Page 126 of Jude

Heading to the dining area, I picked up my bag and gave the other Six Sinners a tight smile.

‘Leaving so soon?’ Reign called out, concern dancing in his eyes.

‘I’m not doing so well,’ I muttered. ‘Have a good evening.’

It’s all I could muster as I turned away, my heart splintering over and over.

The agony was made that much more painful by the fact that Jude sat at the table, arms crossed, eyes canted from me, jaw gritted.

I walked through the center of the rooftop restaurant with my spine stiff, and my chin held high, ignoring the sudden hush that fell over the Six Sinners’ family.

The humiliation of his public rejection also hit hard, especially because it was in front of his friends.

I refused to shed a single tear in front of him or anyone else, maintaining a calm mask until the elevator doors slid shut between us.

Chapter 25

SOFIA

It was over.

We were done.

The sham marriage was dead in my eyes, at least.

I placed my diamond wedding band in the center of the polished walnut surface of the vanity table in our hotel suite.

The gem shards glinted in the glow of the overhead chandelier, casting tiny, fractured beams on the wallpaper.

Clenching my teeth to control myself, I turned my back on it without a second glance.

I pulled my roller suitcase from the closet shelf.

I jammed into it only the clothes I needed and left behind everything I ever bought with Jude’s card or received from him, then zipped it shut with a tug.

My fingers trembled as I opened the Uber app on my phone, summoning a ride to the hotel entrance.

I checked my personal checking balance; a couple of weeks of wages sat inside from The Sanctuary, a modest sum that now represented my entire savings.

I used it to book a multi-hop economy plane ticket back to Tennessee, sighing as a fair amount of money disappeared from my total.

With my handbag slung over my shoulder, I rolled my suitcase, slipping out of the suite.

My heart hammered as I stepped into the carpeted corridor, terrified that Jude would appear without warning to unleash another wave of fury at me.

Or worse, that he’d give me the same piercing glare of freezing contempt he threw at me as he berated me.

To avoid any chance of encountering him, I took the service stairs rather than the elevators.

At the ground floor, I pushed through the revolving glass doors and scanned the quiet street for my ride.

A sedan arrived, and I packed my things in and slid into the backseat just as my phone began to vibrate in my palm.

The screen illuminated with Kian’s name, followed by a string of urgent text alerts from Maggie.

I stared at the flashing icons that made my skin crawl and flipped the device to silent, refusing to answer a single call or text.

My journey to the US was a punishing, disjointed gauntlet of terminals, mandatory layovers, and endless security lines.