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.