Chapter 53

Liam

I stood there long after she walked away, my chest heaving, my hands still tingling from the feel of her waist under my palms. Her scent lingered in the night air, wild, maddening, and entirely Alaria.

And for a few seconds, all I could think about was her. For a few seconds, all I could remember was the two of us being together, her as my wife and I her husband, long before I chose a path that I now regretted.

I wanted to follow her. I wanted to pull her back, to keep her there until she stopped running from me, until she admitted what I already knew she felt. But she’d made her choice in those last words, and for once, I didn’t chase.

Because I knew that if I did, it was just going to make things worse. And I knew that giving her the space she needed was the only option that I had right now.

When I finally made my way back to the villa, the silence hit me first, thick, heavy, suffocating. It was empty and void of life. The whole house was