The door slammed so hard the chandelier above the staircase quivered, scattering prisms across the marble floor.

Julian stood frozen in the foyer, one hand still pressed to his cheek where Evelyn’s slap had burned its mark. His jaw ached from clenching, his chest heaved with ragged breaths, but what unsettled him most was the silence that followed her departure.

She hadn’t looked back.

Not once.

For a moment he stared at the door, as though sheer willpower might pull her back through ...