Chapter 170

SEBASTIAN

The house was quiet in the way only expensive places ever were—thick walls, muted echoes, silence that pretended to be peace. It wasn’t peace. It was a holding cell for thoughts too violent to let loose.

I sat in the living room long after we left Dahlia’s dorm.

I didn’t remember driving back.

Diego stood near the window, phone pressed to his ear, pacing in tight lines like a man trying not to crack under the weight of what he’d uncovered. Every now and then, he glanced at me like he was deciding how much damage the truth would cause.

My knuckles were still white.

The sound of her sobbing behind that door replayed on a loop in my head. Quiet. Broken. Defeated. The kind of crying that meant someone had already lost something vital.

I would have burned the world to make it stop.

Diego finally ended the call.

He didn’t speak immediately.

That was how I knew whatever he’d found was bad. He’s been on call since the dri