Chapter 69

• The journey back to the Maldives was a blur of frantic phone calls, heart-stopping turbulence, and a gnawing dread that tightened its icy grip on William’s chest with every passing minute.
• He’d pulled every string, leveraged every connection, to get on the first available flight out of India. The moment he stepped off the seaplane, the air was heavy with a silence more oppressive than any storm. The vibrant, turquoise paradise he’d left just days ago was a scene of utter devastation.
• Palm trees lay snapped like matchsticks, villas were reduced to splintered wreckage, and the once-pristine beaches were littered with debris.