Page 113 of Code of Heart
But Levi sat motionless, forehead pressed to the window, fingers tangled in his hair, his reflection in the glass as lost as he felt.
Isaac’s thoughts returned to that hotel room and what he saw when the door finally swung open. At first glance, it looked bad…very bad. But the longer he stood there, the more wrong it felt in a way he couldn’t explain. When he caught Owen’s eye, the same doubt was written all over his face.
The man passed out on the bed hadn’t so much as flinched when Levi battered down the door and shouted loud enough to wake the dead. And Aurelia…
It wasn’t relief on her face when they found her. Not at first. No, there’d been raw, bone-deep fear in her eyes. Relief had only flickered through for a heartbeat—right before Levi lost control.
And lord, did he lose control. He hadn’t seen her fear. He didn’t notice her uncontrollable shaking or the unadulterated fear in her wide eyes. Owen had tried to snap him out of it, but Levi was too far gone, his emotions drowning out every rational thought.
Isaac winced, recalling the awful things Levi had said. Words so harsh they might never be forgiven. He couldn’t imagine ever saying something like that to Grace.
He kept circling back to the part that didn’t fit. He had come to learn that Aurelia wasn’t the type to do something this reckless. She had been so anxious about this event and had worked herself to exhaustion over every detail. To leave it early—and in that state? It didn’t add up.
Owen said she hadn’t touched a drink all night. Isaac couldn’t remember a single time she ever had. She had told their tight circle of friends once that she didn’t really drink. Looking back, he couldn’t recall a time she had proved that wrong.
If anything, it all felt like—
Levi’s voice cracked the silence, raw and broken. “Now what do I do?” His voice trembled. “What is it about me that’s never enough? That makes every single one of them do this?”
Isaac gripped the wheel tighter. “I can’t tell you why this keeps happening, Levi,” he said carefully. “But I think you made a mistake tonight in running before you heard her side.”
Levi snapped his head toward him, eyes blazing. “Did you not see what I saw?” His fists clenched, his whole body straining to hold himself together.
“I did. But I’m not the one drowning in it. I’m the one still thinking clearly. And Levi…a lot of things don’t add up. Owen saw it too.”
Levi’s expression twisted with mistrust. “Like what?” he spat.
Isaac calmly walked him through every detail—Aurelia’s fear, the unnatural stillness of the man on the bed, the timeline that didn’t make sense. As he spoke, Levi seemed to unravel piece by piece, his fury slowly caving under the weight of his guilt.
By the end of it, Levi sat slumped in the seat, his face pale and wrecked.
“You think I should have listened to her?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
Isaac gave a solemn nod. “What if it’s not what you think it is?”
Levi didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.
Without another word, Isaac turned the car around and headed back to the hotel. This time, Levi didn’t object, mired in his thoughts.
But when they pulled into the lot, a wall of flashing lights greeted them. Police cruisers. Two ambulances. And chaos spilling out of the hotel entrance.
They arrived in time to see paramedics rolling a stretcher toward one of the ambulances. A small, motionless figure lay beneath the blanket, colorful dark hair tangled wildly around her pale face.
Owen trailed behind the stretcher, his expression a severe mask of grim fury. When he spotted their car, his eyes locked on Levi with a glare that could have torn him apart.
Then Owen climbed into the ambulance, the doors slammed shut, and the sirens wailed into the night.
CHAPTER 48
Owen
It wasn’t long before a nurse came looking for Owen.
“She’s awake,” the nurse said quietly. “And she’s asking for you.”
Owen shot to his feet, his heart pounding as he followed the nurse down a long, sterile corridor. They stopped outside a curtained-off space, with the temporary walls meant to give the illusion of privacy in a place where nothing felt safe.
Inside, Aurelia lay motionless in the hospital bed, the backrest slightly elevated. She wore a thin patient gown, a blanket drawn over her like a fragile shield against the world.
