Page 26 of A Sinful Gravity

A few bottles of skincare products she hadn't taken sat neatly arranged on the vanity, as if mocking my lack of control. I couldn't hold back anymore. My arm swept across the surface. Bottles crashed to the floor, the shattering sound especially sharp in the empty room.

If she was leaving, what good were these!

I clutched those papers, fingers white with pressure. Luna King. Her signature, stroke by stroke, neat to the point of cruelty. She wanted nothing. A clean break. She was so desperate to shed the title "Mrs. King," like throwing away trash.

Rage. A visceral, offended, bone-deep rage nearly consumed me. Who did she think she was? How dare she just leave me? She was mine!

Then the doorbell rang.

I didn't move. Next came the sound of a key turning in the lock.

Her! She came back!

A thought flashed through my furious mind like lightning. She was just throwing a tantrum, using divorce to scare me. I'd teach her a lesson in bed, show her who was in charge.

I practically flew down the stairs, yanked open the door, and a controlling smile with a hint of punishment already forming on my lips.

The smile froze.

It was Chloe. She stood in the doorway, hair disheveled, eyes red and swollen. In them was something I'd never seen before... disgust.

Her gaze moved from my face to the crumpled divorce agreement in my hand, then back to my face.

Chloe walked in and closed the door behind her.

"You look," her voice was hoarse, light as a feather but more powerful than any scream, "like a complete fucking idiot."

"Chloe—" I tried to find my voice.

"You also make me sick." She cut me off, her eyes scanning the papers in my hand with pure mockery. She shouldered past me roughly and walked straight into the living room.

I should have been angry, but when I saw the cold, undisguised contempt in her eyes, I froze. It wasn't anger. It was... disappointment after seeing through everything. And that was more unsettling than rage.

"You know how she got home last night?" Chloe turned to face me, every word deliberate. "She was in a car accident. The front of her car was practically destroyed." She paused, mouth twisting into a broken smile. "And you? You were getting cozy with your scheming secretary at the club."

"Car accident?" My voice shook. An overwhelming panic I'd never felt before drowned me like a tide. She'd been in an accident? While I was blind drunk, she'd almost...

"Where is she now?" My throat felt strangled.

"She's physically fine," Chloe's voice turned cold. "Her body's okay. But she's dead." She bit out the last few words slowly, clearly. "Cassian, the Luna in your heart died last night. You killed her with your own hands. She doesn't want you anymore."

"Nothing happened last night!" I couldn't hold back, grabbing Chloe's shoulders, nearly shouting. "I didn't fucking know this would happen! Where's Luna? Let me talk to her myself!"

"Nothing happened?" Chloe shoved me off hard, tears finally spilling over, voice trembling with emotion. "You were blind drunk, telling her she was disgusting, boring, saying you wanted to escape this home, right to her face! You let that bitch wear the necklace you bought for Luna and parade it in front of her! Do you even have a heart? It was her birthday! She waited for you all day!"

My mind went blank. I staggered backward, hitting the wall. The cold sensation from behind couldn't compare to the massive void inside me.

"She dressed up carefully, waiting for you to pick her up for your date. And what happened? She got a call to pick up her drunk husband from a bar. What she heard were those words. What she saw was you tangled up with another woman! When she drove home, do you know what she was thinking? How desperate must she have been to drive in that state?" Chloe jabbed her finger into my chest, each poke like a knife. "After the accident, she called you first but hung up—the sight of you pressed against Sloane made her sick... She called her mother. Her mother practically told her to die. When she finally called me, she cried like a child abandoned by the whole world!"

I slid down the wall, stomach churning. Last night's rain was so heavy. Her, alone, curled up in that wrecked car. How cold must she have been? How scared?

"Forget it," Chloe wiped her tears, voice returning to cold numbness. "She's already gone anyway. I'm not telling you where she is, Cassian. You don't deserve to know." She walked toward the door, then stopped. "Remember to sign the papers."

The door slammed shut, shaking my soul loose.

The massive impact left me slow to react. I pressed my temples, forcing myself to stay calm, trying to process the information in Chloe's words.

Cassian, calm down. You can figure this out. You just need to reach Luna.