Chapter 17: The Weight Of Waiting
The days passed quietly. Then the weeks. Then the months.
Life didn’t pause for grief, and neither did the empire.
Zeke moved through his routines like a man wading through mist, present, but not quite alive. Meetings were attended. Deals were signed. Numbers were tracked. But behind every accomplishment was silence, and in that silence, echoes of a woman he couldn’t forget.
Cassidy had vanished like a ghost, and with her, a part of him had gone too.
It had been over half a year since their divorce, but the ache hadn’t dulled. It had simply grown quieter, buried beneath structure and steel.
And just when he had started to breathe a little easier, when her name had stopped slipping into his mind at every turn, Bastiano called.
Not a request. A summons.
***
It was just past sunset when Zeke arrived at Bastiano’s mansion.
The Salvador estate loomed against the fading sky, its stone façade carved with decades of history, legacy, and unyielding tradition. The kind that didn’t ask for permission, only obedience.
He climbed the wide marble steps, greeted silently by two guards. No introductions were needed. He was Zeke Salvador, the heir, the future, the man bred for empire.