Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 1 - Chapitre 6

Sophie POVI divorced Adrian Cross seven days before he died.I told myself it was the right choice. I told myself a cold man doesn't deserve tears.I was wrong about all of it.I stood outside the church doors, my hands trembling."Are you sure about this?" I whispered to myself.My fingers wouldn't stop shaking.I pushed the doors open anyway.The smell of lilies hit me first. Heavy. Suffocating. Thick enough to choke on.Rows and rows of black suits filled every pew.Business leaders. Employees. Family.Someone gasped near the front."Is that her?" a woman whispered, not bothering to lower her voice."She divorced him a week ago," another muttered. "How does she have the nerve to show up here?""Disgusting," someone else hissed.I kept my eyes forward, my chin high, even as my chest caved in.I'm not here for them. I'm here for him. I don't even know why anymore — I just know I couldn't stay away.My legs carried me down the aisle even as every instinct screamed at me to turn back.

Sophie POVI hadn't slept, but I showed up at Whitfield's office exactly on time anyway.Grief makes you punctual in strange ways. It gives you nowhere else to put yourself.His office smelled like old paper and coffee that had gone cold hours ago.I sat across from him, the wooden box in my lap, dark circles under my eyes."You said there was something I should know," I said, my voice steadier than I felt. "Something you couldn't tell me at the funeral."Whitfield folded his hands on the desk, and for a moment he just looked at me, like he was trying to decide how much I could survive hearing."Before I say anything," he said, "I need you to understand I'm violating client confidentiality by telling you this. Adrian's instructions were clear. Everything, if something happened to him. No conditions.""Then tell me," I said. "Please. I've already lost him once by not knowing enough. I can't lose more of him to silence."He opened a folder and pulled out a stack of documents, sliding th

Sophie POV"Get away from the window," Whitfield said, pulling the blinds shut. "Now."I didn't move. My legs had forgotten how."Sophie." His voice sharpened. "Now."I stumbled back from the glass, the recorder still clenched in my fist."Is there a back exit?" I asked, my voice barely steady."Through the parking garage," Whitfield said, already moving toward his desk, sweeping the folder of documents into a locked drawer. "I'll walk you down. Don't run. Don't look at him if he's still there. Just walk."This is real. This is actually real. Someone is standing outside this building because of what I know.We took the stairwell instead of the elevator. Whitfield's hand stayed at my elbow the entire way down, steering me through a service corridor I never knew existed, out into a parking garage that smelled like exhaust and concrete."Take my car," he said, pressing keys into my hand. "Leave yours here. If he's watching the street, he's watching for your car, not mine.""Whitfield, I