In a flash, she was beside him—his woman, his accomplice—clinging to his hand as if it anchored her to reality. But Vincent did not even glance at her. His attention was elsewhere, drawn to the blinking lights of the cameras that captured every moment with rapacious impreciseness. He smiled at the camera as if he were bathing in something he had so longed for.

“I came to clear the misunderstanding revolving around these two beautiful souls,” he declared with a confidence that sliced through the silence like a knife.

Something dropped in my belly, heavy and hard. My blood stopped flowing. I felt stuffed with a sensation I could not...