Page 78 of Fallen Heir

Millie flung the door open before I even knocked. Her eyes were red-rimmed, her jaw set. “What the hell is going on?”

Ben stood beside me, silent. We hadn’t said a word on the drive over. There wasn’t anything left to say.

“We need to talk,” I said quietly.

She stepped back to let us in, her arms folded tightly across her chest like she was holding herself together by sheer force.

I crossed into the center of the room, the weight of everything that’d transpired heavy in my chest.

Ben hovered near the door, hands tucked into his jacket pockets.

“You should sit down,” I said.

“Don’t youdare,” Millie snapped. “Don’t talk to me like I’m fragile.”

I didn’t have the energy to argue. I exhaled. “Savannah’s gone.”

Millie blinked, like the words didn’t land right.

“Gone?” Her voice cracked. “What do you mean…gone? She’s with you. She waswithyou.”

“She was,” I said. “Tonight, someone got into her condo. Through the back exit.”

She looked between Ben and I, waiting for more.

I hesitated. “I can’t tell you everything. Not yet. But the man who took her… was her husband.”

The silence that followed was loud.

Her eyes widened. “Husband?”

I nodded once, slowly.

“She had a husband?” she said again, the disbelief layered with something like betrayal. “Savannah never—she never said anything. She told meeverything.”

Ben’s voice cut through, low and cold. “He’s not a fucking husband.”

Millie turned to him.

Ben’s expression didn’t change. “He isn’t even a man.”

The words hung heavy in the air, sharp as broken glass.

I took a step forward, my voice low. “She asked me to keep her safe. That’s why she never said anything. She didn’t want anyone else pulled into it.” I swallowed. “Her husband… he’s bad news. That’s all I can say right now. But she didn’t lie to you. She was trying to protect you.”

Millie took a slow step back, the back of her knees hitting the couch. She sank down like the weight of it all was too much to bear. Because it was.

“I would’ve stayed with her,” she whispered. “I would've moved in. Slept on the couch if I had to. Hell, she had enough room for us all to live there. I would’ve doneanything.” She looked up to me, her face nearly gutting me all over again.

“But you didn’t tell me. You didn’t even give me the chance.” Her voice cracked at the edges, high and sharp with rage.

“She’s my best friend,” she said louder now. “And you let her stay there alone knowing he was still out there? That he was looking for her and a threat?”

“We didn’t let anything happen,” Ben said again, voice tight.

“Then what the hell do you call it?”

Silence.