Chapter 186

Kelly POV

The call came in the middle of the night.

I wake up to the sound of my phone vibrating on the nightstand. My first thought is that it’s Adrian, maybe he’s checking in from the living room where he sometimes falls asleep after reading. But when I grab my phone and see Susan’s name glowing on the screen, my stomach twists.

I answer on the second ring.

“He’s gone,” she says softly.

Two words. Just two words, and for a second, I feel absolutely nothing.

I sit there in the dark, the phone pressed to my ear, my mind blank. I should have expected it, Anderson’s health had been failing, and yet… hearing it, knowing it’s real, knowing there will never be another word, another regret-filled gaze, it’s different.

Susan stays quiet, as if she knows I needed a moment.

Then, like a wave finally crashing, it hits. A sharp, aching weight pressing down on my chest. My throat tightens, my vision blurs, and before I can stop it, I let ou