When Regina stepped out of the restroom, the first thing she noticed was the silence.
Daniel was gone.
Not just absent...vanished. No wheelchair. No dark eyes watching her every move. No mocking half-smile curling at the edge of his mouth like he knew something she didn’t.
Her heart skipped.
She scanned the hall instinctively, her body already bracing for impact. The auction room buzzed softly with murmurs, expensive laughter, clinking glasses. People moved like polished chess pieces, unaware that her world had tilted a few degrees off its axis.
Then she saw him.
Daniel’s right-hand man. He walked toward her with measured steps, posture straight, suit crisp, expression unreadable. When he reached her, he stopped and bowed his head slightly...not too low, not too respectful. Just enou
