Demien stood in Alec’s office, watching the woman he once smiled at from a distance now standing shattered before him. Melissa was no longer the confident assistant he remembered—she was something else now, something fragile. Something broken.
He could see it in her eyes.
Red-rimmed. Glassy. Tired.
She stood near the edge of Alec’s desk, her hand trembling as she tried to fix the charger cable, though her mind clearly wasn’t present. Her father’s name still echoed in the air, unspoken but loud in the silence Alec had left behind. And it was killing Demien.
His fists clenched at his sides.
He wanted to ask—What happened to your father?
He wanted to say—You don’t deserve this.
He wanted to tell her—I’ll help you. I’ll take you there.
But Alec’s voice rang in his head like a binding c
