Chapter 130

THIRD PERSON’S POV Dominic stood frozen on the dance floor, his eyes locked on the retreating figure of Olivia as her gown swept behind her like a wave of cold finality. The applause still echoed around him, but it no longer sounded like praise—it sounded like mockery. Applause for the wrong reasons. Applause for something he had ruined. His heart pounded violently in his chest, not from the dance, but from the weight of realization and rejection. That bracelet—that damn bracelet. His hands shook slightly, still tingling from the touch of her skin, and his mind reeled with images from the past: fire, metal, and a pair of hands dragging him from the wreckage. Dominic had often wondered about the night he was pulled from the wreckage, teetering between life and death. In the weeks that followed, as he healed, the story told to him had always been the same—Evelyn was the one who had saved him. She had claimed it softly, almost modestly, never pushing the narrative too hard but allowing it