Morning found Ryan behind the wheel, the Ashbrook estate drawing closer with every mile, its high stone walls and wrought-iron gates rising in the distance like the façade of a life he no longer recognised as his.
The sky was clear.
Painfully clear.
It annoyed him more than it should have. The serenity of it. The way the sunlight cut clean lines along the horizon, as if the universe had decided that on the day he went to confront his parents, there would be no clouds to hide behind. No rain to soften the edges. No storm to mirror what sat inside his chest.
Leah’s call from the previous night still rang in his mind.
Your father sent for you. It’s urgent.
Of course it was.
Kimberly had been arrested. The media had devoured it like wolves that had finally scented richer prey. Business
