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Chapter 73: Silent Cracks

last update Last Updated: 2025-04-27 21:10:09

Daniel POV

The door slammed behind me, rattling in its frame. Silence swallowed the penthouse, the only sound my heavy breathing, still ragged from the argument. I dropped Wendy off at her apartment, I couldn’t stand her presence anywhere near me.

I tore off the tailored jacket, flinging it across the back of the nearest chair. It slid off and hit the floor, but I didn’t care. I ripped at the buttons of my shirt next, needing to get free of the fabric, of the night, of everything Wendy Hawthorne had just dragged me into.

I stalked across the room, ignoring the glittering skyline outside the windows. New York pulsed beyond the glass like a living thing, but I was numb to it. Numb and raw and furious.

How the hell had it come to this?

A fake engagement. A fake wedding date. August 10th, she had said. She’d even smiled, that sickly sweet, picture-perfect smile for the cameras, clinging to me like a trophy she didn’t deserve.

The taste of the lie still burned in my mouth.

I collapsed onto
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