Chapter 127
Chapter 127:
Back at the safe house, the deed was done.
The incense had burned down to ash. The air was clearing.
Liam woke up. His head pounded like a drum. His mouth tasted like ash.
He opened his eyes. He realized he was in bed.
He turned his head.
Seraphina was sleeping next to him, naked, her arm thrown possessively across his chest.
The horror crashed down on him instantly.
The memory of the last hour was blurry, but he remembered enough. He remembered calling her Skye. He remembered the physical act.
He sat up, bile rising in his throat.
He had betrayed Skye. Not just emotionally this time. He had betrayed the memory of her, the hope of her. He had slept with the woman who tried to destroy her, thinking it was her.
He looked at Seraphina. She wasn’t dead. She wasn’t dying.
She was sleeping peacefully.
It was a trap. A honey trap. And he had walked right into it.
Liam stared at the ceiling. He felt dead inside. He felt a hollowness that no amount of money or power could fill.
“I am damned,” he whispered to the dark room.
Three days later.
Skye received a summons. It wasn’t a legal document. It was a text from her uncle, Arthur Sterling.
Family dinner. Sterling Estate. 7 PM. If you don’t come, I sell your mother’s jewelry collection to a pawn shop.
Skye stared at the phone. Her mother’s jewelry—the last of her heritage that wasn’t tied up in the trust.
𝗘n𝘫𝘰у 𝘳eа𝖽𝘪ո𝗴 𝗅𝘦𝗴𝘢𝗹ly 𝗈𝘯 𝖻𝖾lո𝗈𝘷𝗲𝗅ѕ.co𝘮
“It’s a trap,” Harper said, reading over her shoulder.
“I know,” Skye said. She opened her desk drawer and pulled out a small, discreet recording device. She taped it to the inside of her bra. “But I have to go. They’re desperate. Desperate people make mistakes. I need them to admit to the fraud on tape p>
She arrived at the Sterling Estate at 7:00 PM. The old mansion looked decaying, the ivy overgrown, the paint peeling. It smelled of mildew and old money gone sour.
Aunt Petunia greeted her at the door. Her smile was tight, her lipstick bleeding into the cracks around her mouth.
“Skye! So glad you could make it p>
“Where is the jewelry, Petunia?” Skye asked, stepping inside.
“In the safe, dear. We’ll discuss it after dinner p>
They moved to the dining room. Uncle Arthur sat at the head of the table. The seat usually reserved for Victor was empty.
And there was another guest—Timothy Hayes. Petunia’s brother. A man known for his slimy business deals and wandering hands. He looked at Skye with a gaze that made her skin crawl.
“Sit,” Arthur commanded.