The black envelope with its chilling photos and threat marked the true beginning of the end.Rowan discovered it the next morning while Freya was still curled up asleep in his arms, her body warm and marked from their passionate night. He slipped out of bed quietly, opened the envelope in the kitchen, and felt his world tilt. Fresh images—intimate, private moments of them from the night before—stared back at him. The note was simple and terrifying: *Choose wrong, and she dies first.*He stood there for what felt like hours, rain still pattering against the windows, staring at the evidence of how close Cross was. The love they had confessed, the promises made in the heat of passion, the way Freya had given herself to him so completely—it all suddenly felt impossibly fragile.When Freya finally woke and joined him, still wearing nothing but his shirt, he showed her everything. They held each other in the middle of the loft for a long time, her face buried in his chest as the reality san
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