Chapter 181
Chapter 181:
As the heavy oak doors closed behind her, the glitter of the gala seemed to fade, replaced by the cold, rhythmic pounding of a different storm. His mind, fractured by grief and guilt, dragged him back to the moment his world truly ended.
[Flashback: One Month Ago, The Night of the Explosion]
The rain was relentless. It wasn’t just falling; it was attacking the earth, driving into the sand like millions of tiny, freezing needles. The ocean was a churning cauldron of gray and black, the waves smashing against the jagged rocks of the coastline with a violence that shook the ground beneath Liam Kensington’s boots.
He didn’t feel the cold. He didn’t feel the icy water soaking through his dress shirt, plastering the expensive fabric to his shivering skin like a second, suffocating layer. He didn’t feel the mud sucking at his boots, threatening to drag him down with every stumbling step along the desolate shoreline.
“Skye!” he screamed, his voice raw, tearing at his throat.
The wind ripped the name from his lips and swallowed it whole, tossing it into the roaring abyss of the Atlantic. It had been twelve hours. Twelve hours since the explosion. Twelve hours since his world had ended in a ball of fire and twisting metal.
He fell to his knees in the wet sand, digging frantically with his bare hands. His fingernails were torn and bleeding, but he didn’t stop. He didn’t know what he was looking for—a piece of fabric, a hand, anything that proved she wasn’t gone. Anything that proved the universe wasn’t this cruel.
“Mr. Kensington p>
Secretary Lee ran toward him, struggling to keep a black umbrella upright in the gale, his shoes slipping on the slick rocks. “Sir! Please! The Coast Guard called it off hours ago! It’s unsafe! The tide is coming in p>
“Get away from me!” Liam roared, shoving Lee back with a strength born of pure adrenaline and madness. He scrambled up, eyes wild, hair plastered to his skull, scanning the debris line where the tide had deposited driftwood and trash. “She’s here! She has to be here! She’s a strong swimmer, Lee. You don’t know her like I do. She wouldn’t just… leave p>
But the voice in his head whispered the truth he refused to hear.
𝘔o𝘳𝘦 𝗻𝗈𝗏е𝗹𝘀 о𝗇 𝘣𝖾.𝘤o𝗆
You killed her. You hesitated. You let Beatrice freeze the money.
The guilt was a physical thing, a parasite eating him from the inside, heavier than the water in his lungs.
A man in a yellow slicker approached—the captain of the private search-and-rescue team Liam had hired after the official authorities gave up. He looked grim, his face set in lines of professional pity. He held a plastic evidence bag.
Liam stopped breathing. The world narrowed to that plastic bag. The sound of the ocean faded into a dull, roaring buzz.
“Mr. Kensington,” the captain said, his voice heavy, having to shout over the wind. “We found something. About two miles downcurrent, caught in the rocks p>
Lightning flashed, illuminating the contents of the bag in a stark, horrific white light.
It was a shoe. A black Chanel heel with a distinct red sole. The leather was scuffed and waterlogged, the strap broken as if it had been ripped away by force.
Liam stared at it. His brain tried to reject what he was seeing. It was just a shoe. It could belong to anyone. Thousands of women bought shoes like that.
But he knew.
He remembered the day she bought them. He remembered complaining about the price, asking why she needed another pair. He remembered seeing her wear them that night at the Royal Restaurant, the way they clicked against the floor when she walked away from him—walking away because he had chosen Seraphina. Again.