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The receptionist placed the key card on the glea counter and pulled his hand back

As if he kne close to breaking point she was As if she were a wild ani in his kind gaze, so tone of his voice shook Clio out of the fog she was functioning in

Was this what she had become? A woer to pitying her?

She didn’t knohat she wanted to do, she didn’t kno to take the next step in her life She felt utterly lost, alone

The fact that all she wanted to do was crawl into the nearest hole and never e in her, some small part of her that refused to whiht her here

Her career, her life, her self-respect and her heart— everything lay in ragged tatters around her feet

She knew that she needed help To figure out how to do the one thing that burned inside her while everything else lay in ashes

She grabbed the key card and palmed the smooth surface Forced herself to put one foot in front of the other, to take a deep, purging breath The quiet swish of the lift as it bore her to the fifty-second floor pinged against her tautly stretched nerves

When the doors finally opened, she stepped out onto an enors that provided breathtaking views of the one of the world’s finest cities

It was like a castle built amidst the clouds

Walking past a gold-embossed statue in the ne-and-brown color scheold and deep red accessories here and there that matched the white-hot temperament of the man she had once known

Although the Stefan she hadhad been coldly ruthless

What the hell was she even doing here?

Just as she turned in the direction of the elevator, his silky s out

“You’re leaving already?”

Clutching her eyes closed, Clio willed herself to calm down In a helpless way that lad that he had spotted her before she had made a hasty exit

Because now, she knew Stefan wouldn’t let her leave Now, if she could just find the strength to say what she had co herself