Chapter 193

Chapter 193: Chapter 193

Lena’s POV

I turned around and walked straight out of the yoga studio.

But the footsteps behind me didn’t stop.

“Lena.” Eliza hurried after me. The easy smile she’d worn earlier was gone, wiped clean from her voice. “Do you really think throwing out a few nasty lines changes the fact that you were dumped?”

I pressed the elevator button without looking back.

“Dominic is with Gemma right now,” she went on. “He took her to a doctor, found her a place to stay, and he’s digging into what happened to her all those missing years. You get what that means, right?”

“It means he looks more like family to her than you do,” I said evenly.

Eliza’s breathing hitched.

The elevator was taking forever. In the reflection of the metal doors, I could see her face twist.

“At least I know what she’s been through all these years,” she said through clenched teeth. “Unlike you. You saw a few scars and suddenly thought you had the whole story figured out.”

My hand paused beside the button.

I hadn’t told anyone I’d seen the scars on Gemma’s body. Anna had asked, and I’d said nothing. Dominic didn’t know either.

Slowly, I turned to face her. “How do you know I saw them?”

Eliza’s expression changed.

Just for a second, but that was more than enough.

A moment later, she forced a smile back onto her face. “Gemma lives with me. She tells me everything.”

“Including how she was locked up in that old warehouse north of Heisonglin?” I tossed out a location that didn’t exist.

“That place was burned down ages—”

She snapped her mouth shut.

Silence dropped between us.

The elevator arrived, the doors sliding open behind me. Eliza stared at me, the color draining from her face little by little.

“So, you do know quite a lot,” I said as I stepped inside. “Too bad you’re still not that smart.”

What she’d said was, “That place was burned down ages ago,” not, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

If she were innocent, hearing a fake location, her first reaction should’ve been denial. Instead, Eliza corrected me on instinct. That meant she didn’t just know Gemma had been imprisoned somewhere—she also knew what happened at the real place.

The suspicion I’d been holding onto hardened fast into something colder.

The doors began to close. Suddenly Eliza shoved out a hand to block them, and the metal panels slid back apart.

“Stay out of Gemma’s business,” she said in a low voice. “This has nothing to do with you.”

“A minute ago, you were saying I’d already been cut out. Now you’re scared I’ll get involved?”

“I’m trying to help you.”

I laughed. “Every time someone says, ‘I’m doing this for your own good,’ nothing good ever comes after that.”

I hit the close-door button. This time, she didn’t stop it.

When I got back to my apartment, I switched on the lights. The place looked exactly the same as it had that morning when I left. The flowers by the window were starting to droop. I changed the water, plucked off the dead petals, and tossed them into the trash.

Life doesn’t hit pause just because a relationship ends. The kettle still boils. Clothes still need washing. Tomorrow’s work doesn’t magically do itself.

I made myself a bowl of noodles. Halfway through eating, my phone buzzed.

These past few weeks, I’d heard bits and pieces about Dominic from other people.

Daniel said he was still attending meetings and handling pack business like usual, except he’d been spending longer and longer hours locked in his office. Samuel said his temper was insane lately—he’d shot down seven proposals in three days, even though they’d already been approved before.

Anna, meanwhile, insisted that ever since Daniel had carried him to my place that day, he’d never really come back to his senses.

I never asked about him. Not once.

Some habits don’t disappear the second a bond breaks. When I walked into a grocery store, I still caught myself reaching for the coffee he liked. At night, if I heard the elevator stop on this floor, I’d think for a split second that he’d come back. Even when I cooked, I still made enough for two.

Then I’d pack the extra food into the fridge and tell myself that just meant one less meal to make tomorrow.

It wasn’t missing him. It was just habit. That’s what I told myself over and over.

But sometimes the line between habit and missing someone isn’t nearly as clear as I want it to be.

It was an unknown number.

[I’m Gemma.]

I set my chopsticks down.

A second message came through almost right away.

[I have things I need to tell you. About eight years ago. And about Eliza.]

I stared at the screen, not answering right away.

[Why me?]

The other side went quiet for a long time.

[Because you’ll listen first, then decide what to do. Dominic won’t. He’ll just go kill someone.]

Yeah. That really did sound like something Gemma would say.

I called the number. It rang three times before she picked up. Her breathing was light, and the background was unnaturally quiet.

“Are you safe right now?” I asked.

“For now.”

“Is Eliza with you?”

“No. She’s out tonight.”

So her showing up at the yoga studio hadn’t been a coincidence. She knew Gemma would contact me, so she’d gone there on purpose to test me.

“Tomorrow, two in the afternoon.” Gemma gave me an address. “It’s Eliza’s apartment. She usually doesn’t come back until after six.”

“Why not go to Daniel?”

“He’ll tell Dominic. What I have only proves half of it. The other half is with Eliza.” She paused, then added, “And I don’t have much time left.”

My fingers tightened slowly around the phone. “What did the doctor say?”

“We’ll talk tomorrow.”

She hung up.

Right away, I sent Anna the address and a screenshot of the call log, with one line attached:

[Call me at 1:50 tomorrow afternoon. If I don’t answer, contact Daniel immediately.]

Anna called me back in less than ten seconds.

“Where are you going?” she demanded without preamble. “And don’t tell me you’re planning to meet Gemma alone. She’s living with Eliza now!”

“That’s exactly why I sent you the address.”

“I’m coming with you.”

“No. If too many people show up, she won’t tell the truth.”

“Then at least let me wait downstairs.”

“You have a client meeting tomorrow afternoon.”

“A client won’t die if I’m thirty minutes late. You might.”

I rubbed my forehead. “Anna.”

“Don’t ‘Anna’ me. I’ve already decided.”

She hung up.

That night, I barely slept.

I went back over everything Eliza had done before. How she used Luke to get me fired. The photos and rumors she set up. The way she kept hovering around Dominic nonstop, then suddenly acted calm after she failed.

Her calm was never real surrender. It was just the silence before the next move.

I charged my phone to full, then put a voice recorder and a small can of pepper spray into my bag. As a werewolf, carrying pepper spray sounded kind of ridiculous, not gonna lie, but Anna insisted.

She even sent me a list with twelve separate safety reminders. The last one read:

[If things go sideways, don’t play hero. You are not the female lead in an action movie.]

I replied:

[I know.]

She instantly sent back:

[Every time you say you know, it means you’re absolutely going to do whatever you want.]

And yeah, on that point, she knew me way too well.

The next afternoon, we arrived ten minutes early. Anna parked across the street and grabbed my wrist tight.

“Forty minutes,” she said. “If you’re not back down in forty minutes, I’m going up.”

“An hour.”

“Forty-five. Final offer.”

I pushed open the car door. “Deal.”

Gemma was on the sixth floor. When the elevator doors opened, the hallway was empty. She had already left her door cracked open.

“Come in.”

She was sitting in a wheelchair, looking even paler than she had a few days ago. A thick document envelope rested on her knees.

I shut the door behind me. Every curtain in the room was drawn tight. The table was covered with medicine bottles and old photographs.

A yellowed map was pinned to the wall. Drawn across it was a red line leading from Heisonglin to the border of Blueridge Pack.

At the end of that red line was a name I would never mistake.

Sylvain Foster.