All Chapters of Vows of convenience Hearts in Collision : Chapter 51 - Chapter 59

The flames threw grotesque shadows across the chamber, bending steel and broken glass into jagged monsters. But none of them terrified me as much as the figure who stood before us.The masked man didn’t rush. He didn’t need to. His presence filled the space, suffocating, as if the very air bent to his will. He advanced with the kind of calm that only belonged to predators certain of the kill.My arm tightened around Caelum, though my own body swayed under the weight of his. He was bleeding badly, every step dragging him further from strength, but his eyes sharp, blazing even through pain never left the man in the mask.“Still playing the hero, Drayke?” The distorted voice carried like oil on water, smooth but tainted with poison. “You should’ve stayed buried.”Caelum straightened despite his injury, his tone low and venomous. “You should’ve stayed forgotten.”The masked man stilled, and even behind the glint of steel, I felt his smile.My pulse thundered. Whoever this was, he wasn’t j

he penthouse was too quiet.Not the comforting kind of quiet I sometimes found when Alaric worked late, the kind of silence where the world felt paused, waiting for his voice to fill it. No. This was a heavy, unnatural silence. The kind that pressed against your ribs until you couldn’t breathe. The kind of silence that whispered of something broken.I stepped inside, my heels clicking sharply against the marble. Each sound seemed magnified, swallowed instantly by the stillness. My pulse skittered faster than it should, and I hated that I couldn’t control it.The elevator ride up had been smooth. Too smooth. As though the world conspired to lull me into a false sense of safety before letting the bottom fall out. The moment I crossed the threshold, the hair at the back of my neck prickled, an animal instinct warning me that something was very, very wrong.“Alaric?” My voice echoed, steadier than I felt.No answer. Just the faint hum of the city bleeding through the tall glass windows. N

The man’s voice slid over my skin like oil, smooth and suffocating.“Miss Kade,” he said again, almost amused at the way my body tensed, the way I clutched the balcony railing like it was the only thing keeping me from splintering. “You were never supposed to be here tonight.”The sound of my name in his mouth made bile rise in my throat. He shouldn’t know it. He shouldn’t know me.But he did.I straightened, forcing my shoulders back though my knees felt weak. “Who the hell are you?”The man didn’t answer right away. He stepped fully into the light, and I saw just enough to make my pulse thunder harder.He wore black from head to toe tailored trousers, a fitted jacket that hugged a body honed for violence, leather gloves that gleamed faintly in the lamplight. A mask covered his face from the bridge of his nose down, sleek and matte, like something a mercenary would wear. But his eyes cold, metallic gray were visible. And they were fixed on me with unnerving precision.“You shouldn’t

The elevator dinged and the sound felt like a verdict. I stood frozen amidst the wreckage glass crunching under my shoes, the blood smear on my palm an ugly, burning proof that I had been here, that something terrible had happened.The cab doors sighed apart with maddening slowness. I braced, as if I could physically restrain whatever stepped out.For a long, impossible heartbeat the car was empty. Then a figure filled the light.He wasn’t Caelum Drayke. He couldn’t have been more different.Alaric stepped out like a man half-girown from a grave. He wore a shirt that had once been ivory and now clung to him in grim, damp patches; his jacket hung over one shoulder, the cut of it elegant but rumpled. Hair that had been dark now showed threads of iron at the temples. A clean, authoritative face had been knuckled into something raw—lips split, one corner bruised, a sheen of sweat and grime on his brow. He moved like someone who’d been forced to practice politeness between blows: the gait

The apartment was suffocating.Not just from the stale air that clung to the walls after hours of silence, but from the weight of everything I couldn’t control. The broken glass had been swept into a neat pile in the corner, though the faint smell of spilled champagne lingered. The blood… I had scrubbed until my hands were raw, but no amount of bleach erased the memory of it seeping into the marble veins.It still lived in my head. The trail that had led me to the balcony. The shadow in the corner. The whisper of my name.Alaric was gone.And Drayke’s warning still pulsed like a bruise in the back of my mind.I tried to busy myself pouring wine, straightening scattered papers, pretending I wasn’t counting the seconds until the walls closed in. The city skyline glittered beyond the glass, taunting me with its indifference. People down there laughed, kissed, argued, lived. Up here, I was unraveling.The clock ticked. My pulse matched it.Then I heard it.A low mechanical hum.I froze, w