Page 101 of Teach Me to Fly

The silence that follows isn’t comforting, it’s heavy.

“I wish you were here,” I whisper. “Because maybe if you were, I wouldn’t feel so goddamn alone.”

A sob slips through my throat as I sit up straight now, wiping the tears from my cheeks.

“I guess I just came to say goodbye,” I whisper again. “And see you soon.”

I lay down my bouquet of peonies next to Reign’s arrangement, and kiss the headstone before I stand and walk away without looking back. I don’t take the same path I came in on either, because I’m not going home.

Chapter 37

Reign

Angelique is an hour late to rehearsals. She should have been here hours ago. She promised she’d come straight here after the cemetery, and she left to go there early this morning. It’s dark outside while I pace the rehearsal corridor at Imperium, ignoring the stage crew trying to get my attention, my pulse pounding harder.

She promised she’d be here. She’s the whole reason we’re even having this rehearsal today because she said she wanted to run the pas de trois one last time before opening night, and I believed her. I needed to believe her.

“Hey, have you seen Angelique?” I ask one of the corps dancers.

She shakes her head. “No. Not since yesterday.”

I spin around, eyes scanning the hallway just in time to see Lando sprinting toward me, his face drained of all colour.

“Reign—” he chokes out, waving his phone in the air. “She sent me something. I think it’s a goodbye text.”

My stomach drops so violently, I stagger. He shoves thescreen at me, but I don’t even read the words because the fact that it ends with ‘I’m sorry’tells me enough.

“Fuck,” I whisper. “No, no, no.”

I dig into my duffel bag with shaking hands, pulling out my phone and unlocking it. There’s a missed call from her and a voicemail. My pulse stutters as I press play and lift the phone to my ear, holding my breath as her voice crackles to life.

“Hey…”

There’s a long pause and I can hear her shaky and uneven breathing.

“I don’t even know what I’m supposed to say. I—I just needed to say thank you. For everything. For loving me. For staying. For fighting for me when I didn’t think I was worth it.”

Her voice breaks, and when she speaks again, it’s barely more than a whisper.

“You made me feel safe… wanted… even when I couldn’t stand myself. But I can’t do this anymore, Reign. I’m so tired. I feel like I’m dragging you down with me, and I can’t be the reason you hurt anymore.”

Another pause as she lets out a soft sob.

“I love you. God, I love you so much it hurts. But I need the pain to stop. I just… I’m sorry. Please don’t hate me.”

The message cuts off with the sound of her crying and my vision goes red.

“Fuck!”I roar, my voice tearing out of me like a wounded animal, echoing through the rehearsal studio as my phone clatters to the floor.

“Where would she go?” Lando panics beside me. “Where would she—shit, do you think she’s at the guesthouse?”

“Call the estate security,” I growl, already dragging him toward the back exit.

We burst through the doors into the pouring rain outside, and I don’t wait for him to buckle in before I slam the car into reverse and peel out of the Imperium lot, gravel spitting beneath the tires.

Lando’s still trying to breathe through the panic. “Come on, come on…” he mutters into the phone. “Yes, hi, this is Lando Harrington. Can you check if Angelique Sinclair is at the guesthouse right now? It’s an emergency.”

There’s a pause on the other line that feels like an eternity before Lando looks at me with wide, terror-stricken eyes.

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