Chapter 19

The shrill sound of the alarm jolted Robert awake. He found his heart pounding as he gasped for breath, unable to calm himself for a long time. He reached for his phone and silenced the alarm, only to notice that Gael had already sent him the report five hours earlier. Pressing his fingers against his temples, he tried to ease the pounding headache from his hangover, but the pain remained. He opened the file and skimmed through it, his eyes quickly scanning line after line. The more he read, the paler his face became. After a long while, his phone slipped from his weakened grip and fell to the floor with a dull thud. A bitter laugh escaped his lips as he mocked himself—what an absolute fool he had been. Just how blind and foolish was he to have so easily believed someone else's version of the truth? He thought back to all his so-called grand gestures and all the things he had done in the name of love, only to realize now just how absurdly stupid they had been. He had sent Enola a