Chapter 1 - THE BLOOD ON THE SHEET
“Please don’t look at me like that.”
Sebastian stopped at the edge of the bed.
He forced every question back behind his teeth.
Valerie’s hands tightened around the sheet until her knuckles blanched.
“I should have told you,” she whispered.
“Told me what?”
“That last night was my first time.”
The words landed without drama, which somehow made them more devastating.
Sebastian looked at the small stain again and felt shame rise through him like heat.
He had assumed confidence meant experience.
He had mistaken her composure for certainty and her nervous laughter for flirtation.
“Did I hurt you?”
“You stopped whenever I asked.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is the only answer I can give without hating myself.”
He sat in the armchair instead of beside her.
The distance was deliberate.
“I am not angry with you.”
“You should be.”
“Why?”
“Because I came here under false pretenses.”
Sebastian’s expression changed.
The tenderness remained, but the businessman returned behind it.
“What false pretenses?”
Valerie wiped her face with the heel of her hand.
“I didn’t meet you by accident.”
The storm pressed its palms against the windows.
Sebastian said nothing.
Valerie reached toward the dark dress on the floor and pulled a narrow silver key from its hidden pocket.
“I was sent to get into your private office.”
He stared at the key.
It was an executive override key issued only to four people in Crown Meridian Tower.
One belonged to him.
One belonged to his chief of security.
One belonged to his half brother, Adrian Ward.
The fourth had disappeared with his father twelve years earlier.
“Who sent you?”
Valerie’s lips trembled.
“My mother.”
“Your mother has a key to my office?”
“She had something better.”
Valerie lifted her gaze.
“She had proof that your father murdered mine.”
Before Sebastian could answer, the bedroom lights went out.
May you like
The penthouse fell silent.
Then the security alarm began to scream.
