Sixty nine

Belle’s POV

After I was done unpacking my clothes, although my mind still felt foggy from everything that had happened in the past few days, I tried to focus. The familiar task of organizing my things gave me something to do, something to distract myself from the swirling thoughts that refused to quiet down. I neatly folded the last of my shirts and placed them in the drawer. I sighed, glancing around the room Zane had set up for me in his penthouse. It was beautiful, spacious, and elegant, but the weight in my chest wouldn’t lift.

Just as I stood up, stretching out the tension that had gathered in my back, my phone rang again. My heart leaped with anxiety. After all the calls and messages I’d received earlier from my family, I wasn’t ready for more. I picked up the phone, dreading who it might be this time.

It was my elder brother, Elijah.

I stared at his name on the screen, my thumb hovering over the "answer" button. Elijah? Why would he be calling me? He had been as nonchalant as e