I shook my head. “He wouldn’t have gone through with it. I believe that with all my heart.”

She looked forward again, her eyes down. “Perhaps he won’t come back…and that will fix the situation.”

I inhaled a sharp breath as my eyes drilled into her cheek, flames rising from wet firewood. “How dare you say that to me.” Tears welled in my eyes because it hurt so damn much.

She wouldn’t look at me. Her eyes remained down. There was no apology. No justification for the horrible thing she said.

Her presence had given me comfort, but now, it just made me sick to my stomach. It was the first time I truly wanted nothing to do with her. I rose from the couch and moved into the other room—because I’d rather suffer in silence than sit beside her a moment longer.

Hours later, the quiet sound of the elevator reached my ears. The gears shifted, and the distant hum of machinery was unmistakable. “Fender…” I left the room and entered the main sitting area where I’d left Raven.

She must have heard it too because she was on her feet and heading to the same hallway.

We stopped in front of the elevator, waiting for it to open and reveal our men.

The door slid open, revealing a tall brunette.

The disappointment was heavy to swallow, because I could picture Fender standing there, a slight smile on his face. He would walk up to me and say, “Let’s go home, chérie.” It all happened in the blink of an eye, my imagination running wild.

This stranger was a slap in the face.

Raven knew her. “Miranda? What are you doing here?”

“Who is she?” I asked.

Raven ignored me and stepped forward.

Miranda entered the apartment in professional attire, heels clacking against the hardwood floor. “Magnus requested I take you two to the hospital.”

“The…the hospital?” My hand immediately went to my throat, the tears starting from deep inside my body, the anxiety infecting my body like a deadly disease. If Magnus had made the call, that meant he wasn’t the one in the hospital. “Fender…”

Raven turned to me, as if she’d drawn the same conclusion.

Miranda kept her calm composure. “Ready to go?”

“Is he okay?” I choked on a sob and cupped my mouth to make it stop. “Please tell me he’s okay…”

She scratched the side of her neck and looked down. “Magnus didn’t give me any information. He just told me to bring you two to him.”

“Is Magnus okay?” Raven asked.

Miranda nodded.

I stepped back, the heat flushing my body and making me dizzy. I backed up into a wall and stopped, my hand back over my mouth, my eyes on the floor, hyperventilating on the spot.

Raven placed her hand on my shoulder. “Melanie, we don’t know anything—”