CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The walk to Marcus’s office felt like a death march Arta’s heels sank into thick carpet, each stepechoing the pounding in her chest.
Light spilled from under his door–ahways working late, always plotting someone’s downfall. Just like he had with her mother.
She didn’t knock. The heavy oak door swung open silently, revealing Marcus at his desk, hacklit by the city lights beyond his floor–to–ceiling windows.
was wondering when you’d conse.” He didn’t look up from his laptop. “David’s quite theatrical, isn’t he?”
“Did you laugh?” The words tasted like blood Inher mouth. “When she jumped?
Marcus’s fingen stilled on the keyboard. “Ah!
That’s what this is about.”
“Did you watch her fall?” Aria stepped closer, her shadow stretching across his desk. “Or did you turn away, like the coward you are?”
“Careful.” He finally met her eyes. “You’re emotional”
“Emotional?” She laughed, the sound sharp enough to cut. “You drove my mother to suicide.”
“Isabella made her own choices. Marcus closed his laptop with a decisive click “Just like you’re making yours.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
He stood, towering over her like he always had “It means you should think very carefully about your next move,”
“orwhat?” Ada’s fingers curled into lists. “You’ll destroy me too?=
“Do you think anyone would hire aconductor who slept her way through the Holloway family?” His smile didn’t reach his eyes. “One phone call, and your career disappears.”
“You bastard” The words came out as a whisper.
“I protected you.” He circled the desk, reaching for her face. “Everything I’ve done
Ana slapped his hand away. “Don’t touch me!”
“Still playing the victim?” His tone hardened. “You came to me, remember? Practically begged for my attention.”
“Because I thought–She choked on the words. “I wanted to destroy you.”
Marcus laughed, the sound bouncing off the windows. “Destroy me? Little girl, I’ve eaten better players than you for breakfast.
His hand shot out, gripping her arm hard enough to bruise. Aria twisted away, but he was stronger, palling her against his chest.
“You’re just like her,” he hissed in her ear. “So convinced you could play in the big leagues. But you re nothing but a scared little girl playing dress–up
“Let go!” She thrashed against him, panic rising in her throat.
“Or what?” His góp tightened. “You’ll jump too? Add to the family tradition?
Something snapped inside Arta’s chest. She drove her elbow back, catching him in the solar plexus.
Marcus stumbled, dragging her with him. They grappled, his cologne choling her as she clawed at his face.
Herbeel caught on the carpet. They stumbled together, Marcus’s back hitting the window with a hollow thud.
Spider web cracks appeared in the glass behind him.
For a moment, time stopped. Aria saw hermother’s face reflected in the fractures, saw twenty years of pain and lies and manipulation crystallized in that broken pallern
Then she pushed.
The glass exploded outward in a shower of diamonds. Marcus’s eyes went wide, his hand still locked around her armas he teetered on the edge.
Aria wenched free. The momentum sent him backward, his mouth forming a perfect ‘O‘ of surprise as he fell,
She didn’t watchi
The night at howded through the broken window, carrying distant sirens. Arla stared at her hands, expecting to see blood.
They were clean. Unmarked. Like nothing bad happened at all.
Her legs camed her from the office on autopilot. Through the halls she’d once walked as a queen, up the stairs to the bedroom she’d shared with David.
Harir bedroom. Her prison. Herstage.
Her hands moved mechanically, pulling clothes fromthangers Silk whispered against silkas she stuffed dresses into a sudicase
A photo fell from between folded sweaters – her and David at the symphony gala, both smiling at the camera. Before Sota. Before everything.
She let it fall to the flour, glass cracking in its frame.
Mode stuens wailed outside. Soon they’d come looking forlier. Ask questions Want answers
The mitcase was too small for everything. She abandoned it, grabbing a weekend bag instead, Essential items only the bare minimums needed to disappear
Her fingers brushed something hard in the closer’s backcomer. Her mother’s old violin case, stored away like the family secret it had become.
„Aria pulled it out, running her fingers over the worleather. Inside, the instrument gleamed in the dim light, strings waiting to sing their last lament.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
She added it to her bag.
From somewhere downstairs, she heard shouting. Heavy footsteps. The sound of authority arriving to restore order to chaos.
Too late, she thought. Twenty years too late..
The bag felt light on her shoulder as she moved to the balcony. The same balcony where David had shattered her world hours ago.
