All Chapters of The CEO’s Temptation : Chapter 221 - Chapter 224

*******************************POV: Claire************************ There were nights when I’d dream of the sea. Not the bright turquoise kind that framed the Montenegro villa, but the dark, churning kind—cold and endless, like memory. Like grief. Tonight, the dream hadn’t come. But the ache in my bones had. And the silence. That, too, had returned. The silence after storms was always the worst. I sat by the bedroom window in Mack’s estate, wrapped in a shawl I barely remembered pulling over my shoulders. It smelled like lavender and something clean. Probably Liz. She’d dropped by earlier, saying barely a word, just setting things down, straightening blankets, refilling water. Her presence had been loud in its quiet. I hadn’t cried. Not when I was rescued. Not when I saw Liam’s body on the ground. Not even when I woke in Mack’s arms, warm and safe and trembling so hard I thought I might break apart in his hands. I should’ve cried. Everyone expected it. But tears felt li

****************************POV: Aliana*************************** --- They didn’t have to tell me. Not really. I felt it before anyone said a word—the shift in the air, the way voices in the hallways lowered the second I got close. I’d always known silence well. But this silence? It was loaded. Like the breath everyone was holding had finally been released… just not in front of me. I stared at the cracked ceiling of the tiny guest room they'd shoved me into after my own rescue, the one with too-white sheets and too-loud clocks. A few weeks ago, I’d been the one they were chasing. Now I was just… background noise. Not involved. Not needed. Probably not wanted. The coffee on the table had gone cold. I didn’t drink it. I just sat with it like it meant something. Like it was a thing I could hold onto while the rest of the world kept spinning without me. When the knock came, I already knew what it meant. “Come in,” I said, flat. The door creaked open, and Liz walked in—shoulders