Page 141 of Scarred in Silence
She keeps walking. Through the tables. Past the patio lights. Down the winding stone steps toward the gravel drive.
Lucien grabs my wrist before I can stand.
“Let her go,” he says low. “She’s spiraling.”
“That’s why I can’t.”
He releases me, but his jaw’s tight.
I walk fast. Shoes crunching against stone, cold air tightening my skin. My pulse is a snare drum in my chest.
Harmony doesn’t look back as she reaches a black SUV parked off to the side of the property. The headlights flash once.
She opens the door.
I freeze.
Something feels wrong—worse than wrong. Every cell in my body starts screaming at once.
A man’s in the driver’s seat. Just a silhouette in the dark. But I’d know that posture anywhere.
I step behind a tree, breath caught between my ribs. I reach for my phone with shaking fingers and snap a picture. I zoom in. License plate.
Five digits.
My stomach turns to ice.
I call Dante.
He answers on the second ring. “Yeah?”
“Run a plate,” I whisper. “Now.”
A pause.
“You okay?”
“No. Just run it.”
I text him the photo. My hands won’t stop shaking.
Three minutes.
Then his voice comes back, gravel and fire.
“Damien.”
I stare at the screen.
Harmony got in the car.
The door slammed shut.
The SUV peeled down the gravel drive like a ghost being chased.
And I stand there. Frozen.
The party’s still going. Laughter still filters through the trees. Nobody knows. Nobody sees.
