Dominick POV:

The ambulance sirens were loud, but the silence in my head was louder.

I sat on the bumper of the firetruck. Chastity was sobbing into my shirt.

"She went crazy, Dom," she wailed. "She attacked me. She set the fire."

I nodded, but my eyes were fixed on the smoking penthouse.

Why didn't she follow?

"Did you see her come out?" I asked a firefighter.

"No, sir. Top floor is gutted. If anyone was in there... they're gone."

A hollow ache opened up in my chest.

I closed my eyes and reached for the bond. Usually, it was a dull thrum I ignored.

Now, just static.

"No," I whispered.

"Dom?" Chastity looked up. "It's for the best, baby. She was dangerous."

Days passed. No body found. Police assumed incineration or escape.

I tried to move on. I had Chastity. I had the heir.

But the new mansion felt wrong.

I found myself walking through the rooms, sniffing. Searching for snowdrops and honey. Annis's scent.

Now, everything smelled of Chastity's roses. Overpowering. Sickening.

I went to my study. I unlocked my phone.

I scrolled back to the old messages.

Annis: Dinner is ready.

Annis: Happy Birthday, Dom.

I had never replied.

I opened a new message.

To: Annis

Where are you? Come back. That is an order.

I hit send.

Message Delivery Failed.

She had destroyed her SIM card.

Panic, cold and sharp, pricked at my skin.

I called my Private Investigator.

"Find her," I barked. "And find out what happened that night. I want the security footage from the hallway. I want Chastity's medical records cross-referenced. Everything."

"She'll be back," I told the empty room. "She has nowhere else to go."

I didn't know she was already four thousand miles away, in London.

And I didn't know that the silence in my head wasn't just distance. It was death.