Page 89 of Broken Destiny

“She got in touch with me after she left, and we stayed in touch,” she replied. “But that didn’t mean I was going to call you and tell you about it. My loyalty lies with her, not with you. That’s what best friends do.”

I shifted my weight, aware of Karl watching the exchange while Liam deliberately kept his attention on the children tearing across the backyard.

The conversation hung there, balanced on a thin line between seriousness and social politeness.

Jack clapped his hands together loudly.

“Well,” he said with an easy grin, looking at me, “now that the serious business meeting is over, who’s ready for another slice of cake?”

Karl laughed under his breath, and even Elle’s mouth twitched slightly.

Liam shook his head. “You just want more cake before the kids finish it.”

Jack placed a hand dramatically over his chest. “Of course I do. I helped pay for that cake. I deserve at least two slices.”

The tension finally loosened enough for a few chuckles to ripple through the group.

Karl nudged my arm lightly with his elbow. “Careful, Caleb. Around here, if you hesitate too long, Emma will claim your dessert as her own.”

Almost on cue, Emma ran past us with frosting smeared across her cheek, clutching a half-eaten cupcake in both hands.

“Mine!” she declared proudly.

Laughter broke out through the group, and just like that, the heaviness from a moment ago dissolved into the easy rhythm of the party.

I lifted my drink slowly, but my attention drifted across the yard again toward Jiya, who was crouched beside Emma, wiping frosting from her face.

And for the first time, a new possibility crept into my mind.

If Elle had known where Jiya was all those years, then maybe there had been more to the story than what I had been told.

The investigator I had hired through my mother had insisted Jiya cut contact with everyone after disappearing.

Yet here they all were together, comfortable and connected, as though the years between them had never existed at all.

A cold thought slid quietly into my mind.

The investigators had worked for my mother for years. She trusted them completely.

Had she interfered somehow?Had she wanted me to believe Jiya had vanished completely?

My grip firmed slightly around the glass as my thoughts began turning faster than I could stop them.

If the investigators had been wrong about this, then what else had they been wrong about?

I found myself wondering if Jiya had attended Patty’s funeral too.

A memory hit me suddenly.

After discovering her apartment empty, I had gone straight to her office at the Lexington Hotel, tearing through drawers and files, searching for anything that might lead me to her. But every personal belonging had already been removed, and Amy, her assistant, had known nothing.

At the time, I had been consumed by the need to find her, confront her, demand answers, and make her pay for what I believed she had done.

I had promised myself I would never stop searching for her.

No matter how long it took.

No matter where she hid.