Chapter 22

Elias’s POV

I sat rigidly in my chair, utterly stunned by what I’d just heard. Time seemed to stop as she disclosed the harrowing truth about the plane crash. The Brooks family—a name I associated strictly with high-stakes deals and societal power plays—had actually tried to kill her. Was it even possible? A few minutes ago, we’d been discussing marriage, Dresden, and business strategies; now there was talk of attempted murder. I couldn’t process this avalanche of revelations in a single day—let alone at two in the morning under the harsh glare of my desk lamp.

“They tried to kill you?” I mumbled, my voice hoarse from shock.

“Why?” I added, though the question sounded hollow in the quiet room.

She spared me a brief glance, her eyes reflecting pain, then looked past me at nothing. The filtered streetlight through th