Page 98 of Filthy Rich Temptation

More than that, I’m ready.

I’m done hiding. I want to stand tall and face the world. I want to own what happened to me. And give others like me a reason to hope. A reason to fight for something better.

Danny can’t hurt me any more. I am strong. I am smart. Iamenough.

And I can do this.

Share my voice. My truth. Asme.

And for the first time in a long time, I feel it – faint but unmistakable.

Pride.

The very thing Theo promised to carry until I could carry it myself.

And the hope for a future together flares with my joy…

I’m already moving for the door, desperate to share this news with the one man who believed in me when I couldn’t.

The one man who made all of this feel possible.

The one man I want in my future and always.

Theo.

* * *

Theo

‘It’s been two weeks, Axel. How the hell is he still out there?’

I pace the coastal path, every step grinding the frustration deeper. Two weeks. Two whole weeks since Danny vanished after blindsiding Taylor. And still, no arrest. No sighting. No news.

To anyone watching, I probably look like some deranged jogger, ranting at himself. But I don’t care. I want answers. The right ones. The ones that see Danny behind bars and Sadie, free. Properly, free.

‘He went dark after Taylor. He must have someone local he can hole up with, but all known contacts are cold. We’d have better intel if Sadie was?—’

‘No,’ I snap. ‘She’d know something’s off. Taylor said to keep it quiet, and she’s right.’

Is she? Areyou sureabout that?

‘And if that blows up in your face?’

I rake a hand through my hair as the wind picks up, the sea crashing harder than it has in days. The sun’s gone and there are dark clouds rolling in on the horizon… a storm I feel building within me too.

Maybe it’s not just that he’s still roaming free. Maybe it’s that I let him become this… a twisted secret between us.

‘Hell, I don’t know any more, Axel. But I know I can’t keep her holed up here forever…’

Though the thought of taking her back to London, knowing he’s still out there…

Or is it the idea of taking her back and ending what you’ve found here that terrifies you more?

‘Better there than here,’ Axel says. ‘Taylor’s strung out enough without stressing about her sister being anywhere near him.’

‘How is she? Taylor?’

Silence.