Chapter 85

The room was quiet, too quiet, except for the steady tick of the clock on the nightstand. Amelia lay sprawled on her side, her eyes fixed on the ceiling though the lamp had long been switched off. The sheets tangled around her legs felt heavy, suffocating.

Every time she closed her eyes, his face appeared. Adrian’s expression at the board meeting, the shock, the silence, the way his gaze clung to her like a shadow. It replayed over and over, as if her mind refused to let her rest.

She shifted, punching the pillow beneath her head. It was no use. Her chest tightened with unspoken emotions, emotions of anger, hurt, but also something far more dangerous: the faint ache of old memories, the ones she thought she had buried.

Rolling onto her back, Amelia pressed the heel of her palm against her forehead, whispering to the darkness, ‘Why now? Why did he have to come back now?’

But the silence gave no answer, and still her heart raced as if it, too, was wide awake.