Jackson stood at the window of his study, his phone clutched in his hand for what felt like the hundredth time that day, checking for messages that never came; it had been two weeks since Aryyah left, two weeks of unanswered calls and ignored texts, two weeks of sleeping alone in their bedroom and waking up to emptiness, and the silence was driving him insane.

He had tried to focus on work, on fixing the leak that was hemorrhaging contracts and destroying his company's reputation, but every ...