Kai's estate stood unchanged, yet Abigail felt like a stranger the moment she stepped out of the car. The guards at the gate had recognized her immediately, their sharp eyes softening as they straightened and nodded in respect. But their recognition, their courtesy, only made her chest ache more. This wasn’t what she came for. She didn’t want acknowledgment. She wanted him.
As she went inside, the grand halls echoed faintly with footsteps as the maids turned at the sound of her arrival. Faces she remembered, faces that once greeted her in another lifetime, now bowed politely as though she had never been gone.
“Welcome back, Miss Curtis,” one said carefully, her voice almost kind.
But Abigail didn’t let herself pause. Her heart was already thundering against her ribs, her voice sharp as
