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CHAPTER ONE

I fly down the stairs of Kace’s apartust played et away fro inside and out—my heart, my mind, my hand

Quite literally,a few flights down from Kace’s floor, with many more to travel to the lobby, my attempt to inspect my injury is thwarted by the stream of red There is just too much blood Hands bleed a lot, I reer With blood now on the floor and no other option, I tug the end of my thankfully black T-shirt and wrap it aroundto halt the flow

Applying as much pressure as I can, I plod down the stairwell, and instead of thinking about my injury, my mind is on the documents I’d found in Kace’s office There had been photos, too, I now realize—photos of Gio, aswhen I met Kace In other words, they were taken before we ed places that realization could take me I want to screaroup, andand our identity has been discovered The facts paint a grim picture

Finally, finishing my trek down the stairs, I depart the stairwell into the lobby, and so the sliding glass doors, only to come face to face with the doorman, Steven

“Good afternoon, miss” His eyes land on aze follows his, I find blood dripping froers

He pales and his attention jerks to my face “Oh my,” he says “What can I do to help? I’m here to serve”

“Thank you I—ah—think the shock got the better of e? And can I get a taxi please to get me to the hospital to stitch this up?”

“Right away” He shouts out commands to several employees and then refocuses on me “Should I call Kace, or does he know?”

“Just the towel and taxi, please”

As if on cue, someone hands me a towel that I wrap around ain, becoh I’m not sure if that’s about the cut to my hand or the deep wound Kace has sliced into my heart The cab pulls to a stop just in front of me I rush toward the car, and Steven is there beforethe rear door “Thank you soinside

Steven leans into the back with me and instructs the driver, “Get her to the ER” He then looks at ” I openme inside

I quickly lean forward and speak to the driver, reciting my hooing to the ER, not when I know that Kace will show up Why wouldn’t he? I’m the key to a door he wants open We were never about anything but my last name and the violin he loves The formula to make that violin is worth so much money, I can’t even fathom the number

I glance at the white towel now around h I’ My eyes pinch shut and I press ood hand to my face and will myself not to cry Not here Not when I’m in this car I’ll ether, and decide if hoht be my enemy, but I remind myself, and sternly, that ust

My phone starts to ring and I know it’s hiht has ht now I reach forto reh the towel I h, it’s Kace I hate how much I want to answer, how much I want to hear his voice How h for me to pretend it’s true He kneho I was before we ever started dating and he didn’t tell ? Every moment with him was a lie