Kael POV

The door shut behind me, and the silence I left Aria in wrapped itself around my throat like a chain. I should have walked farther. I should have kept moving until the sound of her ragged sobs stopped ringing in my skull, until the sight of her wet cheeks stopped tearing at something I swore years ago I didn’t have left to tear.

But I didn’t. I stood in the hallway, fists clenched so tight my knuckles blanched, chest heaving with the violence I didn’t let out in that room.

She thought I’d brought Vanessa here to replace her. She thought I’d let that venomous woman walk into...