needed to be home. I needed access to the safe.

I maneuvered into the living room, the rubber tips of my crutches sinking into the plush Persian rugs. The city lights of Chicago bled through the floor-to-ceiling windows, casting long, distorted shadows across the furniture.

The study door was open.

A strip of warm, yellow light spilled into the hallway. The scent hit me before the light did-peat, smoke, and the distinct burn of the Macallan 25.

I moved closer.

Blake was slumped in his leather armchair. His tie was undone, hanging loosely around his neck like a noose. His head was thrown back, eyes closed, a half-empty tumbler dangling precariously from his fingers.

He looked utterly destroyed.

For a fleeting second, my heart faltered. Maybe the guilt was eating him alive. Maybe he was drinking to drown out the image of his wife buried under a chandelier while he protected another woman.

I stepped into the room. My crutch struck the doorframe with a soft click.

He stirred. He didn't open his eyes. He just shifted, turning his face into the leather wing of the chair.

"Ari."

The name was slurred, thick with alcohol and sleep.

I froze, the air trapped in my throat.

"Don't leave," he whispered. It sounded like a prayer.

I stood there, gripping the handles of my crutches until my knuckles turned white. He wasn't mourning his actions. He was dreaming of her. Even in his sleep, in the sanctuary of our home, she was the ghost haunting the corridors of his mind.

"It's not Ari," I said. My voice was raspy, dry from days of silence. "It's your wife."

He didn't wake up. He just let out a long, ragged sigh.

"Five years," he muttered into the darkness. "A waste. Just a waste."

The air left my lungs as if I'd been punched in the gut.

Five years. The length of our marriage. The length of the treaty between our families.

To him, it wasn't a partnership. It wasn't a life. It was a waste of time. A placeholder era while he waited for the universe to give him back the woman he actually wanted.

I looked at him. The Surgeon Prince. The Underboss. The man who had vowed to protect me before God and the Family.

He looked small.

I didn't feel angry. That was the strangest part. The rage that had fueled me in the hospital, the fire that had burned when the chandelier fell-it was extinguished.

In its place was a cold, vast emptiness. It was the sensation of a structure that had finally collapsed, leaving nothing but dust settling on the ground.

I turned around.

I went to the bedroom. I didn't turn on the lights. I sat on the edge of the bed and pulled the ledger from the nightstand drawer.

I opened it to the page marked with today's date.

Minus five points. He called our life a waste.

Total Score: 0.

I stared at the number. It was a perfect circle. A zero. The end of the countdown.

I didn't cry. I didn't shake. I felt lighter than I had in years.

I picked up my phone and dialed a number I had memorized but never used.

"I need the papers," I said into the receiver. "And I need the extraction team on standby."