Chapter 72

SEBASTIAN

The door closed behind Aidan with a soft click that sounded a lot louder than it should have. Dahlia hesitated for a moment, glancing at me like she wanted to explain something… anything… but all I could manage was:

“Aren’t you going to walk him out?”

Her lips parted, a quiet protest hovering there, but she swallowed it down and nodded instead. “Right.”

And then she was gone.

The office suddenly felt too big, too quiet, and too damn heavy. I sat there, jaw tight, watching the space she’d just occupied. Her perfume lingered faintly in the air… something light, something maddeningly soft… and it only made me angrier.

Because I didn’t mean to say that. I didn’t mean to let her go after him.

But the words had slipped out before I could stop them, laced with irritation I couldn’t name. Maybe it was Aidan’s smug grin. Maybe it was the way he said 'my Dahlia', like he had some kind of claim. Or maybe it was the fact that she di