Chapter 14

Some people claimed they’d spotted her on the streets of Paris, even more radiant than before. Others said she’d joined an international aid group, spotted in war zones. Still others insisted she’d started a new life with a new identity, like a heron soaring free—she’d truly left her past cage behind and flown into the vast sky that belonged only to her. Late into the night, the light in Ethan’s study always burned. His world map was covered in marked locations, each one added and crossed out. The search was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Hope slipped through his fingers. Day after day, regret and despair grew inside him—a pain so sharp and relentless, it was like torture that never ended, punishing him every single night. That’s when it finally hit him. The thing Natalie destroyed wasn’t just the old Fletcher estate. She’d destroyed the prison of his own heart, one he’d been trapped in without realizing it. Cleaning up the estate ruins took days. Charred wood and shatter