Is This The End?

RENEE

I’d heard “congratulations” a million times tonight, and my ears were still buzzing from it all.

Most were from people I barely knew—Robert's acquaintances and business associates—and I was grateful that they at least seemed genuine about it.

Their words were kind and, for the most part, calmed my ruffled nerves, but they weren't enough to dispel the lingering fear that’d settled over me like a cloak all evening.

There was a nagging voice in my head. A small whisper kept telling me that something bad would happen tonight. That danger was lurking around, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

Sometimes, I worried that my pregnancy hormones were to blame and whether it was affecting my mental health. But no, it couldn't be. The growing child inside me did not cause my feelings of paranoia and continual dread.

Instead, it had everything to do with what this party stood for.

I mean, I'd had this feeling ever since Dylan came into the suite to talk, and then Robert had this elabora