Chapter 34 - 35
Elodie’s POV~
That day, I forced myself not to think about Dante and Sienna. Pretending not to care had become a survival skill, though my chest still felt like it carried a weight I couldn’t set down. I stayed buried in work until almost nine, staring at spreadsheets long after the words blurred.
When my phone buzzed, I almost didn’t answer. It was Cara, my best friend. Her voice was slurred, words tumbling over one another. She was drunk. She needed me.
I shoved the files into a neat pile, grabbed my keys, and drove. The city lights blurred past the windshield, mocking me with how alive everything seemed while I felt half-dead inside.
Twenty minutes later, I pulled into the restaurant’s lot. Just as I was heading toward the entrance, I saw her.
A little girl, small frame, dark hair catching the glow of the lights. My steps faltered. My lungs forgot how to work.
“Liora?” My voice cracked in my throat, though the word never left my lips.
My daughter. My little girl.
She was supposed to be in the European Pack, finishing her term at the academy. Dante had said the project there would keep him for months. I thought I had time, time before I had to face him again, time before I had to face her.
But she was here. Skipping through the parking lot with her braid bouncing, humming a tune only children know. And she hadn’t called me. Not once.
My hands tightened around my bag until the leather bit into my palm. I followed quietly, my heart a frantic mess inside my chest.
At the corner of the lobby, voices drifted toward me. And then her. Same Sienna. Surrounded by Dante’s friends, glowing like she owned the whole damned world.