CHAPTER 321

Soline’s POV

I’ve hardly slept in days.

Every time I closed my eyes, I heard Alain’s voice again — broken, desperate, cut off by dead static.

“Help…”

Then nothing.

Nothing but silence that wrapped around my throat like a rope.

I sat curled on the thin mattress of the tiny rented room in Marseille, knees pulled to my chest, listening to every sound in the hallway. I’d registered under a fake name. Paid in cash. Covered my hair with a scarf and kept the curtains drawn tight.

But the fear never left.

Every creak of the wooden floorboards made my breath stop. Every passing shadow under the door made my heart slam itself against my ribs. I kept expecting Genevieve’s men to burst inside and drag me out. Or to just kill me right here.

The fact that no one came was somehow worse.

Silence meant nothing was happening. Nothing happening meant something would.

Eventually.

It terrified me, wondering when they would come and what they could do to me.

Perhaps I should move somewhere far away whil