Chapter 174

• Brayden stood in the spacious living room of his villa, his eyes scanning over the collection of her belongings he had just brought upstairs to help her settle in.
• As he placed the last bag down near the bed in the guest room, he took a deep breath and stared out the window, the night stretching out before him in silence.
• The villa, which had always felt like home, now felt cold and unfamiliar in the wake of recent events. The strange combination of guilt and anger gnawed at him.