Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 11 - Chapitre 20

•TALIA•"Cancel all my meetings, James," I groaned when I pulled up outside Isolde's driveway. "I am not working today.""Miss Campbell," he answered, his voice trailing off again. "I have postponed your meetings for two consecutive days now and the Reeves Law Firm wants to hear from you.""Well, tell them I'm sick, dummy." I rolled my eyes, slamming the door of my Mini Cooper. "And please don't forward me their emails because I won't read them from my sick bed.""Yes, Miss Camp—"I hung up before he finished talking. James was irritating. He was one of the few people I wished I could never have to wake up and see their faces again.Which was why I was visiting Isolde this morning.She treated me like her own dear sister, and after her father's death, who had left her billions of dollars, she probably didn't know what to do with all of it. And I had the right script in my hand to get some of that cash for my next business idea. The money would last me for a year if she decided to be

•ISOLDE•Caleb had booked the entire restaurant.I realized it the moment I stepped through the door and found it empty except for the two of us. Every table was set, every candle lit, and a four-piece band was positioned near the far wall, playing the song we had danced to on our first anniversary. It was the same arrangement, the same tempo. He had remembered every detail.A waiter appeared at my elbow and led me to the center table, where a single white orchid sat in a slim vase. Orchids were my favorite. Caleb knew that.He stood up when I approached, and pulled out my chair himself."You look beautiful." He smiled. "Thank you," I answered, and sat down.The first course arrived within minutes. Pan-seared scallops with a lemon butter sauce, the exact dish I had ordered on our third date at a small restaurant in the city that had since closed. I had mentioned once, offhandedly, that it was one of the best things I had ever eaten. He had found someone to recreate it.I looked at

•TALIA•"I will show you today," I muttered under my breath as I stepped out of my car and headed inside the engagement party's venue. "You will regret ever double-crossing me."The building was called The Meridian. It was a converted estate on the north side of the city with high arched ceilings, a grand staircase, and floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked a manicured garden.Isolde had chosen it herself. Of course, she had. She was Daddy's little princess with billions of dollars. I pushed through the main entrance and stopped just inside the doorway.The place was already mid-transformation. A team of decorators was working across the entire ground floor, some of them up on ladders threading fairy lights through the ceiling fixtures, others arranging centerpieces on the round tables that had been positioned across the ballroom floor. White and gold everywhere. Tall floral arrangements with ivory roses and trailing greenery. Candles in glass columns that hadn't been lit yet bu

•ISOLDE•My eyes opened to a ceiling I recognized immediately.I lay still for a moment, looking at the pale grey plaster above me, the crown molding at the edges, the pendant light fixture in the center that I had chosen from a catalogue a year ago and now wished I had never touched.I knew this room.I knew the weight of the mattress beneath me and the particular way the morning light came through the curtains on the east-facing window. I knew the painting on the wall to my left, a coastal landscape I had bought at a small gallery in Lisbon on a trip Caleb and I had taken before everything unraveled.I knew this house because I had died in it.I turned my head slowly.Caleb was sitting in the chair beside the bed. He was still in the clothes from last night, his jacket folded over the armrest, his sleeves pushed up. He was looking at his phone, and he hadn't noticed that I was awake yet.I watched him for three seconds.In those three seconds, my chest tightened to the point where

•CALEB•By seven fifteen, I had checked the entrance three times.The room was full. The decorators had done their job, the band was playing, and the guests had arrived with their good clothes and their congratulations, and every time someone asked where Isolde was, I smiled and told them she would be here shortly.I found Talia near the bar. "Where is she?" I asked."She hasn't replied to anything I've sent." She kept her voice low. "I assumed she was running late. But she will be here soon. She won't miss her own engagement party. You know that she's been planning it for weeks." I pulled out my phone and called Isolde. It didn't ring. It went straight to voicemail, which meant her phone was either dead or deliberately off, and I didn't know which possibility irritated me more.I tried the mate bond next. It was the one thing that was supposed to be reliable regardless of distance or circumstance, that quiet current that ran beneath everything else and told you, without words, that