The Cost of My War

~Dorian~

My breath hitches as my fingers tremble over the letter. This has to be a joke. A mistake. A cruel prank.

Hazel wouldn’t leave me.

We made a vow. We promised—

I swallow hard and look up at my father. Alistair Blackwood has never been good at lying. His face has always betrayed him. And yet right now… he is perfectly calm.

“Father,” I say quietly. “Why did she leave?”

He sits in the chair