Chapter 124

Giovanni

The silence in my study was thicker than usual.

It was silent to the point where it was actually annoying. The silence was supposed to be peaceful. I could not help but find myself getting lost in more thoughts than I wanted to be.

No wind. No sound. Just the low tick of the grandfather clock and the weight of disappointment pressing down on my chest like a vice.

She was failing.

Delilah.

And though I did not want to admit it, not out loud, I knew that she was.

The one I spent years shaping. Hiding. Training. Feeding with secrets and half-truths. She was supposed to be different. She had to be different. I had carved her from the ruin of my past, created her in the shadow of everything I had lost.

And now she was faltering.

Now she was weakening. Now she could not see past Damon Lockwood and he could not even look at her. He would not even spare her a glance.

“You’re putting too much faith in her,” a voice s