ACT 1 — IMMEDIATE CONTINUATION But across town, the situation was far from warm. Lorenzo Moretti sat in his dimly lit office, slamming his fist onto his desk. Dominic Romano had humiliated him in front of his men. The great syndicate boss paying a million dollars for a fat, discarded girl. It didn’t make sense….
ACT 1 — IMMEDIATE CONTINUATION Yet what moved Saraphina most wasn’t Rowan’s hardship. It was his humility. He never asked for anything. Never expected recognition. Never sought reward. Even after learning the truth, he seemed more concerned about getting back to the hospital than discussing himself. In a world where many people measured kindness by…
ACT 1 — IMMEDIATE CONTINUATION We drove on through the night. The storm eased, and the drive—because of the weather and the roads—took considerably longer than a normal run would have. We lost a lot of time to flooding and detours and crawling through the worst of it. Hours longer, honestly. And we finally arrived…
ACT 1 — IMMEDIATE CONTINUATION They sat cross-legged on the faded living room rug, separated by a pile of thin, splintering wood panels and tiny plastic window frames. The instructions—printed on a massive foldout sheet of cheap paper—were spread across the coffee table. Diana studied the diagrams with the same intense, narrowed focus she likely…
ACT 1 — IMMEDIATE CONTINUATION The drive took nearly an hour, heading north out of the city and deep into the affluent, heavily wooded suburbs of Lake Forest. The Escalade turned off the main road onto a private, winding driveway, flanked by towering iron gates that swung open silently at their approach. They drove through…
ACT 1 — IMMEDIATE CONTINUATION Killian worked with methodical efficiency once given permission, using tools she couldn’t name to remove the door from its hinges without damaging the surrounding frame. He leaned it against the wall and then turned his attention to the rotted wood around the strike plate, scraping away damaged material and evaluating…
ACT 1 — IMMEDIATE CONTINUATION The first call came 3 days later at 2:00 in the morning. I’d been waiting for it—sleeping in my scrubs, phone on the loudest setting, jumping at every notification. The anticipation was its own form of torture. Worse than the actual moment when “Unknown Caller” appeared on my screen. “Hello.”…
ACT 1 — IMMEDIATE CONTINUATION The apartment was everything Lorenzo had promised. Floor-to-ceiling windows. Modern furnishings. A bedroom bigger than the living room Adrian and I had shared. Lorenzo gave me a brief tour, showed me where everything was, then paused at the door. “There’s food in the kitchen, clothes in your size in the…
ACT 1 — IMMEDIATE CONTINUATION Dante Moretti did not take Clara Hayes to the nearest hospital. The thought came to him for one second as he carried her out of the broken apartment, her head resting against his shoulder, her body too still for a woman who had spent three years standing quietly between him…
ACT 1 — IMMEDIATE CONTINUATION Over the following months, Maris and I stayed in touch. What began as occasional phone calls became regular conversations, then visits. She would bring supplies from town. I would take her hiking through mountain trails once spring arrived. Her grandmother recovered slowly. Life moved forward for both of us. But…
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