Chapter 49
“Take good care of me, and you can have whatever you want.”
Eddy’s voice was low and magnetic, sliding into Blanche’s ears and striking her heart like a thunderclap.
He was going to help Jeannette’s family.
Blanche couldn’t bear the thought of this-Eddy, the man she loved most, was about to help the very people she hated. Her mother would never rest in peace.
She remembered when Eddy had been her whole world, when she loved him so fiercely she would have given up everything for him. How could she have fallen for him? The regret ached in every bone; her heartbreak left her unable to breathe.
She refused to fall here.
She would take her mother’s ashes and leave. She would make those who hurt her mother pay.
Now was not the time to reveal everything.
Her stomach churned. She pressed a trembling hand against her aching heart and stumbled down the stairs. The golf club slipped from her grasp, clattering against the steps.
“Who’s downstairs?” Eddy’s angry shout echoed from above, followed by hurried footsteps.
Blanche made it to the front door, clutching the frame as she doubled over and vomited.
A figure appeared in the middle of the road.
She froze.
After six long years, she never imagined they would meet again like this.
Chapter 49
A man stood tall and straight, like an age-old pine, his features sharp and chiseled, his gaze piercing as though he could see right through her. He looked unchanged-except for the deep tan of someone who spent his days outdoors.
In her heart, Blanche whispered silently: Mentor.
He had been the Director-General’s most brilliant protégé, the legend of
their organization, the man she once admired more than anyone.
Fernando Reese.
Their eyes met across the distance-so much left unsaid, and yet everything understood in silence.
They entered the coffee shop in the villa’s entertainment wing, one after the other, still separated by several tables, stealing glances from afar.
In the corner stood a spinning dartboard.
Blanche rose and played for a moment, then ordered a coffee. She brushed past Fernando on her way out, catching his scent, not daring to look back.
Once she’d left, Fernando got up and approached the dartboard. Blanche’s darts were stuck precisely along the ring. He pulled them out one by one, each point marking a coordinate. As he entered the data into his phone, a hidden message from Blanche appeared.
All good. Don’t worry.
Fernando gripped his phone, his gaze dark and unreadable as he stared after Blanche, watching her disappear through the doors.
But she wasn’t doing well. He could see that.
Eddy, now fully dressed, came downstairs. The front door stood wide open, a puddle of bile by the threshold, but Blanche was nowhere in sight.
Chapter 49
He frowned. This was an exclusive neighborhood, with tight security-outsiders couldn’t just walk in.
Jeannette, newly dressed, joined him, handing him the dropped golf club. “Why was this on the stairs? Did someone break in?”
“I’ll have security check the cameras.”
As Eddy finished speaking, a tabby cat darted from the bushes, meowing as it leaped into Jeannette’s arms.
She jumped, then scolded the animal with a sigh, “So it’s just you, troublemaker.”
“Let’s head inside, Eddy.”
The medication’s effects twisted inside Eddy, darkening his expression. Suddenly, he seized Jeannette by the throat, pinning her to the couch. But as he hovered over her, a wave of unease made him pull back.
“We’ll settle what happened at the funeral later,” he spat coldly.
Storming outside, Eddy spotted a familiar figure in the street, walking away with a man.
He trailed them to the coffee shop and caught sight of the scene through the glass.
His instincts screamed in alarm.
The man inside hadn’t taken his eyes off Blanche since the moment he entered. That was the look of a predator.
Jealousy flared, clouding all reason.
He didn’t stop to wonder why Blanche was here, or if the woman at the door had really been her.
Throwing open the café door, he yanked Blanche behind him and swung his fist at Fernando. “Bastard! Why are you staring at my wife?”
